Android 13 One UI 5 Internal Storage missing after update

[cesarcg]

I have a Galaxy Note20 which was updated to Android 13 ONE UI 5 last December 4th, everything seem to be fine until different applications started to give different kind of errors, but all of them related to the access to the internal storage, as an example, the Gallery shows an empty image when opening a photo from the gallery, the thumbnails are not affected, the image in WhatsApp are not accessible, the Camera cannot be used as the internal storage is not available, in Files there is no internal storage available.

Tried wiping the cache in recovery mode, also checked the Special Access in Applications and all of them, including Media Storage have access, so far, the only workaround I have is to restart the phone every 3-4 hours.

My last option is to do a Factory Reset in order try to solve this issue, is there anything else I can try?

[Ventor]

@cesarcg Hello, perform these steps: go to Settings / Applications, the three points on the top right / Special access / Manage media and activate the check for all these apps.
In the Whatsapp/Permissions options-verify that the Files and media permission is activated. Tell us, regards!

[AndrewL]

@cesarcg: Further to the reply by @Ventor, please can you also try Settings > Apps > 3 dots in the top right > Special access > All files access, and make sure that Media is toggled on here. 

[cesarcg]

Thank you guys but already verified the "All Files Access" in "Special Access", all the applications I have are enabled. This issue happens randomly and affect all applications that make use of the internal storage as it suddenly disappear.

[PaulM1]

Hi there, @cesarcg. Thanks for following these steps. I understand that you've also Wiped the cache partition.

Have you also cleared the cache of the specific apps which encounter this error message?:

https://www.samsung.com/uk/support/mobile-devices/how-do-i-clear-the-cache-on-my-device/

Please let me know whether doing this resolves the matter for you.

[cesarcg]

Hello Paul, thanks for your reply, unfortunately the issue affect all applications in the phone, so clearing the cache for every application is going to be a pain, the issue is not related to a specific application but to the Internal Storage, it is better to describe the issue as the phone suddenly unmounting the Internal Storage or the emulated drive, but in any case, I have cleared the cache for the Gallery, Files and OneDrive just to try, I have also unlinked the OneDrive account because of the amount of images I had shared between the Gallery and OneDrive.

At this moment, the only workaround (which is not a solution) that works is to restart the phone every time the issue appears, but it can happen easily three times during the day.

[cesarcg]

Well, unfortunately after clearing the cache of some apps the issue appeared again this morning :(, still no solution.

[zimma71]

Joke company

[N1NJATH3ORY]

Hard reset try that if that don't fix it sounds like it's hardware failure you will need to take to Samsung repair center

[PaulM1]

Hi, @cesarcg. I'd like to take a look at the errors you are encountering on your phone. Please could you upload a picture or screenshot showing the specific error message (relating to Internal Storage) that shows up?

If that is not possible, please can you list the error messages that you are seeing?