Hundreds of photos have disappeared from my Galaxy S23 Ultra Gallery

Prachivk · 3 weeks ago

Hundreds of photos have disappeared from my Galaxy S23 Ultra. I had backed up few photos from my mobile to Google Photos, but did not delete any photos manually. Also, I have used just 40% of my mobile storage, so there was no need to automatically delete all these photos and videos. Please help here. Thanks

AndrewL · 3 weeks ago

@Prachivk: If you open the Gallery app, tap on the Albums tab, then select 'View all' in the top right corner, are the missing photos visible here? If not, tap the 3 lines in the bottom right > Recycle Bin, and check to see if the missing photos have found their way here. If they have, press and hold on an image, tap on any others you'd like to recover (or hit 'All' in the top left), then hit 'Restore'.

If this isn't applicable, and if you have a OneDrive backup, then please tap the 3 lines in the bottom right of the Gallery > Settings > Sync with OneDrive, and follow the on-screen instructions to see if you're able to restore your images in this manner.

If you're unable to locate your images in the Gallery, then please tap the Home button > Swipe up from your Home screen > Samsung (folder) > My Files > Images, and check to see if the images are intact in this location. We also recommend swiping up from your Home screen, tapping on the Google folder and selecting 'Photos' as you should find an archive of your images and videos in this location. You should also check to make sure that Google Photos isn't set up to automatically delete photos from your device once they have been backed up (via Photos > Profile > Settings > Apps and devices > Free up space).

Prachivk · 3 weeks ago

Hi AndrewL,
Thanks for your reply. In my case -
- Checked for All Albums - I see only the random 17 photos, missing photos not found.
- Checked the recycle bin - missing photos not found.
- I don't have a OneDrive backup, so that option becomes NA.
- Checked the myfiles-->Images and see the same images that are visible in Gallery (the random 17 images,) missing photos not here too.
- I can see the missing photos in Google 'Photos'. So the possibility that "Google Photos is set up to automatically delete photos from your device once they have been backed up" is still open,
however the "Free up space" feature has to be manually clicked on every time, so how can I check if it was set up to automatically delete images?

Jess_88_s23 · 3 weeks ago

Microsoft one drive has taken over the gallery, when they do it. You then have to use Microsoft to access the photos, they remove and delete anything. I had to turn the sync off and stick to Google after precious photos that was irreplaceable to me was removed and deleted by Microsoft one drive. If you go onto gallery, a cloud symbol will be on right top of screen, if its full cloud it means all gallery is being synced and if it's got a diagonal line through cloud it means sync is off. You maybe able to retrieve the photos by going into one drive. I will only use Google now due to this reason. Before they swapped, they sent messages to Samsung members warning of the change before it happened, and told everyone to back up any data before gallery was taken over. I have over 90G of photos. And paid 2.49p a month for Google one membership for storage. It's brilliant at that price monthly and they can increase it also if you need it. Hope you can find your photos in one drive though.