Samsung Galaxy S10+ gallery photos deleted

[ancaligrafic]

Hello guys! I have a problem. I woke up and all of my gallery pics were gone. I've tried to force stop the gallery app and restart my phone, but nothing worked. I figured that they were all in my recycle bin, next to the other photos I've previously deleted.

My question is: has anyone encountered something like this before? Could it be a virus of some sort? Or is it just a bug?

Suggest me some safety apps or what to do if it's something more serious, please.

Appreciate it, thank you so much and have a good day!

[m_h1]

Hello,

Do you have Google Photos?

Within this app, it can sometimes ask you to auto archive to save space on the phone and therefore delete pictures from the camera gallery.

Worth a look inside the options on Google photos if you have it installed.

Let me know, and if not, ill try think of another solution. 

[ancaligrafic]

I do have Google Photos installed. However, I don't have autosync or Google Backup turned on.

I'm not even mad about the pictures, I've manually restored them. I'm just anxious regarding potential viruses or malware.

Could it be the fact that I have skipped the system update in a long time? Is there any type of virus that acts this way? Should I just soft reset the phone?

I'm really anxious about this.

[AndrewL]

@ancaligrafic: I don't know of any bugs that might be causing this. Are you certain that you didn't accidentally delete the photos along with your other images? It would definitely be worth checking for any available updates, as they typically address existing software issues (Settings > Software Update). I also recommend opening the Gallery > Tap the 3 dots in the top right > Settings > Samsung Cloud Backup > Sync With Samsung Cloud, to ensure you have a backup, as well as enabling the Google Photos backup, just for your peace of mind.

[ancaligrafic]

I don't remember deleting anything. Although I usually delete folders based on their date and maybe I involuntarily pressed the "All" button without realizing? That could be it.

However, if you have knowledge on any malware that acts this way, please let me know. Having viruses which collect any data is my biggest fear.