Samsung Gal SII Jelly Bean - Gallery? Google "Photos"? What's the difference?

[Mike Selvage]

After purchasing my wife a new Cell Phone I inherited her old Samsung Gal SII with Android Jelly Bean (4.1.1) on it. I "wiped" it and did a clean "factory reset" install. It is only operating off WiFi as there is no SIM card or External SD Card (she took them for her new phone).

Being a former IT professional I see no need for "Sync" anything. With true "Sync" if you delete from one source it is automatically deleted from the "synced" source. Not something I want for Pictures or short Videos. I want those "backed up" or "copied" to the cloud source under "manual" control (I pick when they are all "uploaded").

If I want to show others pictures / videos stored on my "Google Drive" I have a "Google Drive" app for that. No system resources wasted (especially important on a phone with less resources).

The phone came with "Gallery" installed. She downloaded / installed "Photos" as she seemed to like it more. Seems to me they are the same thing - twice.

So, do I need both? If so/not how do I set the phone up where it can download my gmail automatically but leave the photos / videos on the phone until I choose to upload them to a cloud server?

Thank you in advance, your reply(s) are appreciated.

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! See this part of my guide: http://forums.androidcentral.com/ge...-android-updated-2016-nougat.html#post3707491

 

[Mike Selvage]

Thank you B. Diddy - I read the whole thing. When it comes to "Gallery" and "Photos" I've come to the conclusion - I need to get rid of both of them and find 1 app that is simple and doesn't do anything "automatically". It's just there, does what I want it to do when I want it to do it and that's it. "Photos" was driving me insane !! I deleted everything from "Gallery" and it stayed that way. But with "Photos" I figured out how to clear the "cache" and all was as I wanted it - until I opened "Photos" again. It would then go out and "find" all these photos - thousands of them - and --- "they're back!". Aghhhh !! Where are they coming from? I cleaned everything out of "My Photos" and "Photo" on Google Drive -- and they STILL come back!! FINALLY if stumbled on how to "select" whole groups at a time and "delete" them in "Photos" --- from the phone and wherever it was finding them. Seeing as how a lot of them are irreplaceable I sure HOPE I have copies of them on my Desktop computer.

I don't want to "Sync" ANYTHING. I want to "Copy" or "Move" it. With "Sync" if you delete it from one place - you delete it from ALL "Sync'd" places - which, in my case, goes completely against why I'm putting them on another "Source" (my computer, the cloud, etc) in the first place. I want to Save them and delete them from my phone - freeing up memory. Hopefully I can find something that will allow me to "view only" stuff I have on my google drive (not "Sync" ANYTHING). In this way I can use 1 app to store all my pictures currently on the phone and another to "View" all the one on my google drive.

"Photos" wouldn't have been so bad IF it told my where it was getting these photos from (it would have even been helpful) - but it didn't. I even checked the "info" on many of them - no help.

I spent 19 years as a Computer Programmer (mainframes) and a couple of them were on Unix using "C". I almost wanted to write my own, simple, app. It would allow you to store your media files wherever you wanted to store them on your local device, then allow you to "Copy" or "Move" them to wherever you wanted to when you wanted to. It might even have a "button" that allowed you to "view" remote files on - whatever "source" you select (google drive, facebook, instagram, etc --- maybe even "My Desktop Computer").

Sadly I have a disabled adult daughter and a partially disabled wife along with a home and 2 old cars that keep me too tied up to do so.

 

[ManiacJoe]

Take a look at the "piktures" app by Diune
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.diune.pictures

 

[B. Diddy]

Any gallery app will build a database of the images on your storage by using the system's Media Scanner, which scans all storage areas for image files. The only images that won't get added are those in a directory that includes a file called ".nomedia" (which is usually generated by the system or by the app that created the directory). You can use a file manager app to create a .nomedia file of your own in any directory with images you don't want shown in a gallery app -- just create a blank text file, and name it ".nomedia" (without the quote marks).

Not all image files on your storage will be photos taken by your Camera app. Certain apps may cache images in their own app directories (for quick use later), and if the app developer forgot to create a .nomedia file in that directory, then those images will show up in your gallery app. This might account for some of the images that you don't recognize.

The Google Photos app (and some stock Gallery apps) goes a step further and will display photos that have been backed up to your Google Photos in the cloud. You can tell which photos are in the cloud by going to photos.google.com on your desktop browser and seeing what's there. These photos are accessible from your phone when it's connected to the web, but aren't downloaded to the phone -- so just because you see them in the Photos app, it doesn't mean they're taking up valuable space on the phone. This can be very important for people who take tons of photos, because they can easily back them up to the Photos cloud, and then delete the device copies so that they don't run out of space on the phone. Remember that backing up photos to Google Photos isn't actually "syncing," as you're describing. You can still delete the device copy and keep the copy in the cloud by selecting the photo, tapping the Menu button, then Delete Device Copy. (If you tap the garbage can icon instead, that will actually move the photo to the Trash, which includes both the cloud copy and the device copy.)

Clearing the Google Photos cache won't get rid of the photos in your Google Photos cloud. The cache is only temporary, and gets built up again by the app as you use it. If you only want to see photos that have been saved to your phone, then open Google Photos, tap Menu>Device Folders, and select Camera.