Why am I unable to clear all of the photos off of my phone's internal memory?

[AC Question]

I can't clear all photos off my phone's internal memory

I have connected my Sony xperia z1 to my computer to move the photos off it as the memory was full. I have been able to move loads from the folder marked DCIM which has the photos in it, both on the internal memory and the SD card. However, wherever else I look, in all the folders that seem like they might have stored photos (WHatsapp, FAcebook etc) I can't see any more photo folders, . But when I go to gallery in the phone there are still loads of photos there! Where else are they stored please?

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! They might just be thumbnails. Go to Settings>Apps>All, select Gallery, and Clear Cache/Clear Data, then Force Stop. Now open Gallery again, and wait a few seconds for the database to rebuild. Do you still see the photos?

Another possibility is that your photos have been backed up to your Google Photos in the cloud, and the gallery app is syncing with it (just to show you what you have in the cloud, not to download every photo physically to the phone's storage).