Question All Photos Resized to 800x500

[xLunarSky]

Hi, I tried asking this on Reddit to no avail. I'm running Android 13 on my Pixel 7. Recently, all photos I download are squished to a resolution of 800x500. I have tried uninstalling most apps that have picture access, reinstalling apps, testing downloads from multiple different apps, etc. The resolution stays normal (as downloaded) until I upload it somewhere, upon which it is resized to 800x500. I have no clue why this is happening and it's driving me mad trying to fix. Should I just factory reset at this point?

 

[Laura Knotek]

Where are you downloading these photos from? What app are you using to download the photos?

 

[xLunarSky]

Where are you downloading these photos from? What app are you using to download the photos?

I download them from any social media app, specifically Pinterest, Discord, Facebook and Reddit. They stay as their original resolution until I attempt to share/upload them on any given app (Facebook and Discord both produce this issue) when it is resized to 800x500.

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! I believe that's a limitation of those apps. I don't use the Facebook app, so I can't comment on the resolution of uploads, but I do recall that this has been an issue in the past, at least. And it seems that it's also been an issue on Discord: https://support.discord.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/360035661352-Disable-image-compression

Send feedback to the developers of those apps.

 

[xLunarSky]

Welcome to Android Central! I believe that's a limitation of those apps. I don't use the Facebook app, so I can't comment on the resolution of uploads, but I do recall that this has been an issue in the past, at least. And it seems that it's also been an issue on Discord: https://support.discord.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/360035661352-Disable-image-compression

Send feedback to the developers of those apps.

It shouldn't be changing the resolution of the downloaded photo on my phone though, should it? it's strange to me that all of a sudden it's starting to impact my saved photos when it has never done that before.

 

[B. Diddy]

I just tested Discord by uploading one of my own pics. It's shown as 2.5 MB in my Google Photos, but when I download it back from the Discord post, the file is only 675K, so it's pretty significantly compressed.

 

[xLunarSky]

I just tested Discord by uploading one of my own pics. It's shown as 2.5 MB in my Google Photos, but when I download it back from the Discord post, the file is only 675K, so it's pretty significantly compressed.

I just tried downloading an image from Reddit, and it looks like all images are being impacted, whether uploaded or not. So this is not an issue of upload compression. Something else is going on.

 

[B. Diddy]

It shouldn't be changing the resolution of the downloaded photo on my phone though, should it? it's strange to me that all of a sudden it's starting to impact my saved photos when it has never done that before.

The originally downloaded photo from those sites is probably already compressed from the very first time they were uploaded by whoever uploaded them. Then, when you upload that image back to one of these sites, it probably gets compressed even further.

 

[xLunarSky]

The originally downloaded photo from those sites is probably already compressed from the very first time they were uploaded by whoever uploaded them. Then, when you upload that image back to one of these sites, it probably gets compressed even further.

But why would ALL of my images, no matter the download source, be resized to specifically 800x500? I don't get it. This doesn't seem like normal behavior for the OS or apps to do this.

 

[B. Diddy]

I just tried downloading an image from Reddit, and it looks like all images are being impacted, whether uploaded or not. So this is not an issue of upload compression. Something else is going on.

How are you checking the original resolution of the image from Reddit?

Can you give a sample page so we can test it as well?

 

[xLunarSky]

How are you checking the original resolution of the image from Reddit?

Can you give a sample page so we can test it as well?

I check the resolution in my Google Photos app as soon as it is downloaded, then I upload that image to another app such as Discord and then go back to the same image in my Photos app to find it is resized to 800x500.

EDIT: I tried searching up 1920x1080 images from Google Chrome, and downloading them at random. Upon opening them in the Photos app, they're all 800x500.

 

[B. Diddy]

Hmm, I'm not seeing that on my Pixel 7 Pro. Are you using any data-saver features, or 3rd party apps that might control data usage?

 

[xLunarSky]

Hmm, I'm not seeing that on my Pixel 7 Pro. Are you using any data-saver features, or 3rd party apps that might control data usage?

I don't believe so, I don't ever mess with those kind of settings. Im currently uninstalling most apps on my phone and seeing if that changes anything. I also noticed that if i take a photo, the resolution stays as normal, but if I attempt to zoom in with the photos app, the viewport kind of snaps and stretches out to the same aspect ratio as the 800x500 downloaded photos, but retains it's high resolution.

 

[B. Diddy]

Try also testing downloads in Safe Mode: https://support.google.com/pixelphone/answer/2852139?hl=en

 

[xLunarSky]

Try also testing downloads in Safe Mode: https://support.google.com/pixelphone/answer/2852139?hl=en

I've uninstalled most apps, went to the stock Pixel launcher, cleared all site settings, cookies and whatnot in Chrome, and I have sucessfully downloaded an image from Reddit at it's original resolution and has so far remained at it's original resolution. I am going to test sharing it and see if the problem has been resolved.

 

[xLunarSky]

I've uninstalled most apps, went to the stock Pixel launcher, cleared all site settings, cookies and whatnot in Chrome, and I have sucessfully downloaded an image from Reddit at it's original resolution and has so far remained at it's original resolution. I am going to test sharing it and see if the problem has been resolved.

Problem is solved. I am unsure of what was causing the problem and I am hoping it wasn't Nova Launcher because I abhor the stock Pixel launcher. My issue of lag with locking and unlocking has also ceased. Really strange. Glad that it's working now, though.

 

[B. Diddy]

Good to hear! I use Nova, and haven't had those issues, so that's probably not the cause (although you never know if sometimes an odd bit of wonky data might start causing issues, which is why it's often suggested to try clearing app caches and app data).

 

[xLunarSky]

And the problem returned. I uninstalled every non standard app, cleared cache of every system and regular app multiple times. No dice at fixing it. Left to believe it's a system problem and likely needs a factory reset or update. So I'm updating to Android 14 to hopefully cure this infuriating issue. I have never experienced anything like it. Any downloaded photo getting turned to an 800x500 low res version of itself from any app it's downloaded from, leaving camera pictures and screenshots completely unaffected. I'll update on this once I'm over onto A14 and test out downloading pictures again.

 

[B. Diddy]

Just to be sure -- you're not inadvertently downloading thumbnails rather than the full image, right? I'm guessing that's not the case, since thumbnails are typically even lower res than 800x500, but just checking.

 

[xLunarSky]

Just to be sure -- you're not inadvertently downloading thumbnails rather than the full image, right? I'm guessing that's not the case, since thumbnails are typically even lower res than 800x500, but just checking.

That's highly unlikely given that every app's downloaded images are downsized. What is weird is that at first, the image is the resolution it was downloaded at, but then within a minute of letting it sit on my device and opening the photos app back up, it's been squished. This is the strangest problem I've ever had with an Android device.