Why aren't the photos and videos transferred to my Samsung Galaxy S3 SD card are available in the gallery app?

[AC Question]

Photos and videos transferred to Samsung Galaxy S3 SD card are not available in the gallery app

I occasionally copy photos or videos from my Windows computer to the "Photos" folder I created on the SD card of my Samsung Galaxy S3.
The way I do that is opening both the source folder and \GT-I9300\Card\Photos folder in Windows file explorer, and dragging the files to be copied.
Lately, I have encountered this phenomenon, where my Android gallery app would not recognize the new photos/videos, at least not immediately. The gallery sees the folder, and older photos in it, but fail to display the new ones.
Sometimes, it takes the gallery several hours to see the new photos; sometimes it takes more than a day. Yesterday I added 3 tiny photos, and the gallery still can't see them.
I can see the files and open them from \GT-I9300\Card\Photos in Windows file explorer, as well as various Android file explorer apps. The problem is, I'm trying to change a contact's photo, and I can only use photos from the gallery.

Thanks for your help.

 

[B. Diddy]

Re: Photos and videos transferred to Samsung Galaxy S3 SD card are not available in the gallery app

Welcome to Android Central! What happens if you reboot the phone after transferring the photos? That might force the system's Media Scanner to run, so that it will find the new photos immediately and place them in the Gallery's database.

 

[Ofer Ben Zvi]

Re: Photos and videos transferred to Samsung Galaxy S3 SD card are not available in the gallery app

I was the guest from above.
First, thanks for the reply. It did the trick.
But is there a way to make the media scanner run without rebooting? It seems kind of lame, and I can recall times when it did work.

 

[B. Diddy]

Re: Photos and videos transferred to Samsung Galaxy S3 SD card are not available in the gallery app

Try Rescan Media or similar apps.