Why are my photos disappearing the sounds are not right?

[AC Question]

Photos disappeared & sounds not right

Hello,
I am very frustrated as I cannot figure out what is going on here. I have a Nexus 5 stock, still on KitKat 4.4.4
Yesterday I went to show someone some photos I had taken over the weekend, and when I opened gallery (the original gallery app from Google), it only showed 2 photos in my camera folder. I had at least a couple hundred. My fiancee had found the pics through total commander, so they are still on my phone luckily, but they do not show up in gallery. Then those 2/pics disappeares. He deleted the folder, we took a pic, and the folder came back.
No gray placeholder in place of any pics or folders like I have seen written by others.

(As I write this I also have a random 'dong' sound go off, 2nd time I've heard it since coming here to type).

My Facebook, downloads, screenshot, and beam folders have also disappeared.
His morning as my fiancee was leaving for work, his text notification was the default sound. I went to look at it, and his text and ringtones both have a number for the name of the sound file. Something I have never seen. I changed them to what I had, and they did not change. I had him send me a text, same sound.
Checked my med app & alarm clock sounds, also l,have odd numbers for their sound files.

(Odd dong just went off again, and also no new notification at top).

I am puzzled. Phone has developer options unlocked, but I have never changed anything.
Any thoughts or ideas??
I'm going to try backig everything up after work today. Should I wipe the phone and start over? Just upgrade to Lollipop?
Oh, only other thing I noticed recently about a week ago. I can turn my volume up and down fine. Except when I'm on hangouts, I can turn it down almost all the way and the bar just stops. Will not turn down completely. Can turn up all the way just fine.
Everything else seems fine otherwise, except yesterday the email app by Google (not gmail) has been constantly crashing. It did this a few months ago and when I reported it on their app page, it got fixed.
If I can think of anything else to add later I will. Time for more sleep before work.
Thanks for any help!!

 

[B. Diddy]

Re: Photos disappeared & sounds not right

Welcome to Android Central! Try wiping the cache partition, which won't erase any personal data. Be aware that this process can take 5-10 minutes on a Nexus 5. http://forums.androidcentral.com/nexus-5-rooting-roms-hacks/352008-guide-nexus-5-recovery.html

For the gallery issue, 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 the photos show up now? If not, use a file manager and check the directory with the photos--make sure there isn't a ".nomedia" file there.

 

[Nekoyasha]

Hi, and thanks for the welcome!
OK, we wiped the cache and it still stayed the same. I just tried changing ringtones/text notifications, and they still stayed the same odd numeral file names. During the day I had taken some photos to see if they would disappear, and they stayed put.
We cleared the gallery cache, and the pics in the camera folder did not return. My fiancee did eventually see "nomedia" files, even after clearing cache via USB connection in the PC. Photos are there in the camera folder, just not in the gallery. So weird. Backed everything up and plan to update to lollipop. Is downloading now.
I have not updated any apps, but only downloaded a game Sunday - Bubble Cat.
Thanks!

 

[B. Diddy]

So did you actually see a file called .nomedia in the Camera folder? If so, delete it. Removing the .nomedia file should make the system search that folder again for photos to add to the gallery.