I cannot see all my photos when using mtp since android 6

[AC Question]

Since downloading android 6 on my nexus 5, I can only see part of my photos using USB MTP - and it is the same photos that are shown. I see a group of photos and then it jumps to another group of photos. Everything else is not shown.

I tried deleting some photos thinking that maybe there is now a limit to the size, but that doesn't help.

Any ideas? Thanks.

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! Are you trying to look at only photos taken by the camera? In other words, only in /DCIM/Camera?

 

[lvsf7]

Yes, I am only trying to copy the photos from the Nexus 5 phone, and all the photos have always been in the DCIM/Camera file. Is it even possible that some of the photos were saved in another folder?

 

[B. Diddy]

No, that wouldn't be possible--unless you're using a 3rd party camera app.

Can you describe in more detail what you mean by seeing a group of photos, and then it jumping to another group of photos? Also, check to make sure the phone is in fact connected via MTP, and not PTP.

 

[lvsf7]

The photos are grouped by months. It shows the photos from Feb, Mar and part of April. Then it jumps to October 18th - not the beginning of October. I am definitely connecting via MTP. That also took awhile of searching the internet because Android 6 is different than 5. But now I have this other problem...

 

[B. Diddy]

And are you using Windows Explorer? The last time I used it to look at files on my phone, I don't recall seeing them grouped by month like that. Is it a sorting option in Windows Explorer?

 

[lvsf7]

Yes. The phone always showed the photos grouped by month, but when I connected the phone to the computer (with Android 5), I would just see the DCIM/Camera file as one list. I still see a list but with a large group missing.

 

[lvsf7]

No one can give some hint what to look for?

 

[B. Diddy]

Sorry, still trying to get all of the details. Do photos that you take now get saved correctly to Internal Storage? Is it that you're missing a specific period of photos from a little while ago, but photos you take now appear in the directory?

 

[lvsf7]

Everything is as it was in the phone itself. No change.

When I connect the phone to the computer with the USB, I change the USB for file transfer to MTP. At that point I see the Nexus 5 drive with the Internal Storage/DCIM/Camera files.

However, when I look at the Camera files it begins with the beginning of January 2015 (although there are a few pictures from 2014 that we left in the camera). It then goes through May 12th. (The next picture in the camera is May 20th). It then skips from May 12th until October 18th when the pictures appear once again until the last picture.

Can't think what it is.

 

[lvsf7]

FYI, I just tried deleting the first skipped picture just in case it was something in the definition of the picture, but it makes no difference. It still skips the pictures after May12th until October 18th.

 

[B. Diddy]

Ok--what I was trying to understand is if the camera app is currently saving photos correctly for photos you take now. I probably won't be able to tell you exactly what happened to those missing pictures, nor how they disappeared--but I'd suspect some sort of glitch with the internal storage memory. Hopefully, this isn't a warning sign of more failures to come. To be safe, I'd make sure all of your important data is backed up or synced now.

 

[lvsf7]

Thanks. I was thinking of sending the pictures through WhatsApp or email but that won't help for the future. We were also just on vacation so it's a large group that needs to be saved. The other pictures are already saved on our computer so it's really not an issue.

 

[lvsf7]

By the way, what do I do if it is a glitch with the internal storage memory? How do I find out? Go to a computer repair person or is there some other way to find out?

 

[lvsf7]

Is there a reason that some of the pictures don't have a thumbnail? Here and there are pictures without a thumbnail but all from October 18th do not have a thumbnail but just some background pic.

 

[B. Diddy]

That's a good question about trying to tell if memory is failing. I'm not really sure if a repair shop would be able to find out. Maybe there's some kind of diagnostic that could be run to see if there are an inordinate number of data errors (like the kinds of diagnostics that can be run on PCs).

Picture files without a proper thumbnail also strike me as something that might happen with glitchy memory. If an SD card is getting corrupt, you can start to see issues like that.

Since this all coincided with updating to MM, you might consider re-flashing the firmware, in case the update was corrupted somehow. See this guide: http://www.androidcentral.com/how-manually-upgrade-your-nexus

 

[lvsf7]

I started reading the link that you gave but it emphasized one having to know what he is doing or there can be serious problems. I won't play around with it. I also never update the registry on our desktop computer for that reason.

I sent all the pictures by email and am in middle of saving them on our computer. I will then back them up and possibly delete them all from the phone and see if that somehow helps when we begin taking pictures again.

Thank you. I really appreciate your help.