Photos taken today all show as solid green and 154kb.

[Android Central Question]

Today I took some great video and still photos. Some of them are in the gallery, but most of them show as solid green. And in the midst of those that are solid green in my gallery, are videos that are fine. What? Why? And is it possible to restore what the images should have been?

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! Which phone? Is the camera app saving to Internal Storage or the SD card (if present)?

 

[SpookDroid]

Are you saving those directly to an SD Card by any chance? If so, that's probably what failed. And unless you backed those up to a cloud service, it's usually hard to recover the actual files. Running recovery tooks likr CHKDSK or apps from the store sometimes helps, but wouldn't keep my hopes up for most of the files.

 

[TikkaGeorge]

Hi, B. Diddy. This is my questions but I didn't have a user account so couldn't reply. It's the LG3. I do have an SD card but the photos are set to save to internal storage unless I move them.

 

[TikkaGeorge]

Thanks SpookDroid. I'm saving to internal storage. Sad.

 

[TikkaGeorge]

 

[SpookDroid]

Well that's odd... have you tried plugging the phone into a computer and seeing if the pictures show up there? How about the file manager? Do you get an error or the same 'square' if you try to share any of them via e-mail or text?

 

[TikkaGeorge]

When I explore files rather than view the gallery, I have the same thing. And, oddly, I cannot for the life of me figure out how to transfer images to my computer (I end up sharing them to my facebook and downloading). So there's another question for you, lol.

 

[B. Diddy]

So you're saying that if you use a file manager to open one of the problem image files, it still opens up as a blank green image?

To transfer a file to your computer, connect via USB, swipe down the notification panel, and tap the USB icon. Make sure it's set to MTP (or File Transfer). Then, on your PC, use Windows Explorer to open the device, go to /DCIM/Camera, and copy those files to the hard drive.

 

[SpookDroid]

So, if you share to FB, does it share as a green image too? Do you have any apps that 'hide' files or put a password on images/files or that you might have done that accidentally with a secure-folder-like app/option? Don't think that's it because the files wouldn't show up at all, but worth a shot.

 

[TikkaGeorge]

Yes, using File Manager all of the thumbnails are still just solid green and open as same.
I'm using a MacBook Air ... I set it to MTP, use Finder, and the device never shows up.

 

[TikkaGeorge]

No apps like that, no. I know that while I was taking photos, I accidentally changed my "text" icon image to something new ... but I've changed that back and can't imagine that did anything.

 

[B. Diddy]

Not sure why the files are getting corrupted. If you take new photos now with the camera app, do they also turn green, or does it take a little while before that happens?

 

[TikkaGeorge]

I just tried that. No issue, they all turn out. I tried it in many ways, including just using the slide unlock to take a pic without unlocking the phone. Same, the photos are as expected.

 

[B. Diddy]

Weird. It must have been something temporary that caused the file corruption. Are you using Google Photos auto-backup? If not, this might be a good reminder to take advantage of it, so that photos get backed up to the cloud before they can get corrupted.

 

[TikkaGeorge]

Now I feel so dumb. I don't know how to do that, either.

 

[B. Diddy]

Read here: https://support.google.com/photos/answer/6193313?co=GENIE.Platform=Android&hl=en. If you set it to High Quality (instead of Original Quality), you get unlimited storage of photos.