[onthecouchagain]

Has anyone come across this on their Pixel device, where if you're underground or in an area without data, you can't see your photos in the Photos app? It doesn't always happen, but once in a while, it'll just show gray squares for all my pics, until I get wifi/data again and they pop back. Or even if it does show, if I scroll back far enough, older pics/videos that I took on this same device won't load until I have data.

I understand it's backing up to the cloud, but if I don't have data, how come the photos don't show up just natively? Aren't my photos and videos on local storage, too? Otherwise, why would they take up so much storage space.

Can someone please explain this to me?

[B. Diddy]

Are you certain the photos are still saved to local storage? Have you used the Free Up Space option in Google Photos recently?

Also, when this happens, try tapping the menu button in Google Photos and then selecting Device Folders>Camera. Do the photos show up immediately there?

[onthecouchagain]

Are you certain the photos are still saved to local storage? Have you used the Free Up Space option in Google Photos recently?

Also, when this happens, try tapping the menu button in Google Photos and then selecting Device Folders>Camera. Do the photos show up immediately there?

I'm pretty sure all my stuff is saved locally. When I pick pictures and go to menu, it says "Delete from device" or something to that effect, so I'm assuming all my stuff is on device.

Do not use Free up Space for this exact reason -- don't want to lose it locally.

I'll try that next time.


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It's bizarre. I can turn off Wifi & data, go into Photos, and everything will appear fine. But once in a while, if I lose data naturally (like going underground, etc.) and I pop into Photos, I'll get the gray boxes. Just don't understand why it doesn't just always show up natively no matter what.

[B. Diddy]

The reason might be that the main Photos feed is syncing with your Google Photos in the cloud, regardless of if any of those photos are local. I haven't tried it myself, but I would guess that looking in the Camera folder in Device Folders would show all of your locally saved photos immediately.

[onthecouchagain]

The reason might be that the main Photos feed is syncing with your Google Photos in the cloud, regardless of if any of those photos are local. I haven't tried it myself, but I would guess that looking in the Camera folder in Device Folders would show all of your locally saved photos immediately.

That makes sense. I'll keep that in mind! Thanks.