Pictures mysteriously disappearing ???

[gilbo-uk]

I'm finding the same issue. Huge folder full of media gone overnight. Happened once and thought maybe my mistake but this time I'm sure the phone did it itself!!!

Looking at Smart Manager I discover that it last ran yesterday. I think this could be cleaning my phone and deleting all my media files. Anybody know how to disable it. It looks like a stock Samsung Apple made by Cleanup.

Not best pleased, lost some important stuff and if I can't stop it happening it could be the end of my galaxy s6

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[gilbo-uk]

Did a bit of testing and can confirm Smart Manager is the culprit. Any folders created and containing media files outwith the usual documents, movies, pictures and downloads folders get deleted by Smart Manager automatically at night.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[J atgalaxys3]

I searched for this right now because this happened to me yesterday and I did not take notice until midnight when I went to listen to music. I had photos there at 1 p.m. yesterday as I was taking shots of a Birthday lunch. Now all my Music, PICS, and videos are gone.

I have not backed up for a long time because I find Samsung not to be that much fun. Now I am really not having fund as I had wedding shots and videos of important soccer footage for my eldest son.

Have you found out anything? In my files section, I have documents but not images, video, or pics. OMG. So horrible for me. I don't want to back-up right now feeling that if there is a virus or something, it might just infect the last backup saved on the computer.

Let me know.

Take care,

Jeff

 

[CindyT5727]

I just returned from a trip and my photos were on my phone. There was an update for the phone and I did it and POOF - my pictures disappeared as well. Not all of them, just some of them. I installed QuickPic but that did not make a difference. I do not want to do a factory reset. Help!

 

[CindyT5727]

My S7 doesn't have Smart Manager on it so I have a different problem.

 

[S7 Owner]

Yeah, it does. It's a widget, long press the screen. It used to show in my apps list, but the last update removed it somehow. It's also in the settings right above application manager. This happened to me too, I had disabled media manager for some reason. Just on the off chance that this is what happened to you, go to apps and show all, click more and show system apps, find media manager, and if it's on, do a clear on the cache and settings, disable it and reboot. Then, when you're back in, go and enable it again. If that doesn't work......

Try the searching for ".nomedia" in the media folders, and delete them. Try safe mode (just google how to do that) and you can narrow it down.. if it's all good there, then it's an app.

 

[Samstokes72]

Twice now, I have taken pictures on my S6 ... and those pictures have been in my "camera roll" for at least a few days ... then, all of a sudden, POOF! They are gone ... totally gone ... not deleted by me ... not relocated to some other folder on the phone (including hidden folders) ... Just, GONE, period.

The first time it happened, I don't recall the sequence of events leading up to it ... but this morning, I recall EXACTLY what happened, and am not sure if what I did caused it. I'm going to try to recreate it myself later w/ some random meaningless pics to see if I can duplicate the problem. For anyone interested, here goes:

I took pics while on an off-shore Red Snapper fishing trip with my son. Using the Gallery app on my phone, I created a new picture folder entitled "Red Snapper 2015". I then moved the pictures into that folder, using the gallery app. For the last few days, the pictures were there, and had no issues at all. THIS MORNING, when I got to the office, I plugged in my phone to my work computer via USB cable, and was going to pull a few pictures off onto my pc to send in an email to a couple of friends. I noticed that this new folder I had created was not in the "Camera" folder, but rather directly under the DCIM folder. Well, my way of filing is to keep all sub-folders/albums under the "camera" folder ... so I just dragged/dropped the "Red Snapper 2015" folder into the Camera folder. Then, I went into the "Red Snapper 2015" folder - AFTER it had been moved - and it was EMPTY.

Looking back now, I think I did this same exact thing with the other pictures that mysteriously disappeared. I had gone with my son on his end-of-the-year field trip to the New Orleans zoo, taken pics, then used the Gallery app to make a "zoo trip 2015" folder, and moved all those pics into that folder ... then later, used the PC to move that folder into the Camera folder ... and that's when the pics were all of a sudden GONE.

So, I guess what I'm getting at is this ... Has anyone else had a situation where pictures they have taken just vanish into thin air? If so, can you confirm if you've done something like what I describe above (regarding organizing your albums/folders) and let me know if that may have been part of what happened to you and your vanishing pictures?

I'm so lucky that I had sent some pictures out already, and was able to get them back from texts and/or emails - though at lower resolutions than the originals ... but I'm still super-mad that this has happened.

I'm guessing this MUST be some sort of bug/glitch with our phones, and need to make sure this does NOT happen again. I have also - reluctantly - enabled the Google+ automatic photo backup system (at full resolution) for now to make sure that if this happens again, I don't actually lose the pictures.

Feel free to respond with any/all info you might have on this ... any suggestions or info is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

This has happened to me now for the second time, I think possibly after using USB cable to link to pc. Gutted as I have no back up of them. Is this a damsung fault then?

 

[TwitchyPuppy]

That's so odd..
I've have been taking pictures with smartphones since 2011 and never got that issue.

Posted via a white S6

 

[bakintime]

I have the same problem of all my pictures in the "Camera" fold of Gallery suddenly gone. Galaxy S6. I tried the suggestion and deleted the .nomedia files but no change. Still no pictures. In other online research, it is suggested to do a "Wipe Cache Partition." Is this a solution to the problem? Is this a good idea? Don't want to do factory reset. Thank you.

 

[AndrewMW]

Yeah, it does. It's a widget, long press the screen. It used to show in my apps list, but the last update removed it somehow. It's also in the settings right above application manager. This happened to me too, I had disabled media manager for some reason. Just on the off chance that this is what happened to you, go to apps and show all, click more and show system apps, find media manager, and if it's on, do a clear on the cache and settings, disable it and reboot. Then, when you're back in, go and enable it again. If that doesn't work......

Try the searching for ".nomedia" in the media folders, and delete them. Try safe mode (just google how to do that) and you can narrow it down.. if it's all good there, then it's an app.

It's happened to my wife twice, and I have also lost a few as well! Must be a bug.

 

[joasia410]

I have this happen EVERY SINGLE TIME I run the required software update. It's starting to **** me off to be honest. I had several "albums" created in my Gallery and lost them. I'm starting to think I made a mistake switching to the Android.

 

[bmccamant]

I'm on my fourth Samsung Android, and never had anything like this happen before. This morning I copied some photos from my phone to my home computer. I was not conscious of doing anything which would cause ANY files to be deleted. (I have noticed that lately Windows doesn't have you prepare many devices for unplugging the way it always used to. Nor does Android ask you if you want to connect to a device if you've previously connected to the same one.)

Came to the office, planning to do the same thing with other photos. When I got to the office and plugged it into the computer here, all the photos I'd taken since the first of the year had disappeared. [They are not visible in the camera review--is that what people mean when they say "Gallery app"?] A few since then were in Photos, but I'd been walking around for several days with wifi turned off, so I discovered that Photos backup only works when wifi is on. Some of the pictures were of items I'd borrowed from friends to photgraph, and it will be a pain to go back and re-borrow them.

Any ideas what I could have done?

 

[Lee111168]

I'm using an S7 Edge. Around November of last year I took about a hundred plus picture to document a trip for a friend I was with in that trip of a certain property. I am positive that after these photos were taken , they were in my device storage. I even transferred same photos that very same trip on our way back home that day to a note 5 unit with the friend I was with .
Once a month, I back up my photos to my PC , but never checked if these same photos from that trip was backed up since they were for my friend. (backing them up was merely a habit for me).
My phone is set to back up automatically to Samsung Cloud And One Drive (One Drive backs them up in my PC automatically as cloud and PC back up). One Drive stores it in cloud and I can import pictures (faster) using USB cable, and then OneDrive picks them up from my PC (or vice versa - this is techy, so I don't know which goes first).

Last night, I've decided to free up some storage in my S7edge by deleting some albums I've created myself inside that device "Anvaya Cove" being one of them (this would be your "red snapper album"), but first I wanted to transfer these albums to my PC as a batch file (never mind if the photos get duplicated in my hard disk somewhere - better safe, than sorry). I couldn't find the batch of photos in the device storage itself when I scan my phone connected with USB to my PC, BUT I could see them in my device.
I noticed in the Details file of these photos that they were in the "DCIM" Samsung Cloud. I had automatically ensured that my data gets uploaded to the cloud so that I'd have cloud back up.
Sure, I could download if from SAMSUNG CLOUD, you just go to details and PRESS DOWNLOAD per photo, but I don't understand why my device copy is no longer there for me to find to be able to transfer to my PC.
Going back to OneDrive which I mentioned I back up my files once in a while. With OneDrive together with the "Import" command, I am able to back up to the Cloud and my PC, or so I thought. Lo and behold, the photos I was looking for that got backed up to Samsung Cloud, never got backed up to One Drive at all on the most recent time I've manually backed up my file (via USB) after those batch of photos were taken, like two or three weeks after.
This is weird. Shouldn't the pictures have STAYED in my device even if they were backed up with cloud storages?.
Did Samsung store large photos as temporary files in my device when I took the photos and stored them in cloud when there's connections somewhere to cloud storage? Was it never stored in the device after all then?
Now i'm going to have to download these photos one by one from Samsung Cloud to be able to save them to my PC. :'(

 

[rolf_w]

Twice now, I have taken pictures on my S6 ... and those pictures have been in my "camera roll" for at least a few days ... then, all of a sudden, POOF! They are gone ... totally gone ... not deleted by me ... not relocated to some other folder on the phone (including hidden folders) ... Just, GONE, period.

precisely the same happened to me with my S5. I still have no clue what to do next

 

[stijnvanbrakel]

Hi

I just experienced the same. Suddenly all my pictures of the last 3 days were gone. I found them back via the app QuickPic. Good to know they are still somewhere on my phone.

 

[Neo Maung]

It just happened to me ...
I plugged my samsung galaxy note 4 to my computer and all pictures and video saved on the internal memory were gone. just gone
Only the data on the SD card are still there...
I lost all my pictures, videos, data sheets,pictures with my parents, my memories in europe trip, all...everything !
They are so precious for me. I dont know how to get it back..
If someone knows, please help..
i will be looking for the possible solution and if i found i will let u all know too.

Thanks,
Neo Maung

 

[kwcw68]

Twice now, I have taken pictures on my S6 ... and those pictures have been in my "camera roll" for at least a few days ... then, all of a sudden, POOF! They are gone ... totally gone ... not deleted by me ... not relocated to some other folder on the phone (including hidden folders) ... Just, GONE, period.

The first time it happened, I don't recall the sequence of events leading up to it ... but this morning, I recall EXACTLY what happened, and am not sure if what I did caused it. I'm going to try to recreate it myself later w/ some random meaningless pics to see if I can duplicate the problem. For anyone interested, here goes:

I took pics while on an off-shore Red Snapper fishing trip with my son. Using the Gallery app on my phone, I created a new picture folder entitled "Red Snapper 2015". I then moved the pictures into that folder, using the gallery app. For the last few days, the pictures were there, and had no issues at all. THIS MORNING, when I got to the office, I plugged in my phone to my work computer via USB cable, and was going to pull a few pictures off onto my pc to send in an email to a couple of friends. I noticed that this new folder I had created was not in the "Camera" folder, but rather directly under the DCIM folder. Well, my way of filing is to keep all sub-folders/albums under the "camera" folder ... so I just dragged/dropped the "Red Snapper 2015" folder into the Camera folder. Then, I went into the "Red Snapper 2015" folder - AFTER it had been moved - and it was EMPTY.

Looking back now, I think I did this same exact thing with the other pictures that mysteriously disappeared. I had gone with my son on his end-of-the-year field trip to the New Orleans zoo, taken pics, then used the Gallery app to make a "zoo trip 2015" folder, and moved all those pics into that folder ... then later, used the PC to move that folder into the Camera folder ... and that's when the pics were all of a sudden GONE.

So, I guess what I'm getting at is this ... Has anyone else had a situation where pictures they have taken just vanish into thin air? If so, can you confirm if you've done something like what I describe above (regarding organizing your albums/folders) and let me know if that may have been part of what happened to you and your vanishing pictures?

I'm so lucky that I had sent some pictures out already, and was able to get them back from texts and/or emails - though at lower resolutions than the originals ... but I'm still super-mad that this has happened.

I'm guessing this MUST be some sort of bug/glitch with our phones, and need to make sure this does NOT happen again. I have also - reluctantly - enabled the Google+ automatic photo backup system (at full resolution) for now to make sure that if this happens again, I don't actually lose the pictures.

Feel free to respond with any/all info you might have on this ... any suggestions or info is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Did you use a windows 10 computer? If so, maybe it is due to this issue whereby transferring files within an android device using the windows 10 file manager can cause files to disappear.

https://forums.androidcentral.com/showthread.php?t=539302&p=4485339&viewfull=1#post4485339

 

[Ash Fernandez]

I also encounter the same issue when I move images to a new folder and check up on them some time later. I'm using a Lenovo Zuk Z2 , Android Nougat.

They just disappear. I have yet to find a fix.

 

[doug mitchell]

Same problems here. I have up creating folders as there is a serious bug and the continue to disappear along with apps.

As for photos, just happened to me. I was uploading some very very important legal photos to VeriZon cloud when I had to reboot my phone. After reboot all of the photos were gone off of my ssd. I won't be buying Android agAin. 3 years of this stuff happening. I was hoping marshmallow would fix some of these but all that did was turn my cell phone into one.

 

[Matthew Cooper1]

Same problems here. I have up creating folders as there is a serious bug and the continue to disappear along with apps.

As for photos, just happened to me. I was uploading some very very important legal photos to VeriZon cloud when I had to reboot my phone. After reboot all of the photos were gone off of my ssd. I won't be buying Android agAin. 3 years of this stuff happening. I was hoping marshmallow would fix some of these but all that did was turn my cell phone into one.

I had some photos lost of my grandson and pictures on a vacation a few weeks ago. Yesterday i found my files and pictures from the past few months were gone. I spoke with a friend this morning and he looked under my storage on my phone and saw the SD card wasnt showing up. I popped the card out with a small paperclip, checked it to make sure it was in place and popped it back in. Poof! All of my missing pictures and videos are back! Hope this helps someone. Cheers all.