All photos gone but one

[billrigsby]

So this is interesting, I got home, had received a package from eBay and the label was barely still attached so I took a picture to send it to the seller just to inform them.

Went to the computer to download the photo, and it was the only photo on my phone, a couple hundred are, where can you tell me?

They are all backed up to Google so this is more of a, "what the heck question" out of curiosity.


Bill

 

[B. Diddy]

Do you recall ever using the "Free Up Space" option in Google Photos? This will automatically delete any photo or video on the device that Google Photos knows has already been backed up to the cloud.

 

[billrigsby]

Do you recall ever using the "Free Up Space" option in Google Photos? This will automatically delete any photo or video on the device that Google Photos knows has already been backed up to the cloud.

Nope, sure don't.
I use the phone, which is actually a work phone to take a lot of work photos.
Once I have those downloaded on the work computer I have to go into Google, and delete them all to free up storage space. But I've never even heard of what you mention.

 

[B. Diddy]

Did you use the phone's camera to take those photos that seem to be missing, or are they images that were downloaded from somewhere else?

If they were taken by the camera, then use your file manager app to navigate to the directory /DCIM/Camera. Do you see the photos there?

 

[billrigsby]

Did you use the phone's camera to take those photos that seem to be missing, or are they images that were downloaded from somewhere else?

If they were taken by the camera, then use your file manager app to navigate to the directory /DCIM/Camera. Do you see the

If I remember correctly I had an S24, still a work phone, it started acting up, by not ringing when a phone call would come in and then all of a sudden I would get a missed call notice.
The IT people couldn't figure anything out so they got me a new one since I was due for an upgrade.
That one lasted a fair amount of time then the screen suddenly went black mid sentence during a phone call, nothing would revive the screen.
Not being due for another upgrade I was given this S21, that was just in stock from an employee that left.
Not being able to back things up from the one that had the bad screen I went back to the first S24, and transfered all the files and apps over from that one.
So technically no the photos were not taken with this phone, sorry this is so convoluted!

 

[B. Diddy]

Sorry, I'm getting a little confused -- are you still under the impression that there should be more photos saved locally on the S21? Or are you wondering why photos that are backed up to your cloud don't show up when you connect the phone to the PC?

 

[billrigsby]

Well I'm wondering why the photos aren't on my phone but I just went to Google and there are no photos there either anymore everything is just completely gone, I have no idea what's going on!

 

[B. Diddy]

Did you have the Backup option turned on in the Google Photos app on the previous phones? Or just the Backup to Google One option in the system settings? The latter does not include photos -- that has to be turned on separately in the Google Photos app

 

[billrigsby]

Did you have the Backup option turned on in the Google Photos app on the previous phones? Or just the Backup to Google One option in the system settings? The latter does not include photos -- that has to be turned on separately in the Google Photos app

Yes photos have been backing up since right around 2016.
I'm sure 80% of them have been downloaded to my computer which backs up to the cloud but I'm sure there are quite a few gone for good.
I'm sure Google is like Amazon or Ebay there's no way in the world to talk to anyone there and see if they would be able to help.

 

[mustang7757]

Just to chime in a little bit , since you are going between Devices double check Google photos back up is toggled on and not assume it's automatically doing so, how do you download the photos to the computer from your device by copying?
Going forward download Samsung Smart Switch on the PC as I see your using Samsung devices and do back ups periodically which will be easier then the way you have been doing it

 

[B. Diddy]

Also, do you have more than one Google account? If so, and if the other devices were logged into a different Google account than your current S21, that would be another reason why you don't see those backed up photos on this phone. Google Photos backup depends on the specific Google account being used.

 

[billrigsby]

Just to chime in a little bit , since you are going between Devices double check Google photos back up is toggled on and not assume it's automatically doing so, how do you download the photos to the computer from your device by copying?
Going forward download Samsung Smart Switch on the PC as I see your using Samsung devices and do back ups periodically which will be easier then the way you have been doing it

Yes the backup is toggled to on and it has backed up some recent photos.
Generally the way I transfer photos especially at work since we have no access to add programs to our computers is through the USB cord at home I can try the Smart Switch.

 

[billrigsby]

Also, do you have more than one Google account? If so, and if the other devices were logged into a different Google account than your current S21, that would be another reason why you don't see those backed up photos on this phone. Google Photos backup depends on the specific Google account being used.

Yes actually I have several but the one I login to for photos is the original one, the others are specific to projects and other specialty applications.

 

[billrigsby]

Between photos I've downloaded from texts and emails, it looks like I'm missing very few.
As I mentioned any photos taken for work get put on the work computer pretty much right away, the same holds true for any photos taken of projects going on around the house that I'm documenting. So any photos that are missing are probably not that important.

Took a bunch of photos the other day just to confirm that it is backing up to google, and it is, why everything disappeared from my phone and from Google is beyond me.
Since I tend to download I majority of the photos right away, the loss seems minimal and on the bright side I get to start over with Google storage being at virtually zero!