DCIM folder in a strange location on phone

[JDMils]

On my phone, my Gallery looks good and my images look good. The problem starts when I plug my phone into my Windows PC via USB. Here's what I see:
* When first plugged in, Windows Explorer opens and shows "Internal Storage" 69GB free of 221GB.
* Opening that, I can see my DCIM folder which would normally be where my gallery photos are located. Here, I can only see the gallery albums, as folders, which I created from 6th July 2024 onwards which is strange since I have created albums way before this. Some of the albums I can see are:

-- Milano Duogs
-- 2024 Melb F1
-- Camera

-- 2024 Sassici
-- 2024-07-13 Claudia's 22nd birthday
-- 3D Printing

I then go back to Internal Storage via Windows Explorer and go into the Downloads folder and this is what I see:
-- DCIM

Opening DCIM I see all my gallery albums as folders! However the albums under "\DCIM" are not there. It's like the phone/gallery moved all my images to Downloads\DCIM and all new images and albums are under "\DCIM".

Can I move the albums and images from \Downloads\DCIM" to "\DCIM" without any issues?

Phone is:
Samsung Galaxy Fold 4 SM-F936B
Android version is One UI 6.1, Android 14
Windows PC is:
OS Name: Microsoft Windows 11 Pro
OS Version: 10.0.22631 N/A Build 22631

 

[B. Diddy]

Using your file explorer app on your phone, look at the directory structure. Do you actually have two separate folders called DCIM -- the first being /DCIM (on the root directory) and the second being /Downloads/DCIM?

 

[mustang7757]

I moved this to the Fold 4 forums

So on the computer it shows wrong folders but on your phone My files it's correct?

 

[Golfdriver97]

I can't remember if this is still the case, but outdated drivers for the phone?

 

[JDMils]

Using File Manager + version 3.4.4, I see the exact same folder structure.
Samsung My Files shows the exact same structure.

It seems that somehow my default image folder still is Main Storage\DCIM however older albums with images have been moved to Main Storage\Download\DCIM.
The Gallery shows images from both folders. I can even move folders from the Main\Download\DCIM to Main\DCIM and the gallery still shows the images.
New images taken on the phone can be found in Main\DCIM\Camera.

Images from 2018 -> 2024-06-30 are in Main\Download\DCIM\Camera.
Images from 2024-07-09 ->2024-08-08 are in Main\DCIM\Camera.
Folders/Albums from 2022 -> 2024-07-13 are in Main\DCIM.
Folders/Albums from 2013 -> 2024-07-22 are in Main\Download\DCIM.

Strange- like the older folders/albums were moved to Downloads but both DCIM folders are participating in the gallery.

Here's an interesting fact- if I create a folder called "DCIM" anywhere in the phone filesystem and add an image to it, it appears in the gallery! Strange!!

 

[B. Diddy]

It doesn't matter what physical directory the images are in -- Gallery apps will still show them. The system constantly scans all directories for images, and as long as the directory doesn't have a file called ".nomedia", it will automatically be added to the Gallery. You could add an image to the directory called /Ringtones, and that would show up in the Gallery.

If both directories are named "DCIM" (even though one of them is a subdirectory of /Downloads), most if not all gallery apps will show the title of the folder/album as DCIM (i.e., not showing the higher level directory structure).

Are you certain you never created that /Downloads/DCIM directory yourself?

 

[JDMils]

No I did not create the Download/DCIM folder and move the folders/images there. But at least I know I can move the folders back to /DCIM and have all my images in one "physical" place again. Thanks guys, you have been most helpful!