ES File Manager/File Explorer questions

[Quack Me Up]

I have a Moto Z4 with this app installed. Can someone explain to me how to move photos from the Camera folder to a new or existing folder? It seems something has changed from the old File Explorer app that I had on my Droid Turbo 2.
When I click on a photo from the Camera folder and then click the "add to album" tab it only gives me about 6 of the folders that I have created and I probably have about 50 folders total.
Also is there a setting etc where once I move the photo from the camera folder to another folder it will not show up in the Camera folder? This is what I'd like as I hate having pictures in multiple locations.
Maybe there is a way to move the pictures within folders in the Google Photos app instead?
I'm open to a different file manager app if it'll give me the features like I mentioned above. I like to create folders as needed so it's easier to locate a particular picture as needed.
Any help would be appreciated.

 

[B. Diddy]

Assuming that the albums you've created are actual directories, can you just move the photo files from the /DCIM/Camera directory to desired album directory?

If you don't want photos in a certain folder to show up in the Gallery app, then use a file manager app to create an empty file called .nomedia in that folder.

I'd advise against ES File Explorer, because the company that owns it, DO Global, is known for shady stuff, like embedded ad clicking behavior. If you want a good and trustworthy file manager app, I recommend either File by Google or Total Commander.

 

[Quack Me Up]

Are you able to add a name to photos within a folder in either the Google Files or Total Commander app? I do like that feature with ES.

 

[B. Diddy]

No, you can only rename the photo file itself. If you use Google Photos, you can add a Description associated with the photo. How do you want to use this name?

 

[Quack Me Up]

I like to put names/descriptions with certain pictures within a folder.
Can you explain how to move pictures within various folders and create new folders using the Google File app?

 

[B. Diddy]

Using the Files by Google app (remember, this is the one you install from the Play Store, not the more basic Files app that's preinstalled on Pixel phones), tap the Browse tab at the bottom, then scroll down to Internal Storage (or the SD card, if that's what you're using). Navigate to the folder where you want to create a new subfolder. Then tap the menu button at the upper right and select Add New Folder to create a new folder.

To move a file, tap the menu button to the right of the filename and select Move To, then select Internal Storage (or SD card), and then select the folder you want to move it to.

 

[Quack Me Up]

Is the default storage place for pictures the internal storage or the SD card? How do I know where mine are actually stored?

 

[B. Diddy]

It depends on what your camera app is set to. Default is usually Internal Storage (aka Phone Storage). Open your Camera app and look through its settings menu.

The directory where the camera app saves photos would be /DCIM/Camera. It's the same directory name on Internal Storage and the SD card.

BTW, I just realized you had posted this thread in the Android Apps forum, which is intended more for developers to promote their apps. I'll move it to the General Help forum.

 

[Quack Me Up]

Is there a way to set up the Google Photos app so when I move a photo from the Camera folder to another folder it will delete it from the camera folder? I hate having pictures in several different places, that's why I create separate folders in the first place.
Thanks.

 

[B. Diddy]

First, when you say the Camera folder, are you referring to the Camera folder under Photos On Device, when you tap the Library tab in Google Photos? Or are you talking about your main Photos feed (i.e., when you tap the Photos tab)? Keep in mind that the Photos feed shows a combination of all photos in your Camera folder as well as any photos that you backed up to your Google Photos in the cloud.

So if you move a photo from the main Camera folder to some other folder you created, and if that folder is backing up to Google Photos in the cloud, then it will still show up in the main Photos feed. But it should no longer be visible in the Camera folder (assuming that the folder you created isn't a subfolder of the /DCIM/Camera directory).

 

[Quack Me Up]

When I click the library tab in Photos, there are two folders labeled Camera for some reason, each containing different pictures but the first one is where any new pictures that I take with the phone end up. When I move them from this folder to another one they still show up in the original Camera folder which I don't want them to. I would prefer them to move to the folder I selected and then be gone from the Camera folder.
Sorry if I don't know all the correct terminology.

 

[B. Diddy]

The other Camera folder could be on your SD card. If you change the Camera app's default storage space to SD, it will save photos to /DCIM/Camera on the SD card​, not Internal Storage.

 

[Quack Me Up]

So can I set it up somehow to delete the pictures once I move them to a different folder? If not, when I go into the camera folder and delete the pictures from there is it also going to delete them from the folder which I moved them into?

 

[B. Diddy]

If you use a file manager to move the photo from the /DCIM/Camera folder to some other folder you created, the photo should disappear from the Camera folder. Whether or not it disappears from the main Photos feed will depend on if the photo was also backed up to your Google Photos in the cloud.

 

[Quack Me Up]

So within the Google photos app once I move the photos to another folder it will still remain in the original camera folder? If I used the Total Commander app that you mentioned would that solve this issue? I don't mind them being backed up on the cloud but I don't like having them in several different places within the Google photos app itself.

 

[B. Diddy]

So within the Google photos app once I move the photos to another folder it will still remain in the original camera folder?

The photo should not remain in the Camera folder if you move the photo to a different folder on the phone's storage (as long as it isn't a subfolder of /DCIM/Camera).

 

[Quack Me Up]

I appreciate all your help but I guess I'm not grasping this. Your saying I need to move the pictures to a folder that I didn't create right from the Google Photo app? You say
(as long as it isn't a subfolder of /DCIM/Camera), What does this mean and how do I know if the folder is a subfolder of DCIM/Camera?
The only way I ever create a new folder is to open the Photo app, open the Camera folder, click on a picture from the Camera folder and choose to move it to another existing folder that I already have named or occasionally create an all new folder.

 

[Quack Me Up]

Or maybe explain to me how to create a folder that ISN'T a subfolder of the camera folder??

 

[ManiacJoe]

Use your favorite file browser app to create the new folder.
If you don't want it in the DCIM folder tree, the /Pictures folder is an easy place for it.

 

[B. Diddy]

"Albums" in Android gallery apps are typically just separate directories on the phone's storage. So if you saved a photo to the /Pictures directory (which is there by default on all Android devices), then it would show up in any gallery app as an album called Pictures. It can get a little confusing with Google Photos, because an Album in Google Photos is actually a "virtual" album that you create in your Google Photos cloud -- it doesn't correlate with the directories on your phone. In the Google Photos app, those directories show up in the Photos on Device section under Library (previously called Device Folders).

Any photo you take with your Camera app will automatically save to the directory /DCIM/Camera -- in the Photos on Device section of Google Photos, this is the Camera folder. If you want to move one of those photos to another folder so that it doesn't show up in the Camera folder, then you can tap the photo, then select the Move to Folder option, and select one of your other folders.

You were asking if the photo would disappear from the Camera folder if you move it to a different folder. The answer is yes, as long as the destination directory pathname on the phone's storage is completely separate from the Camera folder's (which is /DCIM/Camera). Just as with any standard computer file system, you can create subfolders of folders on Android. So if you happened to create a subfolder of the /DCIM/Camera folder (let's say /DCIM/Camera/Family) and then moved the photo from /DCIM/Camera to /DCIM/Camera/Family, it would still show up in the Camera folder in Google Photos.

Sorry, I know this seems needlessly complicated. The bottom line is that if you didn't create any personal folders as an offshoot of the main /DCIM/Camera folder, then moving a photo from the Camera folder to any other folder should make it disappear from the Camera folder.