Galaxy S8 two camera folders after transfer - combine?

[anon(650461)]

Hi all, got a new s8, an upgrade from an s6. I did the samsung smartswitch and it didn't work well. Missed lots of texts and just about all mms's. I'm still trying to find time to see how many pictures from the gallery it missed (if any). Talked to Samsung and they had me clear the phone and retry the transfer. Next time most texts and mms's transferred over but not all (at this point I give up). I now have two Camera folders in the gallery and I understand why - one looks to be mostly photos that I had transferred from the last upgrade to the s6 (from s4, ha ha) - at that time they were all on a sd card so the file path included "sdcard" and I assume the s8 assumed it should be in it's own folder. All the pics I took with the s6 and also now the s8 have gone into the other Camera folder. I want to combine them but afraid of moving the old ones into the newer camera folder and losing time/date stamp info. Has anyone tried doing this? I've read a few stories online in which people had all their photos renamed to the date they moved them. I DEFINITELY don't want that to happen.

Also, is there a better backup/transfer app out there besides smartswitch? I'd like to try to get my texts right - I'd like to keep any new ones on the phone and clear out all the old and re-transfer them to try to get all the mms's back, etc. Is there something that would allow me to back up texts to the cloud (can't be samsung as I am a vzw customer) and then bring them back to my new phone?

Thanks for any help!!!!

 

[illdini]

You may want to try a thrid-party app like SMS Backup & Restore, I believe it has options to let you back up to the cloud as well as local storage and/or SD card.

 

[Rukbat]

I now have two Camera folders in the gallery

Well ... they're not really "in the gallery". Gallery has no place to keep pictures, it just shows all pictures n the phone and in the SD card, in an "album" named for the folder the picture is in. So you can have /Camera (which is probably from the SD card) and /DCIM/Camera (which would be internal) and they both appear as albums named Camera.

I want to combine them but afraid of moving the old ones into the newer camera folder and losing time/date stamp info.

The date and time showing is the last modified time and date for the file, and moving or copying is modifying, so that's the time and date any file shows.

Also, is there a better backup/transfer app out there besides smartswitch? I'd like to try to get my texts right - I'd like to keep any new ones on the phone and clear out all the old and re-transfer them to try to get all the mms's back, etc. Is there something that would allow me to back up texts to the cloud (can't be samsung as I am a vzw customer) and then bring them back to my new phone?

First, you can always manually back up anything - see Backing up an Android Device. Anything important should be backed up - to a PC, to a cloud account, to an SD card - something (or more than one thing). And if you enable picture backup in your Google account (Settings/Accounts/Google/<your Google account>) your pictures will always be backed up to Google. And Verizon customer or not, Samsung phones can back up to Samsung.

 

[anon(650461)]

Thanks illdini - I'm not going to try anything yet until I know I can move my pics without losing the time date stamp, that would kill me. I've seen a few other threads that recommend SMS Backup - I'll look into it. I found one that backs up your sms to gmail too but again, it also did it with many of the conversations and mms missing.

 

[anon(650461)]

Well ... they're not really "in the gallery". Gallery has no place to keep pictures, it just shows all pictures n the phone and in the SD card, in an "album" named for the folder the picture is in. So you can have /Camera (which is probably from the SD card) and /DCIM/Camera (which would be internal) and they both appear as albums named Camera.

The date and time showing is the last modified time and date for the file, and moving or copying is modifying, so that's the time and date any file shows.

First, you can always manually back up anything - see Backing up an Android Device. Anything important should be backed up - to a PC, to a cloud account, to an SD card - something (or more than one thing). And if you enable picture backup in your Google account (Settings/Accounts/Google/<your Google account>) your pictures will always be backed up to Google. And Verizon customer or not, Samsung phones can back up to Samsung.

So, guess I can't combine them which sucks, just more finger pressing to get to a picture I want. Sigh. I hate "smart" phones. A lot of these photos have been transferred more than once and still show the original date that's why I asked about the modifying - why does it happen sometimes and not others? I guess I can try moving one picture and see what happens. Right now the dates and times on the pictures are the actual date/time that I took them, even though they've been moved at least once.

I do back up my pics - to onedrive and google drive. But I want them backed up separately with just a phone app (overkill I know but I've been burned, trust me) as well. I would LOVE for you to tell me how to back up to Samsung - it's not even on my phone (samsung cloud) and when I chatted with Samsung cust. service they said verizon doesn't make it available to their customers. That would solve all the issues.

 

[Gayle Lynn]

Solid Explorer file manager
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=pl.solidexplorer2

When you backup to PC with Samsung Smart Switch PC you will have native files.

https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...port%2Fsmart-switch-support%2F&token=p46Ijq4M

For $20 64GB / $40 128GB SD Samsung USB-C dongle.

Samsung MUF-128DA2/WW USB Type-C 3.1 Flash Drive, 128 GB, Black https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XXQKRMZ/?tag=hawk-future-20&ascsubtag=UUacUvbUpU6101368