Question I can't back up my SD card to Google Photos

[TheMouseAvenger]

Hello, everyone! So, I have a problem with Google Photos on my LG Stylo 6 Android phone. I'm trying to give the app access to my SD card, as per the instructions here:



When I press "Get started", NONE of these steps show up, so I can't follow them. Why these steps are not made available to me, I do not know, & I need to find out why that is, so that the issue can be corrected, & I can properly set up my SD card for Photos backup.

In the meantime, Google Photos still takes me to my SD card, & provides me with a button to allow the app to "Use this folder" . However, when I click the button, it tries loading the contents of the SD card for a while...

...then keeps kicking me back to the "Apps & Devices" menu:



Why am I having any of these problems, & how do I fix them, so that my SD card pictures may be backed up by Google Photos? Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!

Oh, & while I'm at it, I also should bring up the issue of nothing in my SD card showing up when I look at the folder in my Android Files or Files By Google, or try to browse through it to upload something somewhere. Can someone please help me out with this problem, too?

 

[SpookDroid]

Does the Gallery app (or a file manager) show the contents of the SD Card correctly? If not, it may be damaged/corrupt (quite a common thing with cards and mobile devices). If these apps can access the card correctly, long press on the Photos app on your app drawer and open the app's Info page. There, find the 'Permissions' section and ensure access to Storage and the SD card are properly set up.

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! I think SpookDroid's focus on the card's integrity is the most important thing here. If nothing on the card is showing up, that's very concerning for a failed card . Try removing the card and inserting it into a PC -- does anything show up there? If not, try running chkdsk: http://forums.androidcentral.com/am...guide-using-chkdsk-fix-corrupted-sd-card.html

 

[TheMouseAvenger]

Does the Gallery app (or a file manager) show the contents of the SD Card correctly? If not, it may be damaged/corrupt (quite a common thing with cards and mobile devices). If these apps can access the card correctly, long press on the Photos app on your app drawer and open the app's Info page. There, find the 'Permissions' section and ensure access to Storage and the SD card are properly set up.

Well, in the Gallery app, I don't have any option to access the SD card--just "Photos", "Albums", "Memories", & "Play". Nor is there any "allow access to SD card" option in the settings for the app. So unless there's something I can do about THESE things, that is rather moot.

When I choose to upload a file onto Google Drive, the SD card will load everything just fine.

If I look at the SD card in Files by Google or any other app, on the other hand, the SD card files & folders will show up, but nothing appears in the folders when I go into them.

The SD card currently has 19 gigs of space remaining, which presumably means it's accepting files, because when I move photos & other files from my internal storage onto my SD card, they successfully transfer just fine!

So if everything on my SD card is able to be transferred & seen by Google Drive, why can't I find them in any other app, let alone Google Photos? And why does Google Photos keep kicking me back to the "Apps & Devices" menu just as the SD card finishes loading?

(sighs & shakes head) This whole ordeal is driving me absolutely CRAZY!

 

[VidJunky]

I believe their point was that your device may not have been able to see the card if it was corrupt, but you've kind of verified that it is working.

How did you format this SD, as internal or external storage?

Given the information you've provided it sounds like there may be a no.media file on the card. Usually navigating to the storage location supersedes this file command. The no.media file will prevent images and videos stored in the same location to be excluded from searches and being displayed in some apps. This would be another argument for checking it from a PC or other external source, as Windows File Manager will display all files and folders when a destination is navigated to.

In your Gallery app, when you choose Albums, none of your folders are from your SD card? This is true for Google Photos too, except in Photos it called Collections. Both Collections and Albums show more locations where media is stored, but may exclude locations with no.media files.

Thinking through this as I've been responding to your post I can think of a couple of reasons you might not be able to get past the Get Started step. It may stall if Google Photos already has this permission. Navigate to Settings>Applications>Google Photos>Permissions>does SD card or something that sounds like it could be the SD appear in this list? Is there an option to add it from this screen, vs trying the other way? You should be able to repeat the same process for the Gallery app.

Let us know what you find.