Photo Storage Location

[toy4rick]

Help me fix this Google Photo issue

I can't seem to find where all the photos are being stored on the Note 5, Google drive... When viewing the phone in Windows 10.. I've looked in vzpics, pictures, dcim.... copied everything to my laptop yet when I clear data in google photos, delete everything in Google Driver, when I start Google Photos on the phone, after a few mins, they all show up again

They are not full res or local for that matter since over 1100 showed up in about 30 seconds and when I select a photo and select Info, it doesn't tell me the file location. If I select the hamburger stack in the upper right corner when viewing a photo, I can select to restore, when I do that I get another picture in Google Photos and this new one gives me a location on the internal storage dcim\restored. Now it has a location on the internal storage that I can see in Windows Explorer.

So, were are the thumb nails coming from, where are the full res photos coming from when I select restore? And how do I nix them all since I have a backup of all photos saved on my computer so I can start over with a clean slate

Thanks in advance
Rick

 

[B. Diddy]

It's probably still showing thumbnails, which are stored in /DCIM/.thumbnails. (The period in front of "thumbnails" means it's intended to be a hidden directory -- if you don't see it at first, make sure your file explorer is set to show hidden files/folders.)

Have you already tried going to the App Manager, selecting Google Photos, and Clearing Cache/Data?

 

[toy4rick]

Hey again,

I have set to show hidden files/folders and don't see thumbnails

Another question would be, from where are the full size images being restored from? Those I can't find either

And yes, I have cleared the cache/data and they keep coming back when I open Google Photo

Rick

 

[GRIMWALD]

I don't use Google Photo but obviously your device is being repopulated because you have auto sync enabled.
Log into your Google account, open Google Photo and either delete the photo's that you don't want or turn off Auto Sync.

GRIM

 

[B. Diddy]

I like GRIMWALD's suggestion. Also, are you saying that you don't see a .thumbnails directory anywhere? Look around in directories besides /DCIM.

 

[toy4rick]

No thumbnails anywhere, even did a search for thumb, it found 1 location with a single thumbnail in it

As it turns out, it was Google Photo/Sync. I had looked there before and didn't see anything but now they do show, not sure why.

My wife's computer has a Photos folder in Google Drive and a Google Photo location, which are different. Not easy to keep straight

Thanks again
Rick

 

[B. Diddy]

Glad you figured it out! The Photos folder in Google Drive is the same as your Google Photos. There's an option to show them in Google Drive. Open the the Google Drive app, tap Menu>Settings, and turn off the Auto Add switch.

Or you could go to Google Drive on your computer browser, click the gear icon at the upper right, and uncheck the "Create a Google Photos folder" option. Removing the folder from Google Drive doesn't get rid of the photos -- it just stops showing them in Drive.