Why are all types of media disappearing from my phone

[Alexander Wallace]

I have had 1000s of media files on my s8 phone for a while; songs, movies, videos, pictures and even gifs. But as of recent, I haven't downloaded anything or changed anything that I'm aware of but my all these files have started disappearing.

I first noticed this a few days ago now when I loaded up my gallery and every file had a grey thumbnail with "!" In the centre as a warning.

Songs downloaded from spotify would download but somehow disappear and they would re download and so on.

Video files saves from other apps would still have their links as if they were downloaded but when I tried to open the files I would get an error message saying not found.

So I have looked into the DCIM file and the first time I spotted the problem, there was nothing inside the DCIM folder, although, just an hour ago, I found that the photos I took yesterday have disappeared now too. I then tried to look deeper into the problem but it turns out now there is no DCIM folder displayed in the my files app. When I search for it in settings and click on it, the phone tells me there is no apps that can open this type of file.

I have tried rebooting, clearing cache, scanning for malicious software, reading up on loads of other people's questions but have no solutions that work for me

What is going on with my phone?!?!?!?!!

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! Were all of these media files saved to Internal Storage or an SD card? If the latter, I'd suspect a corrupt or counterfeit card.

 

[mustang7757]

I have had 1000s of media files on my s8 phone for a while; songs, movies, videos, pictures and even gifs. But as of recent, I haven't downloaded anything or changed anything that I'm aware of but my all these files have started disappearing.

I first noticed this a few days ago now when I loaded up my gallery and every file had a grey thumbnail with "!" In the centre as a warning.

Songs downloaded from spotify would download but somehow disappear and they would re download and so on.

Video files saves from other apps would still have their links as if they were downloaded but when I tried to open the files I would get an error message saying not found.

So I have looked into the DCIM file and the first time I spotted the problem, there was nothing inside the DCIM folder, although, just an hour ago, I found that the photos I took yesterday have disappeared now too. I then tried to look deeper into the problem but it turns out now there is no DCIM folder displayed in the my files app. When I search for it in settings and click on it, the phone tells me there is no apps that can open this type of file.

I have tried rebooting, clearing cache, scanning for malicious software, reading up on loads of other people's questions but have no solutions that work for me

What is going on with my phone?!?!?!?!!

You checked in My Files app?

 

[Alexander Wallace]

I don't have an sd card inserted. My storage says I have 21.something GB used of 64. My screensaver, lockscreen, ringtone and other things are still in use but there are no instances of the files which tells me they are still on my phone.

I have searched for .nomedia files as I've used them before to hide a folder within the gallery but that isn't the issue in this case.

The DCIM file has since reappeared in the my files app but still contains nothing.

I have been thinking and it my be unrelated but I never ever hit the full 32GB usage I have but around the same time as this issue, my data has reached its limit which is really strange for I don't use half of it normally and there was 7 days left for that month. This may be related or may not but thought I'd share in case it was.

Thanks

 

[B. Diddy]

Do you have an "phone cleaner" apps installed?

This is less likely, but could still be possible depending on where you got the phone -- it could be a counterfeit or knockoff. (If you got it directly from the carrier or from a reputable store, then it's not likely, but if you got it through eBay or from a random seller, then it's more of a possibility.) A knockoff might report much more storage than it actually has, and so if you exceed that actual amount of storage, then your data can get corrupted. Use an app like CPU-Z to find out which CPU is in the phone -- if it's Mediatek, then it's a knockoff.

 

[Alexander Wallace]

No I've used one of these recently and there is no malicious software and the phone is genuine from the carrier.

I initially settled with the loss of the media and was but if its going to keep happening I want the issue resolved asap.

 

[B. Diddy]

When you say you cleared cache, do you mean the app cache for the gallery, or the system cache partition?

 

[Alexander Wallace]

I cleared the cache and data for the my files app then restarted my phone as this was a solution on another post I read up on.

 

[B. Diddy]

Ok, try wiping the system cache partition: https://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-34311

 

[Alexander Wallace]

I have done that there now. None of the lost images or files have returned but I have yesterdays images that have saved through WhatsApp in my gallery so will see if they stay in the next coming days. If that fixed the deleting of media then then next issue for me will be trying to recover the hidden/lost files.

 

[mustang7757]

I have done that there now. None of the lost images or files have returned but I have yesterdays images that have saved through WhatsApp in my gallery so will see if they stay in the next coming days. If that fixed the deleting of media then then next issue for me will be trying to recover the hidden/lost files.

My files app there a option to show hidden files , also if you have Samsung cloud backup on and Google photos backup everything should be there.

 

[Alexander Wallace]

I've checked multiple times and there is absolutely nothing in the my files app

 

[methodman89]

I've checked multiple times and there is absolutely nothing in the my files app

Download Data Size Explorer.
Scan the memory and see it.

 

[Alexander Wallace]

I've no idea what this app does. Just a lot of boxes with an assortment of letters and numbers. When I double click on them it eventually comes up no compatible viewer found

 

[methodman89]

I've no idea what this app does. Just a lot of boxes with an assortment of letters and numbers. When I double click on them it eventually comes up no compatible viewer found

Post a screen shot of the internal memory scan with freespace shown. Edit any pid.

 

[Alexander Wallace]

When I double click on any of the boxes at the bottom and get to this point I have no clue what any of this means and if it is useful because i cannot view anything.

 

[methodman89]

I've never seen those. Possibly a sys file. It doesn't look correct. Check the app settings. You should get an initial image as I've posted. Tapping the used section will expand it to something visually similar to you, but known obvious files and names.
With the problem you state, it looks like they're not on the phones storage. And you're sure about the SD card not used.

 

[Alexander Wallace]

100% isn't a SD card inserted.
When I start the scan it comes up similar to yours but then when I double click into say the files tab, I get what's shown in the image.
I assume these are the files I am missing and for some reason my file viewer is gone or corrupt?

 

[methodman89]

Yup, there's your music. Try to forward a song to another device to see the result. Does it open and play?
Do a complete backup, you may need to either clear the Spotify cache which is at 3.2g, or you may end up uninstalling then reinstalling the app.
Have you tried signing out of the app, check for updates, then sign back in?

 

[Alexander Wallace]

Yeah so it's not the spotify files I'm worried about. They can be redownloaded, whereas I still can't find the images and video files that just disappeared.

I'm nearly just accepting that they aren't there, but I want to know what actually caused this problem and how to prevent it from ever happening again.