Why did my photos disappear but storage stay full?
Hey everyone,
Something really weird happened to my Samsung Galaxy S22 this week.
The phone installed a software update overnight. The next day I opened Gallery and noticed almost all my photos were gone. I’d estimate 90% of them disappeared.
The strange part is that my storage is still showing around 85GB used, which is pretty much what it was before. That’s why I’m confused. If the photos were deleted, shouldn’t the storage usage drop?
Things I’ve already checked:
• Gallery Trash is empty
• Google Photos only has older backups
• Samsung Cloud doesn’t have recent backups
• Restarted phone several times
• Cleared Gallery cache and data
Most of the missing photos are family photos from the last year, so I’m getting pretty nervous.
Has anyone seen this happen after an update?
All Replies
Agreed.
The biggest thing is don’t keep taking tons of new photos or downloading large files until you’re sure everything is recovered.
Better safe than sorry.
If some folders still don’t appear, you could try an Android data recovery software just to scan the device and see whether those missing images are still present somewhere else.
Not necessarily because they’re deleted, but because recovery scans often reveal files hidden from normal view.
At this point it sounds like the photos were never deleted.
The update probably messed with indexing or folder permissions
I removed it and restarted. A bunch more photos came back, but not all of them.
Definitely progress though.
I’d remove the .nomedia file, reboot, and let the phone re-index everything
That could absolutely explain why some folders aren’t showing up in Gallery.
Android ignores media inside folders containing a .nomedia file
Interesting. I actually found a .nomedia file in one of the folders that should contain photos.
Not sure how it got there.
Another thing to check:
Look for a “.nomedia” file in any affected folders. Sometimes Android stops indexing media if one of those files appears where it shouldn’t.
Smart move.
Whenever storage shows full but files appear missing, I always make a backup first before touching anything else.
Good point. I’m copying everything over right now. It’s taking forever because there’s a lot of data.
Before trying too many fixes, I’d connect the phone to a computer and copy everything you can still access. Having a backup gives you room to experiment.
Yeah. I forced a media rescan and rebooted. Most folders came back afterward.
Did you end up fixing it?
I had almost the exact thing happen on my S21 after a One UI update.
Photos were still physically on the phone, but Gallery acted like they didn’t exist.
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Looks like the photos were never actually deleted.
After removing the .nomedia file, forcing a media rescan, and checking some hidden folders, I found almost everything. A few albums had somehow been moved during the update.
I recovered all the important family photos and backed everything up to my laptop.
Really appreciate everyone’s help. You probably saved me from doing a factory reset and making things worse. 👍