First let me preface my inquiry with a few statements.
Renaming pics was previously an inconvenience but now I make my living with these photos so this has become an absolute nightmare.
I am absolutely so frustrated with what I can only describe as Google's stupidity. For being some of the smartest people in the world they do some things that a three year old would know better.
Also I have tried to do research on this before posting a new thread here, but all I find is outdated piecemeal information .
So please don't judge me. I've tried my best to figure this out without creating a new and/or redundant thread but I need someone who actually knows what is going on and who can explain to me what I can and can't do and how to fix what I've already done and how to set up my process in the future so as to complete my task as efficiently as possible. I mean really, isn't that what the goal of all this digital interaction is supposed to be about?
Now that I got that off my chest, here's my situation:
I work in what I call a "fun" business. I take pics and videos of guests on my phone (Android 4.4.4).
Not being able to rename the pics on the SD card from a garble of random letters and numbers to something identifiable is so STUPID it's incomprehensible. The devices are designed to take thousands of pics and we're told to store the pics on the SD card to save storage space on our devices, but we then can't rename them to something we can identify? Whether this was an accidental oversight or on purpose, my three year old niece would know better than that.
That being said, I do understand that the limitations of 4.4 don't allow third party apps to make certain changes to files on the external storage (SD) card.
So here's my delimma: I moved my pics to the SD card before I realized this limitation. So now I have hundreds of pics I need to post to Facebook, etc., but I need to rename them so I can identify them before I start posting.
Also I'm ASSUMING that I CAN rename a pic that is stored on my device's internal storage. If I am incorrect about that please correct me on that issue before moving forward with a solution.
If that assumption is correct I then am assuming that the easiest fix would be to transfer the pics back to the native internal storage and rename them there.
But again 4.4.4 seems to also limit my ability to move/transfer/copy/paste the pics from the SD card back onto the phone's internal storage.
I have thought about transferring the pics to cloud storage where I can rename them, but then I have two copies of the same pics but with different names, which is another nightmare scenario. (In the end I would like to have a renamed (identifiable) copy of the pics on my phone (SD card preferably, but if not practical, then on my phone's internal storage) and one on the cloud. (Any suggestions on the best cloud storage for pics and videos?)
Then I could (can I?) transfer the renamed pics back to my SD card so I have offline access to the pics. But this seems highly inefficient and time consuming. And then if I did this process then I would need to then continually delete the unrenamed pics because of storage issues on the phone, again inefficient.
And using a desktop is not practical as I'm working remotely and I really need to rename immediately as the pics start piling up quickly.
So my first step is going to be to change the default storage location of the pics to the internal storage of the device so I can test whether or not I can rename the pics immediately.
Whether or not this adjustment works for my future pics, I still have the issue of renaming the pics I have already moved to my SD card.
So........
1. Is there a workaround for renaming the pics on the SD card?
2. If not, is there a workaround for moving the pics back to internal storage? In this case I could use a Windows desktop to facilitate this operation as it should be a one-time operation, assuming I can immediately rename my future pics that I'm now going to store by default on the device's internal storage.
I would greatly appreciate any complete and consider suggestions on how to best address my problems. Thanking you in advance.
Vincent
You are correct that Google revoked the permission for third party apps to write to external storage. The only permanent fix seems to be patching your platform.xml to include media_rw group. Do you have root? If so install sdfix: kitkat writable microsd from the play store, follow the prompts and reboot. As always backup first just in case something goes wrong in the process. And you don't need to keep the app. Worked for me on both 4.4.2 and 5.1.1. Hopefully this helps.
You are also correct that you can copy or move the pictures to internal memory and rename them from there, but you should also be able to use your phone's built-in file manager to rename them on the SD card.
I just can't believe it was that simple. I have several File Manager apps on my phone.
I didn't really think about an Android stock File Manager.
I didn't know which one it even was.
I should have picked up on the error message specific verbiage about "third party apps".
I ran a test on what I believe is the Android stock File Manager app and I think it worked.
I'll test it again later and post back the results.
That was the solution. Just using the stock file manager allowed me to rename pics on the SD card.
Thanx for the help. My life is so much easier now!
Sent from my Z987 using XDA-Developers mobile app
Related
I use AndroZip. And I am really confused about the different folders..
I included 2 screenshots for this part of my question..
First one.. can someone tell me what those folders mean..
Second picture.. what the heck are all those folders..
Is the actual external SD card one of those folders. I figured it would be the obvious one but I swear I had more stuff in that folder and Its not there...
Is there a way to make the external sd card the default to where all pics and stuff are saved??
Seems I am running out of storage space on my phone already for some reason.
3rd picture is of a screenshot of my storage use.. ridiculous. I dont understand why everything is on my phone and nothing is on the card..
It was worse a few days ago. My phone kept telling me I had no space left.. it was at like
System storge was 15.23gb/16.00gb
Sd card was 2.20gb/29.71gb
Sorry my question is kinda lame. Im just not good at this stuff.
Thanks for your guys help I really appreciate it
Sent from my SCH-I545 using xda app-developers app
Not sure what all those folders mean, but emulated sd is actually still internal...your "ext sd" is your external sd. when you open your camera for the first time, it should give the option to save all photos to ext sd. If you missed it, you should be able to hit the menu button, go into settings and change it within a secondary settings menu in there. I use es file explorer or astro typically and have never seen all those usb folders. Perhaps you are plugged into a desktop?
Mount Points
For whatever reason, the Galaxy S4 has many, many mount points for its emulated SD Card. If you're rooted, the actual path to it is "/data/media/0/"
However, the folders in the first picture are ALL paths to your internal or emulated SD Card. sdcard0, ext_sdcard, emulated, legacy, etc.
In the second picture, those look like pre-created mount points for... multiple flash drives? Either way, no reason to worry about them unless you somehow manage to plug up about 7 flash drives or SD Cards to your device.
And as for the space issue... That really is a good question. Factory resetting is never out of the question if you're up for it, however, assuming you're not, the only explanation I could come up with is just a ton of apps with big extra files. Like Minecraft, Call of Duty Black Ops Zombies, Temple Run 2.
Hope I helped, sorry if I didn't. I'm new to Android this year, so I haven't thoroughly looked at all of the quirky stuff it tends to do, but your data usage has to be from something, and if it's not from stuff you put on your emulated SD Card, it has to be from big apps or malware, assuming you didn't tamper with anything in a root file explorer. Are you sure you haven't messed around and copied files to some directory you thought was the emulated SD?
As far as the internal storage, the OS and "most" of your downloaded apps will go here, unless you use foldermount ("move to sd" only moves part of the file). Anyways, I have about 60 apps on my phone and am running hyperdrive and have about the same amount of internal storage left as you. After formatting and whatnot, the device does not have 16gb internal memory...it's more like 11 or 12. Before I was running hyperdrive and was just stock rooted, on that same screen as your 3rd picture, it showed me that I had 9.82gb of internal memory TOTAL, but I had way less used (I currently have no more or no less than I did then, but shows I have 8.23gb out of 16, instead of the 3.9gb out of 9.82 it used to show). Most of which is under "miscellaneous" files and when you go in there to see whats actually there via phone settings, you can't really see what's using all the space. You really need to be rooted and use root explorer (or similar) to see whats using all the storage.
Greetings.
I've had the pleasure to deal with many android devices, ranging from the very first EVO 4G to a rooted nook and KFire, galaxy tab, and my current GAlaxy S4. Nonetheless I've noted a pattern that hopefully one or several of you can help with...
I usually have SD cards that are larger than the native storage of most of my devices however.... I always run out of room for apps. I wouldn't say I install everything I See but I do install apps I need for work (medical apps) which for the most part don't exactly take much space but some are known to take 300-1Gb at most. Anyway, my devices always seem to fill the native storage while the SD Card remains fairly unused. Here is an example of my phone.
So my main gripe/issue is: My SD cards are always fairly empty and only have contents I've actively copied over to them from my desktop or notebook. I am under the impression that most programs do not install the data to SD Card and use the native storage instead. Is there anyway this can change? Any tips to get more space (besides backing up pictures and deleting those, 700+ mb!).
Thank you in advance!
good question.
theartofbone said:
Greetings.
I've had the pleasure to deal with many android devices, ranging from the very first EVO 4G to a rooted nook and KFire, galaxy tab, and my current GAlaxy S4. Nonetheless I've noted a pattern that hopefully one or several of you can help with...
I usually have SD cards that are larger than the native storage of most of my devices however.... I always run out of room for apps. I wouldn't say I install everything I See but I do install apps I need for work (medical apps) which for the most part don't exactly take much space but some are known to take 300-1Gb at most. Anyway, my devices always seem to fill the native storage while the SD Card remains fairly unused. Here is an example of my phone.
So my main gripe/issue is: My SD cards are always fairly empty and only have contents I've actively copied over to them from my desktop or notebook. I am under the impression that most programs do not install the data to SD Card and use the native storage instead. Is there anyway this can change? Any tips to get more space (besides backing up pictures and deleting those, 700+ mb!).
Thank you in advance!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am in agreement with you, as I have progressed thru numerous phones too. After going the route of the first moto linux phone and then jumping aboard the Android system when the first G1 came out from HTC and have always had similiar problems.
There original solution was special purpose apps that would allow you to backup your apps to SD card, then other apps came along to allow you to actually run apps from SD Card but seems that not all apps can actually be accessed from SD card. I havent kept up with it all like I first did and have become rather lazy and carefree or even sloppy with how I maintain my devices files and apps organized. Much now to an overwhelming large mess of old devices and storage media not to mention profiles tied to email google accounts. Its difficult to even start over as every device wants to have a profile to sync to. It could entirely be possible to top out the memory on a brand new device after snyc to one or two profiles.
Also it seems for the average consumer that has a unrooted device it is impossible to thoroughly clean or interrogate the internal device memory . seems like the revisions of the android operating system makes file management of internal memory even more difficult to manage.
I didnt want to get too carried away but I totally feel frustrated as you do, sorry I dont have a solid technical answer to resolve your problem. I am asked all the time to fix my girlfriends tablet and I cant explain it to her where all her memory has disapeared to after a few factory resets. Doesnt seem to matter, if you load alot of apps to just give them a spin for a test ride. Even if you delete or move them to store on sd card . It seems alot of junk files still seem to reside in the internal storage and eventually will eat away at the memory until it gets to the point of inoperability. App managers can make the situatin worse by creating even more orphaned files and junk too. All this stuff is not accessible to view and review and manage.
The only answer is to have a rooted device and the expertise to properly manage this inaccessible memory?
Is there a decent file management that a nonpower consumer can rely upon?
I love the SGP611, except it's low memory. I was anxiously awaiting MM and then so disappointed when they didn't allow you to utilize SD card more. My daughters tablet is used for apps and its stores such a sorry amount of apps. Is there any way I can change the memory to SD card without rooting it? I don't want to brick my daughters tablet and I'm not sure I'm confident enough to root it, plus we couldn't afford a new tablet if something went wrong. Any advice would be appreciated.
dude just revent to KITKAT via FLASHTOOL.it still is the best OS in every single category included battery life..
kos25k said:
dude just revent to KITKAT via FLASHTOOL.it still is the best OS in every single category included battery life..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How does that help give it more memory/space?
SamraLee said:
How does that help give it more memory/space?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you mean storage, not memory (two different things altogether)...that's why the other person recommended going back to 4.4. Pretty sure he was referring to better RAM management than 6.0.
Really, your best bet is to have her be mindful of what apps she actually uses. Most times there are games rarely ever opened hogging up storage.
Bandage said:
I think you mean storage, not memory (two different things altogether)...that's why the other person recommended going back to 4.4. Pretty sure he was referring to better RAM management than 6.0.
Really, your best bet is to have her be mindful of what apps she actually uses. Most times there are games rarely ever opened hogging up storage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you, you are right I do mean storage. I wasn't aware of the different wording. All I really want is for my memory card to be able to have more on it. I wonder why Sony chose not to go with making external storage your main storage. Is there a way to force it to go to SD card without rooting?
oh sorry I had in nind that on kitkat you can transfer apps on sd.I saw it now and I can't.beside this,if you plan to root it,it worths cause in MM there is very high risk if you transfer apps to sd..
SamraLee said:
Thank you, you are right I do mean storage. I wasn't aware of the different wording. All I really want is for my memory card to be able to have more on it. I wonder why Sony chose not to go with making external storage your main storage. Is there a way to force it to go to SD card without rooting?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What you can do SAFELY, is go into your App settings and change what storage they use. Not every App has the ability to do this. Some games have this option, Pokemon Go being one of them. You can move the data stored on device internally to instead be stored on SD card. This can add up if several apps can do this.
Anyways, it's a thought.
Bandage said:
What you can do SAFELY, is go into your App settings and change what storage they use. Not every App has the ability to do this. Some games have this option, Pokemon Go being one of them. You can move the data stored on device internally to instead be stored on SD card. This can add up if several apps can do this.
Anyways, it's a thought.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, thank you. I have done this already. I appreciate your advice. Is there anything I can do that is less risky than rooting, and perhaps a little more novice friendly, but isn't 100% risk free? My daughter is only 4, but she loves having loads of different apps and rememebers ones I've deleted.
Here's a post I found that digs into the issue more. With some solves laid out in a tutorial. Sony seems to have disabled the feature in MM...this will enable it.
Adaptable Storage
You can also give the Sony suggested walk-through below a try...let us know if it helps.
You might also try using a lower capacity SD card...sometimes certain devices can be finicky with anything 32GB or over.
It looks like Sony devices have been mentioned in that regard.
Here's some tips for managing your available memory. Try these methods one after the other.
Open the notification by dragging the status bar downwards, then tap the notification. The storage menu opens.
Move files or apps to the memory card (SD card), if you have one inserted.
Move files to a computer (if you no longer need them on your device).
Delete files from the internal memory.
To move files from the device memory to the microSD card (if inserted):
Open Settings > Storage
Scroll down to the end of the menu and select Transfer data to SD card.
Select the items (photos, videos and music) you wish to move to the SD card.
Un-select a category if you see the information, that there is not enough memory on the SD card to transfer all files.
Select Transfer to start the transfer to the SD card.
To delete files from the device memory:
Open Settings > Storage > Internal Storage.
Tap a category to select what you want to delete from the device memory.
Depending on the category selected you have different options on how to proceed:
Apps: Selecting Apps will open the Apps menu. Here you can uninstall downloaded applications, if you do not need them anymore.
Pictures, videos: Selecting this option will open the Album application or Google Photos. In these applications you can delete pictures or videos to free device memory.
Audio: If you tap Audio you can see the audio tracks currently stored on your device memory. You can delete tracks using the File Commander or the Music / Walkman application.
Downloads: In this category you can see a list of all files you have downloaded to your Xperia™ phone or tablet. To delete a file just touch and hold it and then tap the trash bin icon in the top right corner.
Cached Data: Applications can aggregate quite huge amounts of cached data while working. If you select this category you can delete all cached data at once. This will not delete any personal data. Deleting the application cache from time to time is highly recommended to free device memory.
Misc.: In this category you can see files and folders which have been created manually on the device memory. To delete a file or folder just tick the checkbox in front of the file or folder name and tap the trash bin icon in the top row. Please be careful while deleting files and folders, as a deleted item cannot be recovered.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Bandage said:
Here's a post I found that digs into the issue more. With some solves laid out in a tutorial. Sony seems to have disabled the feature in MM...this will enable it.
Adaptable Storage
You can also give the Sony suggested walk-through below a try...let us know if it helps.
You might also try using a lower capacity SD card...sometimes certain devices can be finicky with anything 32GB or over.
It looks like Sony devices have been mentioned in that regard.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just bought a Z3c tablet and a 64GB SANDISK U3
90MB/S micro sd card, do you think I'll have issues?
Bandage said:
Here's a post I found that digs into the issue more. With some solves laid out in a tutorial. Sony seems to have disabled the feature in MM...this will enable it.
Adaptable Storage
You can also give the Sony suggested walk-through below a try...let us know if it helps.
You might also try using a lower capacity SD card...sometimes certain devices can be finicky with anything 32GB or over.
It looks like Sony devices have been mentioned in that regard.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Note that as of Marshmallow you can definitely move apps to the SD card, but only the ones that Sony hasn't bundled as part of the ROM. However, even doing so doesn't change the cached files that those apps use... For example, I had Hearthstone installed, and while I can "move" the app to the SD card, it still unpacks over 1GB of files to the internal storage, which sort of defeats the purpose. I have a 64 GB card, and as long as its Class 10 or above you shouldn't have any issues with not being able to write or use it for media files, etc
I ended up removing the game all together, and I can't remove enough of the bloatware to free up space.
When you're in the Storage screen as listed in the above guide, you also can't set the SD card as default.. the option to do so doesn't appear within Sony's ROM.
I would suggest that OP looks at the games she has, and removes the larger ones, keeping more of the smaller ones installed. Otherwise, unlocking the bootloader and flashing a custom ROM is the only other choice if you want to stick with that hardware and want to free up more room
Hello all i have the tab s6 that i got primarily for photo editing using lightroom. Unfortunately it seems i cant access any form of external storage through lightroom in order to view pictures and then import them into lightroom to edit them. It seems that I first have to transfer the pictures into the internal storage of the tab, in my case 256gb, and only then i can see the pictures in lightroom prior to importing them. By doing this i would essentially end up with duplicate photos and then reducing the storage even further.
The only way i can access the external storage is via the files manager app installed. Is there any work around this? In ios i can see the pictures from the external storage through lightroom prior to import.
What Android version? Scoped storage is fully active in Android 11/12 and it's a mess.
Unless the app has special permissions like that file app, scoped storage will puke on them and limit their access. You may be able to do a adb edit work around, not sure as I refuse to deal with these OS versions.
Maybe try using a OTG flashstick as a work around.
Running Android 11 and no new update available. And lightroom app permission under files and media it says “allow access to media only” dont see other options
Any app that allows full access to external drives where i can see the full size picture thats stored?
adinis78 said:
Any app that allows full access to external drives where i can see the full size picture thats stored?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lightroom developers need to modify it for it to work most likely. Not a trivial task.
Do some searches to see if you can modify this behavior with adb edits. Yeah, now even bloody iPhones are easier to use than Androids, thanks for nothing Gookill...
I would just download the whole file copy onto the PC. You need to back it up anyway...
Last thing i want is too root the tab and gave things go wrong. Havent rooted an Android device in years and always more of a hassle than what improvements where promised
adinis78 said:
Last thing i want is too root the tab and gave things go wrong. Havent rooted an Android device in years and always more of a hassle than what improvements where promised
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I prefer using stock. Adb editing is just modifying the user partition, a factory reset will undo the changes if you goof up.
If it came loaded with 11 you can't flash it back to 10 because of the boot loader version.
Try some Google searches ie something like "scoped storage workaround adb". Add xda to it to find threads about it here. Maybe Package Disabler could help but I doubt it as scoped store is a core feature.
There's a lot of pissed off Android users right about now... you're not alone.
Share your wuv and give Google some feedback.
I have to N10+'s, one is running on Pie, the newest on Q. Both behave almost identically, however Samsung added dozens of small system apks to do that... Samsung went to a lot of trouble to do that.
You confirmed my fear Samsung couldn't or wouldn't be able to do the same with the models running on R and above.
The culprit is Google not Samsung.
It's the game that moves as you play it.
Something so simple that they are alienating photographers and are forcing them into ios, maybe I should have gotten an ipad pro
adinis78 said:
Something so simple that they are alienating photographers and are forcing them into ios, maybe I should have gotten an ipad pro
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are work arounds but you shouldn't need to do this. At this point Android is more iPhone than Android... a tard wannabe iPhone that is.
Return if you still can.
If you get a Samsung running on P or Q it will function normally and still have sufficient security.
Be wary of buying devices as they may list P or Q as the loaded OS when in fact they've been updated or factory loaded (depending on manufacturered date) with R.
Tried to look into the scoped storage but seems to be too much of a hassle and not really working possibly depending on what you need. There doesnt seem to be a definitive answer to my particular issue in regards to having lightroom (adobe) have access to external storage. I might just have to bite the bullet and get a 1tb microsd card although thats a huge expense.
On another note, Adobe should make it a requirement to have access to external storage, its possible in IOS and windows and tell google to allow it.
Test a small sd card first to make sure it works as you want with scoped storage.
Get a V30 rated card, Sandisk Extreme works well.
Take a look at this thread.
blackhawk said:
Take a look at this thread.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks but not really what i am looking for. Will test out and old microsd card i have from an old android phone and see how that goes
So some positive news to report. Tried an old microsd card. As expected it automatically displays the photos in the photo app just like the built in storage. So tried to copy a picture that i had backed up in the external ssd, did this via the file manager app. Then the moment of truth, opened up Lightroom and i have access to the additional microsd card, the picture that i copied from the ssd along with all the other old photos showed up in lightroom. So, as much of an inconvenience this is, it seems that for my needs and workflow, i would need the extra microsd card.
So here would be my work flow after taking pictures
1-Backup all the pictures taken on a certain date into the Samsung T5 SSD.
2-Also copy all of the pictures into the extra microsd card (1tb)
3-Go through all the pictures on the microsd card using lightroom to decide which ones to edit and then import them into lightroom.
4-Do all my edits then save those edits into the built in storage, upload to Facebook, instagram, etc. then save those final edits into the Samsung T5 SSD.
5-Format the 1tb microsd and repeat the whole process when needed.
Extra steps but it seems this is the only way. Thanks Google
EDIT: after thinking about it I think a 512gb would be more than enough for my expected workdlow and would be a significant savings vs the 1tb
Yay This will be a better setup than you had.
I always build dual drive PCs; the OS, apps, DCIM folder and the temporary download folder go on internal memory.
All critical data goes on the data drive. This is then backed up redundantly to at least 2 hdds that are physically and electronically isolated from each other and the PC.
Do Not use DCIM in the name of photo folder on the SD card; there can only be one folder with that name.
I'm having the same problem with this scoop storage issue that Google has handed us My 1tb card is full of music that I can't access it worked fine on my Note 8 but it doesn't work hardly at all on my new Note 10 I can't even get a playlist to function right people have talked about editing Android manifest in Android studio Man that's so far above my ability but I wouldn't just format my card I know I bought the best one I could buy and I still have the problem and I've had my card for some time I hope someone comes up with a solution
alpastor said:
I'm having the same problem with this scoop storage issue that Google has handed us My 1tb card is full of music that I can't access it worked fine on my Note 8 but it doesn't work hardly at all on my new Note 10 I can't even get a playlist to function right people have talked about editing Android manifest in Android studio Man that's so far above my ability but I wouldn't just format my card I know I bought the best one I could buy and I still have the problem and I've had my card for some time I hope someone comes up with a solution
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Scoped storage is a mess. Back up the 1tb card's data at least twice on 2 different hdds, more backup is always better.
Or use a different SD card in the device.
With the test SD card format the card with the device (all data will be lost, etc, etc), then doing the data transfer through the phone load the data. See if that works.
Regardless it's best practice to leave the SD card in one device and not "share" it with other devices. Having other devices write to it can lead to card corruption.
Don't know if this will help or not. I'm still running on Android 9 and 10. Gookill sucks elephant balls bad now... no way I'll upgrade my N10+'s to 11 or 12, they're running too good as is.
Thank you for getting back with me I have a real hard time keep you track of stuff nowadays but I don't need the aggravation of this scoop storage stuff as it is I have to pay someone to root my phones anymore because I just can't do it.
I used to be fairly good at it but not anymore so dr.ketan is promising updates in April and unless the issue is addressed by him I'm going to go ahead and downgrade my Note 10 Plus to Android 9 or 10 wherever that point is I can avoid all this crap
I think I read on one of the posts that they didn't really see any speed difference between 9 and 12
I think 9 was what was on my phone when I bought it in December.
And it was my phone guy that brought it up to 12 and put on dr.ketan's ROM. But I am so used to backing up stuff to SD card that it's driving me nuts. And isn't that the idea of TWRP anyway to be able to back up to your SD card and restore if you screw things up? Anyway thank you again for getting back with me and if you hear of any news about a fix or patch that someone like me could put on to fix it other than having to have the skills of a developer let me know I appreciate it I'd even be willing to be a beta tester.
Take care Rick
Hello all,
This is my first post here. I did some searching and didn't find a direct answer to this scenario, but my apologies if I missed something.
Recently I used my PC to move files from my phone's internal storage onto a microSD card that was mounted in the device. I used the cut & paste function in Windows explorer (didn't occur to me that I could do it on the phone itself), and did this in batches. Unfortunately since that time I've discovered some of the files are corrupted--they have the appropriate size, but can't be opened. Perhaps there is a way to analyze the file structure of the JPEG to see if a byte is missing, but aside from that, I'm interested if I can run TestDisk on the internal phone storage in some way to see if the files could possibly be recovered. I found a few tutorials (example: https://roubert.name/joakim/androidfilerecovery/), but all of them require rooting, and unfortunately my phone is not rooted.
From my review of the procedures on this forum, it seems that unlocking the bootloader and/or rooting ends up requiring that the phone be wiped. Is there any way around this? And does anyone have any other suggestions on investigating whether my photos can be recovered or not?
Thanks for any help!
Lost most likely. Copy the files to the PC. There are more tools available for Windows than Android.
From now on copy/paste, verify size and readability, then delete the source files.
Check Event Viewer during the transfer time to see if errors were reported in Windows. Maybe a bad cable, port, driver issue, etc.
In the future regularly and redundantly backup critical data on at least 2 hdds that are physically and electronically isolated from each other and the PC. I keep all critical data, music, vids, docs, backups go on the SD card and use it as a data drive. Only apps, the DCIM (backed up to the SD card regularly) and download folder go on internal. Then I backup the SD card.
There can only be one folder on Android with the name dcim. So when you backup the images in the internal memory dcim folder to the SD card rename it something like Master Pics to avoid issues.
Think it through and develop a system; everything you need to do a full reload/restore should be on the SD card. Few people utilize the SD card as it should be... it shouldn't be just a random collection of files. It adds an extra layer of protection for your data. Always use a quality V30 rated card like the Sandisk Extreme.
Any chance the photos were backed up to some service online? Google Photos is free and generally present on most Android phones, Samsung has their cloud, and some carriers do as well...
In the future, like @blackhawk said, backups are FAR more important than recovery. ANYTHING important to you should be backed up ("3-2-1" is a good policy to practice). For photos, Google Photos is great because it's free (to a limit, of course) and very easy to use. I've been recommending that to everyone, even iPhone users, because recovery is harder than ever these days - SSDs and flash can fail catastrophically and without warning much more easily than the old spinny drives which usually give some warning.
Sorry there isn't much better news. You may be able to find some un-delete software and try it. There may be paid services as well, but for the most part, it's probably lost...
If you do find something that works, do let us know... always good to find out new options! Good luck.
schwinn8 said:
Any chance the photos were backed up to some service online? Google Photos is free and generally present on most Android phones, Samsung has their cloud, and some carriers do as well...
In the future, like @blackhawk said, backups are FAR more important than recovery. ANYTHING important to you should be backed up ("3-2-1" is a good policy to practice). For photos, Google Photos is great because it's free (to a limit, of course) and very easy to use. I've been recommending that to everyone, even iPhone users, because recovery is harder than ever these days - SSDs and flash can fail catastrophically and without warning much more easily than the old spinny drives which usually give some warning.
Sorry there isn't much better news. You may be able to find some un-delete software and try it. There may be paid services as well, but for the most part, it's probably lost...
If you do find something that works, do let us know... always good to find out new options! Good luck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sadly, no. Didn't use a backup service online. Thanks for the advice though--I used to be pretty good about backing things up routinely, but have gotten lax. Sadly this is the consequence.
DakenSG said:
Sadly, no. Didn't use a backup service online. Thanks for the advice though--I used to be pretty good about backing things up routinely, but have gotten lax. Sadly this is the consequence.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's a typically error when using MTP (Media Transfer Protocol) and you shouldn't use it for transferring files whenever it's possible. MTP was developed to offer a wide range compatibility for the most storage devices but it's very buggy and very slow.
Next time you should use the internal file explorer to copy data to your SD. This is the best practice.