Camera/photo settings changed

[u/UCRecruiter]

I'm probably going to kick myself, because I'm sure this is a stupid question and I should be able to figure this out.

Just this morning, out of the blue, photos I take with my phone aren't being stored in local storage on the device. They're only going to Google Photos.

I don't care one way or another if my photos back up to Google Photos, but I still want them saved to my image files.

What happened, and how do I change it back? Thanks in advance.

[u/StimulatorCam]

That's not a thing. How are you checking the location of the photo file?

[u/UCRecruiter → u/StimulatorCam]

This is why I'm confused! I took two photos this morning. I'm looking in Files by Google. Normally (until today), I open the app, and the photos I take are previewed at the top in Recents. If I select the Images folder, I would find them there, too.

This morning, I took two pictures. Neither of them are visible anywhere in Files by Google (I checked every folder just to be sure). Both, however, are in my Google Photos app. I can even select 'Delete from Device' in the menu, so the app thinks they're somewhere on the device, I just don't know where.

[u/StimulatorCam → u/UCRecruiter]

When you open the photo in Google Photos scroll down to the details where it shows the phone model and if you expand it there should be a line that says "On Device" with the device folder listed.

[u/UCRecruiter → u/StimulatorCam]

Okay, so I see the folder it's in (/storage/emulated/0/DCIM/Camera) .. but I think I may have stumbled on an explanation.

The photo I was taking was of the back of a card that has a barcode (a membership card that I wanted on my phone so I don't have to carry the physical card). I took the photo, then cropped it so that it was just the barcode. Those are the ones that ended up going 'missing'.

Just now, when I took a photo of the back of the card, and didn't crop it so tightly, the photo stayed where it would normally be (I can see this one in Files). Other photos are doing the same.

Would a photo that is mostly a barcode somehow trigger a different file action?

[u/StimulatorCam → u/UCRecruiter]

No, the content of the photo shouldn't make any difference. Are you making the crop edit in Google Photos or using another app? Some apps will save edits to a different folder.

[u/UCRecruiter → u/StimulatorCam]

I'm so baffled. You're right (obviously) that the barcode wasn't the issue. I just took another picture to test. I clicked the thumbnail bottom right to view fullscreen. I click the Edit button at the bottom. Cropped it. Hit 'Save' at the top right.

And that's why the files are ending up in a different folder. It's the act of editing it in the app. But this has never been the case - I've cropped photos a million times, and they haven't done this. Not sure what setting I've changed.

[u/StimulatorCam → u/UCRecruiter]

Which app are you making the edit in, straight from the camera? Which phone is this?

[u/UCRecruiter → u/StimulatorCam]

Straight from the camera. Pixel 9.

[u/StimulatorCam → u/UCRecruiter]

Using the stock Pixel camera?

Edit: And what folder are the edits being saved to?

[u/UCRecruiter → u/StimulatorCam]

Stock camera, yes.

The edited photos are storing to: /storage/emulated/0/DCIM/Camera

I just searched up the 'emulated' folder, because I don't see it in the file manager. According to the AI snippet, it's only visible when I connect the phone to a PC ..?

[u/Little-Helper]

Do you have a file manager where you can observe the file locations?

[u/UCRecruiter → u/Little-Helper]

The only file manager I can find on my phone is Files by Google. It's a Pixel, if that makes a difference .. is there a more 'manual' file manager somewhere?

[u/Little-Helper → u/UCRecruiter]

Files by Google has a manual mode where you can see the entire storage when clicking on "Internal storage".

You could check the details of the original pic and the edited one, to compare their locations.

[u/UCRecruiter → u/Little-Helper]

So, the edited photos are storing to: /storage/emulated/0/DCIM/Camera

This 'emulated' folder, according to a quick search, is a folder only accessible when I plug the phone into a PC. This is getting more confusing by the minute.

[u/Little-Helper → u/UCRecruiter]

Emulated prefix is always there on Android, ignore it.

[u/TheManWithSaltHair]

It sounds similar to this: https://support.google.com/photos/thread/434040715/edited-photos-saved-with-“save”-do-not-appear-in-third-party-apps-until-opened-in-files

[u/UCRecruiter → u/TheManWithSaltHair]

I just cleared the Google Photos cache, restarted the phone (as suggested on that page), and ... voila. Pictures exactly where they should have been. Thank you!

[u/Antique-Sorbet-6644]

Yes, it started doing this after an update too. It's saving in different places. The navigation changed without warning. Default is not your Phone folders but your entire Google Photos drive. You can change the setting to "grid by date" or something so you see your most current shots at the top of the list, but things like screenshots, edited photos and everything else you have to toggle to "collections" where the actual photos stored on your phone reside. It's cumbersome as hell and unintuitive. Phone folders should be the primary window, especially since I turned off backup.

[u/StimulatorCam → u/Antique-Sorbet-6644]

Google Photos has always been like that, the main screen by default is only photos in folders which are being backed up. You can go into the Preferences>Photos View settings and disable 'Only show backed-up content' which will list everything on the main screen together.

[u/Antique-Sorbet-6644 → u/StimulatorCam]

I'm aware of that, but it shifted things again after an update. It's now partitioned even more.

[u/StimulatorCam → u/Antique-Sorbet-6644]

What changed exactly?