Question Seperate save folder stock camera app - Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra

First of all, sorry if this question has already been asked before. I've searched and searched but unfortunately, couldn't find a solution.
I'm okay with Google Photos automatically backing up my camera roll. But there's only an option to either turn it on, or off for the DCIM folder. I shoot a lot of video's which take up a lot of space in the cloud. I'd rather have videos automatically save in a folder other than 'DCIM' (which automatically uploads to Google Photos).
Haven't found a way to change the output folder of the stock camera app when taking videos to anything else, other than moving the files manually to another folder. Is there an easier/built-in way on the S21 Ultra? An automated workaround would suffice too ofcourse.

Leave the DCIM folder alone. Modifying the DCIM folder in any way will come back to bite you.
Simply copy out the files. Delete the copies in the DCIM folder after the copy is verified if you want. I use my SD card to store the pics. Every month or so I do what is described above.
I then redundantly backup the SD card. Don't forget your backups... trust nothing.

Related

[Q] Location of camera thumbnails

Somehow I messed up setting up my wife's new Moto X. In the past I had some tasker tasks to transfer all the photos off our phones and onto our NAS every night. In setting up the task on her new phone I deleted a slew of pictures. I know the original photos are gone and I'll face the music on that one. However, if I go to camera and swipe to the left I can scroll through all the photos. I can't email or share any because the file is gone, but if I can see the photos there must be a low res image someplace on the phone still. Anyone know how to access these and possibly get me out of the doghouse? They're not in the DCIM folder at all. I poked around in the Android/Data folder a bit, but did not find them.
On the same note, is there a way to clean these out over time? Seems to me if I have a thumbnail of every photo ever taken it would eventually fill up the storage.
Thanks
Get an app like astro file manager, or root Explorer and go to storage then DCIM and your thumbnail pics should be there.
Sent from my XT1097 using XDA Free mobile app
clskier said:
Somehow I messed up setting up my wife's new Moto X. In the past I had some tasker tasks to transfer all the photos off our phones and onto our NAS every night. In setting up the task on her new phone I deleted a slew of pictures. I know the original photos are gone and I'll face the music on that one. However, if I go to camera and swipe to the left I can scroll through all the photos. I can't email or share any because the file is gone, but if I can see the photos there must be a low res image someplace on the phone still. Anyone know how to access these and possibly get me out of the doghouse? They're not in the DCIM folder at all. I poked around in the Android/Data folder a bit, but did not find them.
On the same note, is there a way to clean these out over time? Seems to me if I have a thumbnail of every photo ever taken it would eventually fill up the storage.
Thanks
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Click to collapse
Those are probably all cached. As for recovering them, I'm sure you can find them in the cache -- I don't know where they'd be saved (I believe there is a /cache partition but then there's also the possibility that the gallery caches those previews somewhere in /data/). It may be easier to to screen shot the ones you want.
EDIT: see above post - that's probably what you want
As for the cache growing, I'd imaging that the gallery app has some sort of maintenance. But there is always the option of using apps (I have SD Maid, personally) and/or periodically clearing the cache partition via a custom recovery
Thanks all. This was good info also. I ended up finding the files on my NAS which leads me to a whole other question which I will post seperately from this as it only related by symptoms.

SD card from another Samsung device in note 8

I have an SD card that was being used in a Galaxy tab s2 , it contains all my past images and stuff. When I put it inside my Note 8, Google is now backing up all the data in the camera dcim sd card folder again. Is this normal behavior everytime moving a SD card from one device to another?
Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
It is for google... Regardless whether its been backed up before, this particular phone hasn't. You can effectively turn off google drive backup, fill your phone with photo's and video's and then turn it back on and google drive will do as it always does, back it up...
Hope you are on WIFI or have an unlimited plan though as it could get quite expensive if there's a lot there...
I would rename folder from DCIM to anything else, like TAB2pics for example and let the camera create new DCIM folder and start fresh. I don't think Google will back up non DCIM pic folders. I'm not Google expert to help you with fixing what's already done outside of manually deleting them, but make sure you don't delete things you want to keep.
Just wondered why it would backup the SD card dcim folder again only because I'd put it in a new device.
I normally have just the camera folder and or download folder set to backup on Google photos. Basically it's wasn't backing up or synching anything ( as there was none ) from the internal storage of the phone.
Was doing thousands of pics backups and synching once I'd put my old 256gb Samsung SD card into the N8.
Yes, this was a time where I actually set the phone intentionally to keep WiFi ON when asleep LOL. Also never have it backup on cellular , I'm on true unlimited plan but I value my battery life as well, hence my global Google backup is generally to occur when on WiFi, but I'm not so sure it was backing up and synching with me having turned WiFi off during sleep. A bit a silly move , as in essence it'll being only doing this when two criteria is met , WiFi on and not sleeping.
I'm thinking once it eventually finishes it's backup then , it will be it until the next time I move SD card into my future device.
Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
After thinking about it, actually I'm not sure how exactly google sync works: if you rename your old DCIM directory, would old pictures still stay on your google account, would they be updated back to new DCIM directory, or would they be sync with new DCIM folder and old pictures erased? I have 3 devices linked to my Google account and it become so confusing, that I use Google for current pics only, and every few months I do full back up to my laptops and SD card, erase everything from Google and phone (and start fresh), but I have thousands of pictures and videos, so everything wouldn't fit on my Google account anyway.

Screenshot location & Google Photos backup

Hey everyone
I have had some problems with regarding screenshots on my Note 8.
1. Screenshots are by default stored at a folder named DCIM/Screenshots.
can this, by any way, be changed? I couldn't find any normal way throughout the settings. My device is rooted with TWRP if that helps...
2. Google Photos automatically backs up all images in the DCIM folder and subfolders.
I like the auto backup thing. It's fine by me. But I don't like the fact that it backs up my screenshots. both for Clutter reasons and privacy reasons.
While you can go ahead and pick folders to be backed up by the app IN ADDITION to the DCIM folder, I can't make the app to not include the DCIM/Screenshots in the backup.
A solution to any of the issues will help.
If I can get my screenshots to be saved to a different folder - that's great. If I can make the Google Photos app to not include the "DCIM/Screenshots" folder in the auto upload - that would be even better.
Thank you for your help
Have a great day.
Actually - Seeing now:
Besides Screenshots folder in the "DCIM" folder, there's also a few more folders containing images other than pictures I took with my camera. Images which I have no interest in backing up.
Therefore I think the main problem is the fact that the Google Photos app is by default uploading the entire DCIM folder and not letting users decide if they want all subfolders included.
thanks...

Question How to change camera photos save location

Hi there, is there any way to change camera photos save location. Default is external storage/DCIM/camera. I use my NAS cloud to back up photos but it needs photos exacly in DCIM folder to backing up.
Dizzyrul3z said:
Hi there, is there any way to change camera photos save location. Default is external storage/DCIM/camera. I use my NAS cloud to back up photos but it needs photos exacly in DCIM folder to backing up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey.
Not a direct solution as such, but more a possible workaround.
Could try looking into such apps as these which will automatically move the files to the chosen folder:
Auto Move for Android Puts Your Files Exactly Where You Want Them
While I consider myself to be a pretty organized guy, there are often times where I just can't find a file I put on my phone. Most of the time, when I download a file it goes automatically into my Download folder, but when I use a third-party to download other files, like torrents, they could...
htc-one.gadgethacks.com
Android App to automatically MOVE files from folders on one device to a folder on another device when connected to Wifi?
I have one Android device (devA) I take with me and another Android device I always leave at home (devB). Whenever I get home and devA connects to my Wifi, I need all files in specific folder(s) on...
softwarerecs.stackexchange.com

A lot of photos disappeared, nothing is working to recover it

Hi, yesterday while looking at my gallery I noticed that a lot of photos are missing, for example, my Italy trip photos and videos are gone, not all of them though, there are some left, but videos are all gone. I didn't delete or move them, didn't touch them at all, it just disappeared. I've tried looking at my Onedrive, Google drive backups, but they are all showing current photos, that I can already see. I've also tried cleaning gallery and media storage data in settings or deleting .nomedia files (which cant be actually deleted), but no results. Booting on safe mode, using different recovery software also shows same photos that I already see on my phone. Tried to get help from Samsung Support, sadly they are as competent as I am, all the suggestions were already known. They did suggest to factory reset my phone while backuping everything using smart switch since there might be some malfunction and doing so all the supposedly hidden photos gonna be released. Not really trusting it though, because in backup I can clearly see that the photos that are being backed up are the photos I can already see, and no hidden files are being backed up. I've also restarted my phone like 6-7 times in different circumstances and noticed that everytime my phone boots it loads up 196 pictures in my camera roll, and then after some time the other part of it gets load up. So my question here today is: Is there anything I haven't tried and is it possible to recover the hidden/disappeared photos?
P.s. the photos that I'm concerned about is in my internal storage not in SD card.
After you lose data it's many times to late to do anything. Why aren't you using the SD card as a data drive to at least backup your critical data?
That in turn should be backed up redundantly to at least 2 hdds that are physically and electronically isolated from each other and the PC. Consider this a wake up call...
This isn't looking good. Backed up what's left, now. Try in safe mode.
It may be malware, in any case it sounds like it's factory reset time if you can't ID the root cause.
If you added any downloaded images* to the folders losing data it may be a malware jpeg, if so this jpeg must be deleted or it will continue to destroy and mutilated files in the folder it occupies. I've seen ones that do this in Android. Think. What was done, installed or downloaded?
*All downloaded jpegs should be kept in the download folder until vetted. This will help limit the damage hopefully to just the loose files in there. At least open the jpeg there and look for abnormal behaviors in that folder because you add that jpeg to your database! Antivirus may not detect these little buggers... WYSIWYG
blackhawk said:
After you lose data it's many times to late to do anything. Why aren't you using the SD card as a data drive to at least backup your critical data?
That in turn should be backed up redundantly to at least 2 hdds that are physically and electronically isolated from each other and the PC. Consider this a wake up call...
This isn't looking good. Backed up what's left, now. Try in safe mode.
It may be malware, in any case it sounds like it's factory reset time if you can't ID the root cause.
If you added any downloaded images* to the folders losing data it may be a malware jpeg, if so this jpeg must be deleted or it will continue to destroy and mutilated files in the folder it occupies. I've seen ones that do this in Android. Think. What was done, installed or downloaded?
*All downloaded jpegs should be kept in the download folder until vetted. This will help limit the damage hopefully to just the loose files in there. At least open the jpeg there and look for abnormal behaviors in that folder because you add that jpeg to your database! Antivirus may not detect these little buggers... WYSIWYG
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay first of all, One drive should be responsible for backing up my data, thats why its there, no? I do understand that data back up need to be taken more responsibly, but again why would I keep everything backed up from my phone since everything in there is just basic daily use things, nothing that much of importance, except of course memory photos in my camera roll (which again SHOULD be backed up in my one drive). Second, if I were that careless as an IT student to download malware into my device, why would I move it to my camera roll folder ? (thats the only folder that has photos and videos missing). Third, I did factory reset my phone with a back up from Smart Switch as suggested from so called Technical Support specialist from Samsung, sadly the results are same (All photos I had before factory reset are there, no actual recovery has been made).
Sorry if I might sound rude, but I'm really frustrated. Samsung really let me down big time for the first time in 12 years of using their products.
I feel your pain as I lost an irreplaceable database myself at one point that was 30 years old. It sucks.
The only backup I trust and use is copy/paste/verify for size and if readable.
SmartSwitch can fail you miserably, never use it for critical data... same with Google junk.
In unencrpted hdds I trust.
Maybe your Google account was hacked... again always suspect malware, viruses, rootkits if unexplained behaviors are observed.
If you had a previous SmartSwitch backup saved that probably would have worked. At the time what the Samsung rep told you in lieu of the former was your best shot probably. The data was already lost unless its backed somewhere you overlooked or forgot.
It's also possible you could have a hardware failure in progress, keep a close eye on the device.
The reason I back up they way I do is from hard lessons learned going back to XP Pro and other OS's. Also never clone (copy/paste only) or encrypt data drives. Always use a good SD card that's V30 rated like a Sandisk Extreme. All critical data goes here, and everything you need to do a full reload including installable app copies. App that allow settings to be saved like Poweramp, contacts all go on the data drive as do vid and music libraries. ColorNote will save it's backup directly to the SD card, it's a very useful that can used for bookmarks. Don't forget all passwords as well.
Keep the DCIM and download folders on internal memory. Only these and installed apps go on internal memory. Periodically backup the DCIM files to the SD card but DO NOT use the phrase dcim in the backup copy folder name... and then redundantly back up the SD card periodically. Best to time stagger these backup between 2 or more hdds. Develop a plan, put some thought into it. You have all the hardware you need for a robust dual drive device if you use it!
I have 2 N10+'s and this is how I run them. Zero issues.
@blackhawk. Agree... Never trust Google Photos. Somehow I also lost a lot of my photos. Mostly the ones that I shared (as file). Was that because I deleted them directly using Root Explorer? No. Because I downloaded them to Restored folder and deleted through Explorer? No. Because I deleted them from Sent folder of WhatsApp? No... I tried each one of these and couldn't consistently delete the items from Google photos... But how? Why? Just don't trust the application.
nugroho2 said:
@blackhawk. Agree... Never trust Google Photos. Somehow I also lost a lot of my photos. Mostly the ones that I shared (as file). Was that because I deleted them directly using Root Explorer? No. Because I downloaded them to Restored folder and deleted through Explorer? No. Because I deleted them from Sent folder of WhatsApp? No... I tried each one of these and couldn't consistently delete the items from Google photos... But how? Why? Just don't trust the application.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Always redundantly backup critical data and verify it's size is correct, it's readable and complete. Copy/paste only, never clone media files ie music.
A drop, malware, hardware failure, a near lightning strike, a boot loop, a user mistake etc can destroy data instantly. Expect it will happen because eventually it probably will. No such thing as overkill with data backup. Multiple copies in different locations that are time staggered and not connected to a PC preferably on hdd. An earth grounded safe or metal box is ideal to store them in at 50-70F.
Great advice! I see these posts about lost data, and people don't realize, you have to backup this data somewhere. The FIRST step is something like Google Photos or Amazon even. But these are not enough (it's a start, at least).
General recommendation is a 3-2-1 backup, as detailed here: https://www.backblaze.com/blog/the-3-2-1-backup-strategy/
Bottom line, if it's something you don't want to lose, then have a REAL backup beyond just GPhotos or similar.
Especially in today's world of cellphones and flash-drives. Both are easily lost or damaged. At least in the old days you can sometimes recover data from spinny drives (I did a LOT of this work for people, using specialized software)... but flash drives don't work the same, and they likely fail to read completely, leaving ALL the data gone in a flash (pun intended).
Backup, BACKUP, BACKUP!!!
EDIT: Also note, if you use something like Gphotos, you can very-easily download ALL the photos from there. This makes it rather easy to backup those files by simply copying that ZIPped file as necessary. You'll have to do this manually every so often, but it's quite easy to do.
This same thing just happened to me. All of my folders including my camera pics were deleted, except my downloaded folders. All the photos are missing from my backups, all trash bins are empty, and Samsung Customer Service suggested that I do everything I had already done. I thought I'd be fancy and get the ZFold 4, which doesn't have an option to use an SD Card. I even downloaded a recovery program to my laptop and it couldn't find any photos. I'm currently waiting on an adaptor, so I can download photos from my last SD card in my previous phone. I've never been more angrier with a phone than I am right now.

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