topic Re: Most annoying thing 1+ yr after switch from iPhone to S25+ in Galaxy S25

Most annoying thing 1+ yr after switch from iPhone to S25+

Blu-Ray — Wed, 18 Mar 2026 13:28:34 GMT

Photos... It's the most annoying thing now. I have worked through all the other issues and bugs and photos is my number one gripe now.

I have cleared defaults. I have turned off the setting for gallery to be used, but it is still used. I want to use Google Photos so I can see all my photos. I do not have a Samsung tablet and I save photos and other things to it. Unlike with Apple iPad and iPhone, the photos are not there even though I saved them to Google photos.

Samsung needs to come up with a way to set a default photos app instead of their gallery. I'm about to switch to a Pixel at this rate because this is so annoying.

The only way to work around this is if I go into Google photos download the photo to the phone. This... This is a major pain point that most iPhone users will run into.

I saved it to Google photos over there... Why can't I see it in my gallery on my phone? I see all my Samsung photos in Google Photos, why not the other way?

I've talked to a few people that switched and then switched right back to iPhone. Lady at my endodontist, my dental cleaning to tech, and the nurse practitioner at my doctor's office. They all say that they switched from and switched back to iPhone almost immediately not only because of all the hoops and issues they ran into that you have to go through, but also the fact they had so many issues with figuring out how to handle photos. Same problem too! Photos in the Google photos app but can't see them in the gallery.

I've overcome all the other annoyances and determined some I'm just going to have to live with the limitations. It's baffling to me how anyone can say Android is better than iOS in this regards.

Samsung needs to allow us to set Google Photos to default... PERIOD. All apps pull from there. They can keep their cruddy gallery app for use with the cruddy camera. But have it to where we can make it that all apps call on the Google Photos app instead of the Gallery to get our photos.

Before anyone goes "your settings aren't correct" I've tried them all. I've gone in to Google Photos, gallery, and phone settings and checked all them. Photo management is a hot mess on Samsung they need to fix. They're doing away with the Samsung messages app. IMO they should do away with their Gallery app while they're at it.

Re: Most annoying thing 1+ yr after switch from iPhone to S25+

LongHiker — Wed, 18 Mar 2026 14:08:26 GMT

@Blu-Ray Sorry that you are having this issue. Gallery shows all photos currently on your device OR on your OneDrive photo backup (if you have that enabled).

Google Photos only shows the photos which have been saved to Google Photos. Those may or may not be on your device.

Re: Most annoying thing 1+ yr after switch from iPhone to S25+

SamsungMod — Wed, 18 Mar 2026 15:34:04 GMT

Thank you for sharing this concern with us and shining a light on this specific issue. I understand you want to use Google Photos as the default photo storage method. As you know, we can't change the default photo storage, but we may be able to link them in other ways. You mentioned, but did you try syncing your Gallery to Google Photos? Follow the steps below.

> Open the Google Photos app.
> Tap your profile icon in the top right.
> Select Photos settings > Backup.
> Toggle Backup to On.

I'm not 100% sure this will work for your device, but Google has introduced a feature that allows some device gallery apps to better integrate with Google Photos. Let us know if you still need help.

Re: Most annoying thing 1+ yr after switch from iPhone to S25+

Joel59 — Thu, 19 Mar 2026 22:45:55 GMT

Put the photos in gallery..they will load in to Google photo.....you can delete the picture from the gallery but it will stay in google.
Its made that way so you can free up room on your phone but keep all your pictures on Google. (Till deleted in Google)