Galaxy Z Flip 3 - Pictures not showing in Photo Gallery

[BrianM11]

I have taken pictures with this phone camera that do not show in the Photo Gallery.  When attaching a picture to a message the missing photos show up in the gallery there?

Any thoughts?

[LongHiker]

@BrianM11 In the Gallery, do you have Pictures selected at the bottom? Or are you inside an Album? 

[BrianM11]

I have "Pictures" selected. 

I think I see where you are going. Under Albums, there are six choices.  "Recent" shows 1218 images and "Camera" shows 1054 images.  Photos I was missing are there in these folders.

Is there a way to have the photos all go to the same place?

[LongHiker]

@BrianM11 "Recent" is not really an album. It is simply images displayed which match some search algorithm that Samsung has defined. If you delete something here, it is gone from your phone. The items in "Recent" actually reside in a different album. They are not duplicates. 

If instead of clicking "Recent" or "Camera", return to the screen where you see all the albums listed. Now at the bottom click on "Pictures". 

[BrianM11]

OK

Not all the pictures are in this folder.

[Samsung_Moderator]

Hi BrianM11, Welcome to the Community, and thank you for reaching out. I understand the concern of not being able to see all of your photos under the "Pictures" in the Gallery. 

The "Pictures" count for your photos should exceed the count for the "Camera" folder, as it contains screenshots, downloads, etc. 

Do you happen to sync the Gallery with Google Photos or OneDrive?

Is it possible you have synced the app with one or the other and allowed them to remove the photos from the phone? I think they would still appear under "Recents".

Please let me know what you find.

[BrianM11]

Hello.   Do not believe I am synced with Google or OneDrive.

In "Recent" album there are 1218 images.  There are 1098 in the "Pictures" folder.

[Samsung_Moderator]

Thanks for the information. It does sound like some of them may have been removed.

Open the Gallery, tap the menu, and open Settings. Is the "Sync with OneDrive" toggled on?

To see if the Gallery is syncing with Google, follow these steps:

Go to Phone Settings

Select Accounts and backup

Tap Back up data under Google Drive

Under Backup details>Photos & videos it would show "Synced with Google Photos"

Another instance that may remove the photos from the Gallery could be if you use the Secure Folder?

Have you tried testing the Gallery app with the phone in Safe Mode? https://www.samsung.com/us/support/answer/ANS00062983/ (FYI, it does remove your theme, so you would need to add it back in the settings once you restart the phone.)

[BrianM11]

Sync with OneDrive is not on.

Not synced with Google.

In Safe Mode same number of images show in Gallery.

[Samsung_Moderator]

Thank you for confirming. Here are some additional steps you can try: https://www.samsung.com/us/support/troubleshoot/TSG10001341/

Also, if you haven't already, try clearing the app cache and restarting the phone. https://www.samsung.com/us/support/answer/ANS00077611/

If you can be sure you back up everything, even if just not visible in Gallery itself, you can try a factory reset: https://www.samsung.com/us/support/answer/ANS00062029/
If that doesn't help, go ahead and submit an error report via Samsung Members: https://www.samsung.com/ae/support/mobile-devices/raising-an-error-report-via-samsung-members-app/