When I was transferring photos from my Samsung S21 5G while connected to my desktop, I accidently deleted my camera folder, located under Internal Storage>DCIM. I thought I had the photos on the phone highlighted yet unfortunately the camera folder was highlighted when I pushed the delete button.
I searched online and everywhere I saw that I am supposed to have a recycle bin, yet I do not. I have a trash folder, yet the camera folder is not in there. I looked in Gallery, I looked in My Files and the camea folder is nowhere to be found.
Does anyone have any positive suggestions or answers? Thank you.
Interesting, because until recently I steadfastly refused to open Google photos at all because I preferred the Gallery app. I assumed the sync was on by default when one signed into their Google account. It is possible, that 20+ years ago, with my first smartphone, I was given the option to backup to Google and turned that setting on and it just carried over from phone to phone. Before I had a Samsung device, I had many others and always used Google backup to restore all my apps and settings to a new phone. As a matter of fact, I distinctly remember the restoration happening as soon as I signed into my Google account; so it is possible the photo backup was enabled with each restoration.
@realaud@LongHiker All I can contribute to this latest conversation is that when I went to look for the Google Photo backup on m y phone it was enable and I never enabled it. So, I was able to go to Google Photos online and lo and behold there are all my photos that were on my phone. However, I have many folders on my phone, and it was only the Camera folder was accidently deleted, Google Photos online does not arrange the photos by folder so I have to sort through many photos to try and remember the ones that were in the Camera folder.
Lastly, thank you all for your assistance with my issue. I really has been a great help to know that my photos are being backed up and where to find them.
The camera folder is really just a catchall folder for photos you haven't otherwise organized into albums. In the DCIM folder, any album you create in Gallery becomes a sub folder of its own. So, it may be helpful to only look for photos that you did not categorize into an album. Could be tedious if you have hundreds of uncategorized photos, but at least you'll have your photos.
Google just backs up the photos that are in Gallery, regardless of album/folder structure. Google Photos does not create/replicate albums unless you go into the website/app and arrange them as such. All the photos in Google photos are from the DCIM folder and it's subfolders (albums), including the "camera" folder. As I and others have said, the camera folder itself will recreate on your phone with the first new photo you take. To download photos from Google photos, you would need to follow the instructions in the settings. If you want to download them en masse, I believe it creates a zip file. You would have to do this from the website on a computer, as the Google photos app does not have a setting to do this.
Are you trying to recover the photos that were in the folder after you transferred them to your PC? Are the photos on your PC? If so, are you just trying to get the folder back for when you take new photos? If that's the case, not to worry. The folder will either recreate itself when you take a new photo, or you can just manually create the folder. If you deleted the folder before they were transferred to your PC, @LongHiker is correct that your photos should be in Google photos and/or OneDrive if you have OneDrive and were syncing/backing up to it. Google photo backup is on by default unless you specifically disabled it.
I am trying to get back the photos that were in the 'camera' folder. I did not transfer them to the PC. Google backup was/is enabled and I am there, yet I do not see the 'camera' folder. Would that be there or just all the individual photos? Thanks
I need more information on this please. Account tab under settings? Google backup was/is enabled and I am there, yet I do not see the 'camera' folder. Would that be there or just all the individual photos? Thanks
