What happened to all my Gallery photos?

[Atlantic2Pacific]

I agreed to sync Gallery with MS OneDrive on my new phone a few days ago (kept getting notifications to do that), paid for their extra storage plan, but just about all my photos are missing, not loaded. (I also wanted to transfer all these photos to Google Drive.) What do I have to do?

Note: Before this, my old phone (Galaxy J7 Star) stopped working & I had to immediately get a new phone at a T-Mobile store, but due to their very low stock I ended up with a Galaxy Note20. To complicate matters, wifi was down all day at that store & info on Samsung devices can only be transferred over wifi by them (was down in entire town) so nothing was transferred from the old phone to the new but I had to start using the phone. I still have to get back to that store to transfer data (delayed due to illness and obligations).

I'm not that savvy on all this and rely on the store personnel to do what needs to be done for that. Will my photos still be transferred from my old phone's Gallery (they appear to still be on there on the old phone) to the new phone when I'm able to return to that store to have it done using their wifi?

Looking for answers while trying not to panic... Thank you.

[Bs2209]

Smart Switch can be done with a cable what is the old phone and you said a note 20 of new phone you need a USB C cable to USB a and a USB a adapter to micro USB you may be able to find a USB C to USB C cable with a USB C to micro USB adapter

[Atlantic2Pacific]

So I think you're saying that I can use that particular cable to transfer data using Smart Switch from the old phone which had a card removed (Sim?) to activate the new phone and don't need Wifi. Thanks!

[Atlantic2Pacific]

Also just remembered that I think I read somewhere that if the data isn't transferred using Smart Switch at the time the new phone is set up, your past text messages and maybe something else too are lost for good. (I had to start using the new phone right away for necessary calls, etc.) Do you know if that's true and if so, is there anyway to get that data transferred after setting up the new phone?

[Bs2209]

That is totally not true the text messages are saved in the device storage so as long as the device hasn't been wiped you should be able to get that past information

[Atlantic2Pacific]

I haven't wiped anything from the old device so that's a relief, thanks@

[Bs2209]

I'm an absolute tech nerd so I actually have one it just depends on if you can find one you can always buy one online worst case scenario USB C to micro USB adapter if you want to buy one online isn't going to cost you too much though maybe 5-10 bucks on Amazon and you'll probably get three of them they don't seem to understand how to sell stuff individually when they are that small

[Bs2209 · Accepted solution]

Yeah I know you don't need the SIM card in both phones and you don't need Wi-Fi you just need say a USB C cable would be best to USB C and USB C to micro USB adapter

[Zapwonder]

Once you have the correct USB C and or needed adapter, smart switch with need to be installed on both phones, for the transfer.

[maxnuckles]

Yeah you can use a Smart Switch to transfer it but their new Microsoft cloud wants to charge you try using phone carrier cloud