KEY NOTES: no SIM card - long story. Took a Galaxy Halo to use at an event for pics/vids because it has a high-capacity Micro SD card inserted. I ended up needing to use it because my primary phone ran out of space. While taking my images/vids I would check to see that the images were capturing in the Camera app, through the preview/review function. I was not checking to see if they were uploading to Gallery. My Camera app is supposed to save my images to the MicroSD card.
I had my WiFi on but had not selected a signal. While riding home, I went to review the images and noticed that the preview in Camera "disappeared" and was no longer visible. When I went to check Gallery - nowhere to be found. Not initially in Google, at least when I looked through my phone. Went all over the internet to find a solution believing that my images/vids were not "lost" but somehow "misplaced." Best answer I could find was that a recent update and the mention of "Smart Switch" might have caused a sudden redirect of my images, despite the Camera being set to save to the MicroSD (which the images were not found on either). After several hours of panic and coming to the depressed resolution that I may have lost the images forever, I was able to find the images in my Google Photos account, by connecting the phone to my laptop, and eventually finding the folder "Recently added." While I breathed a sigh of relief....
1) How did that happen, especially since I turned off my back up and the Camera is supposed to save to the SD card?
2) Because my WiFi was turned on, but not connected to a signal, if it briefly connected during the drive home, is that was caused the migration of the images from the Camera app to my Google account?
3) Does not having a WiFi connection mess with the Camera downloads to external storage and populating the images in Gallery?
It was so weird and terrifying, but I'm glad I found my images. Hopefully my story helps someone else.
