Have you taken a lot of photos or downloaded a number of images from the web, but do not know where they are stored on your smartphone? Check out our article. In it, we will analyze where your photos are located in the internal memory of the device and on the external drive.
Modern smart phones store a large number of images. These are photos, pictures downloaded from the Internet, social networks and instant messengers, sketches, etc. To avoid cluttering up the device memory, it is recommended to know where photos are stored on Android. This will allow you to access them and, if necessary, delete unnecessary files, copy, move (for example, to a PC or a MicroSD card ) or send to other users.
In this article, we will analyze where photos are saved on Android, as well as where other images are placed, for example, after downloading from the Internet or downloaded from other sources.
Where are photos stored on Android
Photos on Android are stored by default in the folder DCIM ( Digital Camera Images, which translates to "Images from a digital camera" ). It is located at the root of the internal memory or external storage, depending on where the images are being sent. This location is standard for all digital cameras and smartphones equipped with a camera.
If you want to view photos through the built-in explorer OS Android, the path to them is as follows: /internal memory/DCIM/Camera or /CD card ( memory card )/DCIM/Camera. The path looks similar in some file managers, for example, in Cx Explorer or in Mi Explorer.
In other file managers, the path to the folder in the internal memory may look like: /storage/emmc/DCIM/Camera or /storage/emulated/DCIM/Camera. If this is an external drive, then you can find photos as follows: /storage/sdcard/DCIM/Camera.
Photos taken with the main camera are stored in the Camera folder. But besides her, in DCIM, there may be other folders, guess the purpose and content of which you can by their name:
- Video - video captured by the user;
- Selfie - Photos taken by the front camera;
- Panorama - images taken using the "Panorama" mode;
- Screenshots - screenshots made by the owner of the gadget.
The presence and number of folders depends on the brand of the smartphone, the built-in shell from the manufacturer and version of Android. In addition, in DCIM there may be folders of applications that save images to the phone. These are programs for processing photos, creating animations, etc. Typically, such folders are named as the application to which relate.
In the names of the folders in DCIM, there may be numbers from 100 to 999. The default photos are displayed in a order in which They were created. In their name, as a rule, the exact time and date of shooting is encrypted.
What is thumbnails of images and where they are stored
After saving the phone, each image gets a sketch or thumbnail. They are used to speed up the photo download when navigating or viewing. Thumbnails are stored in the folder ".thumbnails", which is usually located in Pictures, but sometimes occurs in other sections, for example, in DCIM.
By default, the folder ".thumbnails" is hidden and for its viewing it will be necessary to enable the display of hidden files in the built-in conductor Android or in the file manager.
The data from ".thumbnails" occupy a sufficiently large amount of memory, so they are recommended to be periodically removed. Consider how to do this on the example of the conductor Files from Google, which today is often preinstalled by default on the smartphone. Instructions:
Step 1. Open Files and press the button in the form of three horizontal strips to call the menu.
Step 2. Select "Settings".
Step 3. in front of the string "Show hidden files" Move the switch to the right.
Step 4. Open the internal storage device of the smartphone and go to " Pictures".
Step 5. Find a hidden folder ". Thumbnails " and go to it.
Step 6. In the menu of the buttons in the form of three points in the upper right corner, select "Allocate everything".
Step 7. Re-press the button in the form of three points and select " Delete forever ". This will avoid moving files to the basket, where they are stored for 30 days to be restored, and only then erased. You can also remove them from there manually.
Delete files will begin. The duration of the process depends on their quantity and size. Cleaning ". Thumbnails " It is recommended to perform regularly to avoid the choke of the internal gadget drive. This process can also be performed using utilities for cleaning the memory of the smartphone, for example, CCleaner.
Where pictures from social networks, messengers and the Internet are stored
images from social networks and messengers, for example, Vaiber or WhatsApp is saved in the device's memory in folders under their own name.
All photos and other pictures obtained from third-party users in Telegrams are stored at the root of internal memory. To access them, find the folder Telegram, and in it - Telegram Images. If you want to see the photo taken by the smartphone camera through the messenger interface, the path will be different: internal memory / Pictures / Telegram.
Images from WhapsApp are stored at root along the way: Internal memory / WhatsApp / Media / Whatsapp Images. However, the main folder may be both folder Android in the root. In this case, you need to look for a photo at the following address: Internal memory / Android / Media / Com. WhatsApp / WhatsApp / Media / Whatsapp Images. Here are both images obtained from other users and made by the camera through the interface of the messenger.
Photos taken on the camera in Viber on Android, as well as images loaded from others Chats are stored on the way: Interior memory / Pictures / Viber. By a similar path: Internal memory / Pictures / Instagram contain data from a popular social network Instagram.
Images downloaded from VKontakte are stored in the folder download, where they are together with other downloaded files. For a more convenient search, select in the settings "Sort" and set the value "Newest first".
If you want to see pictures or photos downloaded from Odnoklassniki, you can find them by opening the path: Internal memory/Pictures/Odnoklassniki.
Images downloaded from the Internet are sent to the Download folder by default. However, in the browser settings, you can change the folder to another one of your choice.
Storing images in the cloud
provided that you did not turn off autoload. This is a handy feature as it allows you to access pictures from other gadgets or make it easier to transfer data when moving from one device to another. Also through this service you can quickly share images with friends and family.
To make sure auto upload is enabled, follow these steps:
Step 1. Open the Google Photos app.
Step 2. Press the button with your initials in the upper right corner to call up the menu.
Step 3. In the Startup field, press Enable.
Step 4. Select whether files should be stored in original or compressed. In the second case, memory is saved, but the image resolution is reduced. Press OK to confirm.
You can disable autoload in the same way.
Conclusion
In smartphones with Android OS, photos taken with the built-in camera are stored in the folder DCIM in the internal memory of the gadget or on an external storage device. If you have the Google Photos app and have auto-sync turned on, you will find copies of your images in the cloud storage where you can easily access them from another device or simply share them with your family or friends.
Images downloaded from social networks, instant messengers or from the Internet are located in the folders Download, Pictures or simply in the root of the phone's memory in a folder with the name of the application. You can access them through the built-in explorer, but it is more convenient to use the file manager.
