Are your photos disappeared from your Samsung Galaxy S22? 

There is an ongoing issue on the Samsung Galaxy S22 smartphones, and the photos/Albums are getting disappeared from the Gallery app (we are talking about the Samsung gallery app here). 

For some users, their photos were missing from the gallery after doing a major software update. Also, there are a number of threads on the Samsung community that says some photos got disappear without even users doing anything.

If this is the problem you are having right now, you are in the right place. This guide has all the solutions to regain your disappeared photos on your Galaxy S22. 

Editor’s note: We created these instructions using a Samsung Galaxy S22 running Android 12. Depending on your device’s software version, some steps and menu positions may look slightly different.

Why are photos missing on your Samsung S22?

If you wonder why the photos (JPG/PNG), Albums are disappeared from your Galaxy S22, let us give you a brief explanation.

According to a lot of users, this problem is more prominent for devices that have installed a software update recently. So if you have updated your device and then this problem has occurred, the update should be the issue here.

But that doesn’t mean the update has removed all the photos from your smartphone. Most of the time, the disappearing images actually exist on the device. It is just the images are not showing in the gallery. 

If you have not updated your device nor installed a third-party app like an optimizing app, gallery app, etc, your device’s or the gallery app’s cached data should be the cause of this issue.

However, if you have not used any optimizing app and removed some of the files from your device, you can retrieve the missing photos right into your gallery again. So don’t worry. Follow the solutions we have given below and do as we have instructed.

How to get back disappeared photos from the gallery on Samsugn Galaxy S22

First, we will start with the gallery app. Check the gallery app after doing each solution. If you got the problem fixed, there is no need to do the other fixes mentioned here.

Fix 01 – Clear the cache of the Gallery app

Gallery app uses cached data to speed up image scanning and displaying. So what you see in the gallery is based on its cache. If the cache is corrupted, this can cause incorrect displaying of images even though the images exist on the device.

This can be fixed by clearing the cache, and it is easy to do. Just follow the steps below (clearing the cache won’t affect any of your personal data);

1. Open Settings
2. Tap on Apps
3. Find the Gallery app and tap on it
4. Go to the Storage section
5. Tap on the Clear cache button

After you have cleared the cache, open the Gallery app and see if you can see the disappeared images.

Fix 02 – Configure file manager

Maybe the images are hidden (if there is a .nomedia file, the gallery won’t scan that folder for images), and that is why you can’t see them in the gallery app. To fix this, you have to turn on hidden files under the file manager to display hidden images. 

Here is how you can do that;

1. Open the file manager app
2. Tap on the three dots at the top right corner, and select Settings
3. Under settings, turn on the toggle next to “Show hidden system files”

Now go back and open the gallery. 

Fix 03 – Check hidden albums

On the latest update, there is a way to hide albums in the gallery. So if the album consist of your disappeared images are hidden, you can retrieve it back by following these steps;

1. Open Gallery
2. Tap on three dots at the top right corner and then select hide or unhide albums

1. See if any albums are hidden and tap on the toggle next to it to unhide it

Fix 04 – Check the Recycle bin

If the images on your Gallery have been deleted by mistake, then probably the missing images should be in the recycle bin. You can easily restore them by going to the recycle bin section in the gallery app.

To retrieve images from the recycle bin, you can follow these steps;

1. Open the Gallery app
2. Tap on the menu icon at the bottom right corner. Then select Recycle bin
3. See if the disappeared images are there
4. Select the images you want to get back and tap on the restore button

Fix 05 – Check the images inside the file manager

If you don’t know, the gallery app cannot scan some folders and images that are located deep inside a folder (think about a folder inside a folder).

So if this is the case (maybe you have moved the images to a different folder or an app has caused this), you have to check the file manager and locate the images first. Then you can move those image files to a new folder inside the “DCIM” folder and let the gallery of your Galaxy S22 scan the images.

Fix 06 – Use a third-party gallery app

You can still not see images in the default gallery app, you can use a third-party app and see if that app is able to show the disappeared images.

Google photos are the best gallery app that we can recommend since it is developed by Google. For privacy reasons, we recommend using authorized gallery apps for this.

Go to the Play Store and download Google photos. Then open the app and see if the missing images are there.

Maybe you have used the free-up space option

Are you sure you have not used any file optimization or free-up space option on your Galaxy S22? 

If you cannot see the images inside the gallery after doing all the above solutions, then this may be the reason why the images have disappeared and been deleted from your device.

You can take your device to a support center and check if you can restore the images. If you have set up a sync or backup schedule, you might be able to get the images back from the respective services (Google Drive, Samsung Cloud, One drive, etc.)