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8 Fixes for Samsung Gallery App Not Showing Photos on Galaxy Phones

by Pankil Shah

With the Samsung Gallery app on your Galaxy phone, you can easily view, manage, and back up your photos and videos. It’s packed with cool and exciting features that make it a joy to use. However, all these features may become useless if the Samsung Gallery app fails to display any photos or videos on your Galaxy phone. If you’re experiencing the same, this guide contains some effective troubleshooting tips that’ll help.

1. Unhide Albums in the Gallery App

The Samsung Gallery app gives you the option to hide specific albums on your phone. Hence, the first thing you should do is verify that you haven’t inadvertently hidden any albums on your device. Here’s how:

1. Open the Gallery app on your phone and navigate to the Albums tab. Tap the kebab menu (three dots) in the top right corner and tap on Select albums to show

Unhide Albums in Gallery App on Samsung Phone

2. Tick the albums you want to show and tap on Done

Unhide Albums in the Gallery App on Samsung Phone

2. Check App Permissions

A lack of relevant permissions could prevent the Gallery app from displaying any photos and videos. You need to ensure that the Gallery app has the necessary permission to access media files on your phone.

1. Long press on the Gallery app icon and tap the info icon from the menu that appears. 

Open Samsung Gallery App Info on Galaxy Phone

2. Go to Permissions

Gallery App Permission on Galaxy Phone

3. Tap on Photos and videos and select Allow from the following menu.

Allow Gallery App to Access Photos and Videos on Samsung Phone

3. Disable Image Grouping

The Gallery app on your Samsung phone has a feature that automatically groups visually similar images together. In such cases, the app only displays the best photo from the group, which may give the impression that some of your images are missing.

To get around this, you can disable the image grouping feature in the Gallery app. For that, head to the Pictures tab. Tap the kebab menu (three dots) in the top right corner and select Ungroup similar images.

Ungroup Images in Gallery App on Samsung Phone

4. Check Trash in Gallery App

Another reason why the Gallery app might not display a photo or album is if you’ve accidentally deleted it. Fortunately, the Gallery app keeps deleted photos in the Trash folder for 30 days before removing them permanently. Here’s how to check if your deleted photos are recoverable.

1. In the Gallery app, tap the menu icon (three parallel lines) in the bottom right corner and select Trash

Open Samsung Gallery App Trash

2. Tap the Edit option in the top right corner, select the photos you want to recover and tap the Restore option at the bottom. 

Restore Photos and Videos From Trash on Samsung Phone

5. Unhide Pictures Using My Files App

Samsung Gallery app may skip scanning a folder for photos and videos if it contains a NOMEDIA file in it. To unhide them, you must delete the NOMEDIA file from the folder. Several users on the Samsung forums reported success in restoring missing photos using this method. You can also give it a shot.

1. Open the My files app on your phone. 

2. Tap the kebab menu (three dots) in the top right corner and select Settings

My Files Settings on Samsung Phone

3. Enable the toggle next to Show hidden system files

Show Hidden Items in My Files App on Samsung Phone

4. Now, navigate to the folder containing the images and look for a file named .nomedia

5. Long press on the .nomedia file and select the Delete option. Select Move to Trash to confirm. 

Delete Files in My Files App on Samsung Phone

After this, the Gallery app should display photos and videos from that folder.

6. Check In-App Settings 

If the Samsung Gallery app is not showing images downloaded from a particular app, you should review the app’s settings. For instance, if you disable the Media visibility option in WhatsApp, you won’t see your WhatsApp photos and videos in the Gallery app. 

Enable Media Visibility on WhatsApp on Samsung Phone

7. Clear App Cache

Overwhelming or inaccessible cache data could cause the Gallery app to misbehave on your Samsung phone. If that’s the case, clearing the cache data should help resolve the issue. 

1. Long press on the Gallery app icon and tap the info icon from the menu that appears. 

2. Go to Storage and tap the Clear cache option at the bottom. 

Clear Cache for Gallery App on Samsung Phone

8. Update the App

If you’ve disabled automatic app updates on your Galaxy phone, you may be using an outdated version of the Gallery app. This can result in a number of issues, including the one discussed here. Hence, it’s a good idea to update the Gallery app on your phone if the above solutions don’t work.

1. Open the Gallery app on your phone. Tap the menu icon (three horizontal lines) in the bottom right corner and select Settings

Open Samsung Gallery App Settings

2. Scroll down to tap on About Gallery. The app will automatically start scanning for new updates. 

Update the Samsung Gallery App on Galaxy Phone

If a newer version is available, tap the Update button to install it. After that, the Gallery app should display all your photos and videos. 

Restore Your Missing Photos

It’s natural to feel clueless when the Samsung Gallery app stops showing photos on your Galaxy phone. We hope that the above suggestions have helped you fix the issue for good and you’re at peace.

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