Cannot access photos on phone

[2755]

The Photos tile is blank in the "all apps" list. It would normally have a little icon on it. If I select it the screen goes blank then comes back to the apps list. I have a "photos" tile on the front of my main screen that cycles through my most recent photos but I cannot access my phone photo album at all. I have tried to install another copy of the photos app from the store but it tells me I have the "photos" app already. I have all the recent updates and this is a new phone but I transferred all my photos from my previous windows phone to this one plus have taken more (and accessed them) since I started it up.

If I go to Onedrive only the photos I have taken previous to the phone change over are available. I am assuming that is because I have not synced onedrive with my new phone (an issue for another day).

I have check this as a bug in forums on the internet and it seems I am the only one with this issue. Can anyone help?

 

[Mesbah]

Are photos on SD card inside phone? or directly on phone's internal memory?

 

[2755]

Im sorry I have no idea... how would i find out?

 

[RumoredNow]

Im sorry I have no idea... how would i find out?

Go to your "All Apps" list > Storage... It will show where new photos and videos will save to. If you don't have an SD card, though, it defaults to "This device."

The Photos App itself is a core App which can't be moved to SD card so a corrupted SD would not prevent the App from functioning, only from reading pics on the card.

I suspect you have a bad registry entry somewhere. Factory or Hard reset might only bring this forward again by repeating the error.

My best advice is to make a backup (Settings > Update & Security > Backup > enable all categories > tap More options > make sure all apps are set to back up and tap the "Backup now" button)

After the backup is complete, use WDRT (Windows Device Recovery Tool) to get a clean install. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12379/windows-10-mobile-device-recovery-tool-faq

Flash your phone with WDRT and restore your backup during the setup process. Check for Updates after you are setup again so you can get back to current. (Settings > Update & Security > Phone update

 

[Mesbah]

For now just do:

1. plug 950Xl to DC power
2. press+hold ON/OFF button
3. Slide Down to turn off phone
4. wait few second until it comes back on
5. after battery if fully charged leave 950XL close near your WiFi source over night until photos on 950XL be synced with 1drive
6. this way if you have good pics inside 950XL they will be on 1drive tomorrow
7. tomorrow check 1drive see if new photos are there
8. tomorrow check if photo app on 950XL works OK
9. if photo app does not show up or can't see photos and can't uninstall/reinstall photo app to fix problem then I suggest RESET your 950XL WITHOUT restoring it from BACKUP copy, i.e., reinstall all your apps fresh from STORE.
10. NB.: if SD card exists in 950XL then all photos/files written onto it better be done while SD is inside 950XL. Copying photos/files onto a SD card in a computer and place it inside 950XL might not result in correct files/photo formats or/and proper disk formats.
11. Never use Lexar cards as are unreliable and I lost most my vacation family photos.
12. You can check if SD card is inserted in your 950XL by: Settings>>System>>Storage

 

[2755]

Thank you it all seems to be stored on this device. I cannot see how the Phone pics upload to onedrive. Photos is not listed in the things that back up to onedrive and there seems to be no way to add photos. SO I cant even start to do either of the options that have been offered if I cannot back up the current pics on the device to onedrive. sigh... I thought keeping everything Microsoft would be easy...

 

[rdubmu]

Are there any updates to the phone? Is the app itself updating from the store?

 

[2755]

humm I'm not sure. I tired to download another copy from the store but it just said that I had a copy already.

 

[anthonyng]

You're talking about the onedrive app on the phone right? In that app, if you goto Settings, you will see the option Camera Upload and it should be set to Turned On for upload to one drive.

If not... then can you just plug your 950xl to a computer via usb? Then just file browse to the photos folder and copy your images to your computer or something.

Something got messed up pretty good it seems and at least you have options to get the pictures before you reset your phone and start over again.

 

[2755]

thanks anthonyng yes got to Camera upload and it was off...on now .. like the idea about to connect the 950 to the computer too.. will give that a try. Not accessing the photos did bother me before I Start to blow stuff away.

 

[2755]

I figured that if I got all the photos I could just uninstall the "photos" app and then reinstall a functioning one from the "store" but you cant uninstall oems on this os in this phone as far as I can see, anyone know any different?

 

[Roberto Velazquez R]

There was a photo app update on 8/26, since then the app won't launch, my phone is a unlocked Lumia 950XL DS running the AU OS, MS is taking one step forward and three steps back

 

[anthonyng]

thanks anthonyng yes got to Camera upload and it was off...on now .. like the idea about to connect the 950 to the computer too.. will give that a try. Not accessing the photos did bother me before I Start to blow stuff away.

Yea when you connect it to computer it just acts like a usb drive.

I think your best bet is to do a phone reset, there's no way to individually fix the photos app. Well maybe there is but there'll be so many complicated steps and time is better spent just resetting it... under system, about, reset phone. Everything will be erased.

 

[Chintan Gohel]

thanks anthonyng yes got to Camera upload and it was off...on now .. like the idea about to connect the 950 to the computer too.. will give that a try. Not accessing the photos did bother me before I Start to blow stuff away.

after connecting the phone to your pc, did it work? Could you see your photos on the pc?

 

[Franmartin]

If the photos are present in the SD card, then you can easily recover them with the help of a good Photo Recovery Software. Just research online, about few good recovery software and you will find a bunch of good software.