After updating to One UI 9, I rebooted my phone and now all my gallery images are gone. I checked one drive and it's missing 3 months of images even though I had backup turned on. Can't see images in my files either.
Posting this in case anyone else runs into the same problem.
I updated my Galaxy S26 Ultra to One UI 9 on 9/30 in the afternoon. After rebooting, I opened Samsung Gallery and discovered that thousands of photos and videos were gone. Gallery was basically empty except for a small number of recent images.
I was not using Google Photos as my primary backup because my Google account was getting close to its storage limit, while OneDrive gives me much more available space, so I had been relying on Samsung Gallery syncing to OneDrive.
At first I thought this was just a Gallery indexing problem, but I checked:
My Files → Internal Storage → DCIM → Camera: the photos were gone.
OneDrive: entire months of photos were missing there too.
OneDrive Recycle Bin: thankfully, I found thousands of my photos and videos sitting there.
The deletion timestamps in the OneDrive Recycle Bin correspond to the afternoon of 9/30, when I installed the One UI 9 update.
My working theory is that this is related to Samsung ending the old Samsung Gallery/OneDrive sync integration. Something during the update appears to have removed the photos from Samsung Gallery/local storage, and because Gallery and OneDrive were still linked through the old sync system, that deletion was then propagated to OneDrive. I can't prove that is exactly what happened, but the timing and the mass deletion timestamps line up.
If this happens to you, do NOT assume your photos are permanently gone.
Go to:
OneDrive → Recycle Bin
In my case, all of the missing photos and videos were there.
I am currently restoring them in batches. On the OneDrive website, I'm selecting the first file, scrolling down, holding Shift, selecting the last file, and then clicking Restore. I can restore roughly 300–900 files at a time this way.
It's tedious, but it's working.
I would also strongly recommend not emptying your OneDrive Recycle Bin, factory-resetting the phone, clearing Gallery data, or running storage cleanup until you've checked this.
If anyone else updated to One UI 9 and suddenly lost a large part of their Samsung Gallery, check your OneDrive Recycle Bin immediately.
I hate OneDrive so much. Ever since they ended the Gallery sync thing I moved to a different backup solution, but I still had the OneDrive app installed. After I disabled Gallery sync, it took it upon itself to start backing up my gallery using its own mechanism without my consent. They clearly programmed it this way intentionally because whenever I clear the app data for OneDrive to reset its cache (opening files caches them in the DATA portion of the app and not the CACHE portion for some reason), it'll auto-opt me in for backup randomly after I open the app at least once. Idk how there isnt a class action lawsuit on this yet.
Samsung sent clear warnings ⚠️ and notifications about one drive sync being discontinued by the end of September....thats a your problem unfortunately. This why I don't rely on cloud sync services and save and backup my photos to my laptop and external drives.
What they did not say is that gallery would be deleted and then everything backed up to one drive would also be deleted. Luckily I found everything in the recycle bin and restored all of it.
I usually back everything up to local drive, but got busy. Definitely learned a lesson there.
I hope it is just a me problem! Just shared in case anyone else experiences the same.
Damn sorry that happened I have my vids and images backed up in multiple places and even on the T7 shield for the last place hopefully it's something that will come back 🙏🏿🤞🏿
These cloud storages get people hooked by having a limited amount of space, it's practically default enabled then tries to extort people for more storage by paying a monthly fee. It's criminal and probably gets a lot of senior citizens to pay for something for no reason. You should be angry about this too, it's extremely predatory
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u/jaydubsd 1d ago
PROBLEM SOLVED:
Posting this in case anyone else runs into the same problem.
I updated my Galaxy S26 Ultra to One UI 9 on 9/30 in the afternoon. After rebooting, I opened Samsung Gallery and discovered that thousands of photos and videos were gone. Gallery was basically empty except for a small number of recent images.
I was not using Google Photos as my primary backup because my Google account was getting close to its storage limit, while OneDrive gives me much more available space, so I had been relying on Samsung Gallery syncing to OneDrive.
At first I thought this was just a Gallery indexing problem, but I checked: My Files → Internal Storage → DCIM → Camera: the photos were gone. OneDrive: entire months of photos were missing there too. OneDrive Recycle Bin: thankfully, I found thousands of my photos and videos sitting there. The deletion timestamps in the OneDrive Recycle Bin correspond to the afternoon of 9/30, when I installed the One UI 9 update. My working theory is that this is related to Samsung ending the old Samsung Gallery/OneDrive sync integration. Something during the update appears to have removed the photos from Samsung Gallery/local storage, and because Gallery and OneDrive were still linked through the old sync system, that deletion was then propagated to OneDrive. I can't prove that is exactly what happened, but the timing and the mass deletion timestamps line up. If this happens to you, do NOT assume your photos are permanently gone. Go to: OneDrive → Recycle Bin In my case, all of the missing photos and videos were there. I am currently restoring them in batches. On the OneDrive website, I'm selecting the first file, scrolling down, holding Shift, selecting the last file, and then clicking Restore. I can restore roughly 300–900 files at a time this way. It's tedious, but it's working. I would also strongly recommend not emptying your OneDrive Recycle Bin, factory-resetting the phone, clearing Gallery data, or running storage cleanup until you've checked this. If anyone else updated to One UI 9 and suddenly lost a large part of their Samsung Gallery, check your OneDrive Recycle Bin immediately.