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Help Pictures and videos on device storage, but where?!

markyboy81

Well-Known Member
Oct 8, 2012
156
15
I have my phone set up son that all pictures and videos are on the external sd card, however when I look in storage, it's showing 3.4gb of pictures/videos on the device. When I navigate to device storage there's a folder called DCIM which includes a few folders, however they're all empty. Despite this when I long press on the folder DCIM I can see there's 3.4gb of data in there. Can I free up this by deleting the folder, or will this impact on something else?
 
I have my phone set up son that all pictures and videos are on the external sd card...
Might I ask how? I wasn't aware that this was possible (without using something like FolderMount). The option in the stock Camera app doesn't allow you to do this as the only options are Internal storage or SD card (which refers to the internal "SD card" not the external one).
 
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You can actually free up space on both the internal and external sd by using Dropbox and Dropsync Pro. I have mine set up to where it automatically uploads screenshots and pictures directly to Dropbox (which sits on my PC) and then deletes them from my phone. I also set it up to do it over WiFi only so it doesn't eat away my monthly data. Dropsync automates everything, so you basically set it up and forget it.

Get Dropbox for your PC here. (Free)

Get Dropbox for your phone here. (Free)

Get Dropsync and the Pro License. (appears to be on sale at the moment.)

Both Dropboxes on PC and phone can sync, so you can always view your pictures from the Dropbox on your phone even though they're actually sitting on your PC. :)
 
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Might I ask how? I wasn't aware that this was possible (without using something like FolderMount). The option in the stock Camera app doesn't allow you to do this as the only options are Internal storage or SD card (which refers to the internal "SD card" not the external one).

It allows it on mine, if you go into the camera app and click settings right down the bottom is 'storage' where you can select device or memory card
 
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It does record burst shots to internal memory as I think most sd cards wouldn't be fast enough.
I've found out that by unhiding files there's a folder called '.thumbnails' which for some reason contains 3.4gb of thumbnail pictures, despite there being no pictures on the internal memory. I've tried deleting it but they just come back!
 
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It allows it on mine, if you go into the camera app and click settings right down the bottom is 'storage' where you can select device or memory card


That feature isn't on the S4 that you get from Google Play. Ours are just pure Android.. no Samsung apps. Over half of the tips & tricks I've found for the S4 do not apply to the Google S4. Very annoying, but on the flip side we have more internal room.
 
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You aren't missing much. Plus, for every Samsung app, there is a better one in the Play Store. I've replaced just about every single one Samsung app with something I've downloaded and I've disabled or removed just about all the Samsung stuff.

But I liked some of the S apps... fell in love with the calendar and have yet to find anything that even remotely resembles it. Can you change your fonts on the S4 like you could on the S3?
 
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As for all the space taken up in DCIM, this will be thumbnail/cache type files. If nothing is being shown in My Files in this location then its probably taken up by a hidden folder (eg .thumbnails) This can be deleted if required using ES Explorer or similar.
If you delete it, I'm sure it will just rebuild the thumbs when you open any gallery app.
 
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eqabevus.jpg


It seems there is a bug as the numbers don't add up!
 
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