how to find pictures backed up by onedrive

Question

how to find pictures backed up by onedrive

Ágúst Bergur Kárason 0

Hi.

I just allowed onedrive to sync the camera roll on my phone.

Onedrive then offered to delete the pictures from my phone, which I allowed.

After that I can not find the pictures on my phone. Not in the onedrive app, not in the camera roll, not in deleted files . . . But if I open onedrive through a browser on my computer I can see them there.

I need to use these photos on my phone as well. So if I try opening onedrive through a browser on my phone it automatically opens the onedrive app on my phone that doesn't show the pictures.

Very strange!

Do you have an explanation?

Kind regards,

Ágúst Bergur Kárason.

0 comments

2 answers

Your answer

Answer 1

Hello, thank you for reaching out to Microsoft Q&A.

May I please know whether you are using a Samsung device, another Android device, or an iOS device?

If you have linked your Samsung Gallery App to OneDrive, the sync works both ways (bi-directional sync). That is, if you make any changes to your Photos in the Samsung Gallery app, it will automatically be reflected in OneDrive.

For example, if you delete a Picture from the Samsung Gallery app, it will be automatically deleted from OneDrive.

As you can see the photos in OneDrive online, they should also be available in the OneDrive app on your Android or iOS device. Please open the OneDrive app, switch to the Photos section, and check whether you can locate the photos there.

User's image

If you cannot find them in the Photos section, use the Search bar in OneDrive to search for the photos. You can also go to the My Files folder and check the Pictures folder to see if the photos are stored there.

If you are still unable to locate the photos in the OneDrive app, please uninstall the OneDrive app from your mobile device.

Then, open a web browser on your mobile device, launch an Incognito/Private tab, and sign in to OneDrive with your account. From there, download the photos to your mobile device.

Once the photos have been downloaded, you can reinstall the OneDrive app and sign in again.

Answer 2

What happened is consistent with OneDrive camera backup on Android:

Camera backup uploads photos from the phone to OneDrive.
It is a backup, not a two-way photo sync.
The copies in OneDrive are separate from the copies stored locally on the phone.
If the local phone copies were deleted after backup, they will no longer appear in the phone’s camera roll.

Why they are visible on the computer browser but not on the phone:

The photos are in OneDrive cloud storage, which is why they appear on the OneDrive website.
In the OneDrive mobile app, backed-up photos may not be in the phone’s local camera roll anymore because those local copies were removed.
To access cloud files in the app, open the OneDrive app and browse your folders or use the search bar to find the files.
Camera-backed-up photos are typically stored under Pictures > Camera Roll in OneDrive.

If the photos still do not appear in the OneDrive app on the phone:

In the OneDrive app, browse manually through folders instead of relying on the phone gallery.
Use the app search to look for the photos.
If needed, upload/access behavior can be refreshed by checking Me > Settings > Camera backup.
If OneDrive for iOS cannot find files, there is a documented Profile > Settings > Account > Reset option, but the provided guidance does not include an Android reset path.

If photos from other folders are appearing or the wrong folders are being backed up, review this setting in the mobile app:

Select Me.
Open Settings.
Select Camera upload.
Choose Organise by source.
Check or uncheck included folders.

If the goal is to keep photos available on the phone as well as in OneDrive, do not delete the local phone copies after backup.