Photos take hours to become visible in the Photos app

Help Fairphone 6
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1

I know there is already a topic about missing photos with the Fairphone 6, but my problem is slightly different.

Brand new Fairphone 6 with Android 16 april 2026 update FP6.QREL.16.31.0.

When I take pictures (I use the default Camera app), the photos are saved to the device. I can see them in the File manager in the DCIM folder. But they take many hours before they are visible in the Google Photos app. I don’t know how many hours, but typically, the next morning they are visible in the app.

I use the Google Photos app without an account, so backup/sync is off. I use this configuration for many years on all my previous phones, and this always worked (photos immediatly visible in the app).

I don’t know how this works internally, but it seems that the Camera app is not “triggering” the Photos app that a new photo is available in the DCIM folder. And the app only checks the DCIM folder once a day for new photos.

Annyone else has this issue? Does anyone know a fix?

2

An update:

I noticed the photos also did not show up in other apps relying on the media storage db. It seems something is blocking the media (re)scan for the newly taken pictures.

Other (gallery) apps not relying on the media storage db (and directly reading the folder) see the photos immediately after they have been taken.

I noticed that the Camera app creates a .Temp folder in the DCIM\Camera folder for processing the newly taken pictures. But this folder is never cleaned up after processing.

If I remove the .Temp folder (after verifying that the photos are really saved into the Camera folder) and ‘touch’ the DCIM folder (e.g. by renaming it to DCIM_1 and renaming it back to DCIM) the photos are scanned and are visible in the Photos app.

I don’t know the relevance of this information, but I share it anyway, maybe it helps in troubleshooting and fixing the issue?

3

Do you use a SD-card for storage of your photos?

4

No, internal storage only.

5

I’m having the same problem: I take a photo and it doesn’t show in the Photos app, nor in the Focus Go app I also use until hours later. It seems to be a problem since the latest Fairphone 6 software update. I’ve tried turning the phone off, waiting a few minutes and turning it back on, and I’ve tried turning on the default settings in the Photos app. Neither worked.

6

I tested with a different camera app (Open Camera). Photos taken with Open Camera show up immediately in the Photos app.

So I believe this is an issue with the stock Camera app.

7

Camera Apps and Picture Gallery should not be connected. The Picture Gallery should pick up the saved photo from DCIM Folder.

As you dont sync with any Google account maybe you want to try another Gallery App like the one from Fossify.

8

The connection between Camera Apps and Picture Gallery is the MediaStore, more specifically the MediaStore.Images collection. The Picture Gallery does not pickup the saved photo from the DCIM folder directly but queries the MediaStore for images.

If after taking the photo with the Camera app, the image is not added to the MediaStore.Images collection, no app using the MediaStore.Images collection can see the photo.

So simply switching to another Gallery app is not a solution for this problem. As all other apps using the MediaStore.Images collection also fail to see the photo. Some examples: Whatsapp for sending photos, mail apps for attaching the photo, …