Introduction

I usually manually make copies of important photos on my Pixel 6 Android mobile phone via the USB-C cable. Just connect it to your computer and select in USB preferences (really strange location for these options, why is it not in USB settings...) File transfer / Android Auto.

Then the file explorer would open up and I can go to the DCIM/Camera folder and find all my photos on that phone.

But suddenly, it started around May 2025, I could only see pictures in that directory from May 2025 and newer! I could not see my pictures from before that time anymore in that directory.

On the phone itself I could still these older photos.

Solution

I found a few possible reasons, like this one, but that didn't work for me. Still couldn't find the photos from before May 2025 when connected via USB.

I did have for some vague reason Google Backup on for a few hours somewhere before that time. But switched it off again.

So what does it turn out to be: all photos from before May 2025 had moved to another directory! I for sure didn't do that - it would have taken quite a long time to move all these photos on my phone, hundreds of them.

So here's the difference I found out:

Where the photos usually are located:

So in the DCIM/Camera directory, as already mentioned in the introduction.

But all before May 2025 are now in this directory:

So in Music/DCIM/Camera! So they moved! But only those earlier than May 1 2025!

Luckily that directory is also accessible in the file explorer when connected via USB. My suspicion is that while I had the backup on, it moved those pictures to that other directory...

You can find the exact location of a picture in the Pixel Photos app by selecting the picture on your phone and swiping up. Then you see what you see in the above pictures, including the directory where it is stored on the device.