It is very suitable to store photos on phone but as number of photos increases it become very difficult to clean up. Also, it is not clear where the images are saved actually. Sometimes all the photos disappear and thus, it is very important to know the location of images in phone.
Location of Pictures on Android
Photos taken through Camera app are either stored in phone internal memory or in memory card. It all depends upon on the settings of your phone.
Photos location is always DCIM/Camera folder. The full path is:
- For images on phone memory, path is /storage/emmc/DCIM
- For images on memory card, path is /storage/sdcard0/DCIM
To access thee folders quickly you have to download file manager like ES Explorer in your phone because the explorer which are in-built in your phone are not very suitable.
DCIM – Meaning
DCIM means Digital Camera Images. Actually, it is the default directory structure for digital cameras. From DCF (Design rule for Camera File system) Specification, the DCIM folder and its layout came from.
Location of Screenshots in Phone
Screenshots are there in folder:
- Pictures/Screenshot
- DCIM/Screenshot
Also, you need to check screenshot location in the Settings in case you install third party application on Android.
Need of Thumbnails folder
Thumbnails folder contains the smaller version of pictures, downloaded images. For instance, profile images from Whatsapp or contact images. Thus, it helps in opening an image from Gallery quickly.
Location of Thumbnails files
- If phone memory is used, path is /storage/emmc/DCIM/.thumbnails
- If sd card is used, path is /storage/sdcard0/DCIM/.thumbnails
Deleting Thumbnails on Android phone
Thumbnail files consumes a lot of space, upto few gigabytes. So it becomes necessary to delete these files to free a lot of space. Also, there is no loss of yours and these files are created again when you need.
You can do this in 2 ways:
Method 1 (Manually)
Step 1: At first, download and install file manager on your Android.
Step 2: Now, enable the option show hidden files in the phone.
Step 3: Then, open the thumbnails folder.
Step 4: At last, select all the files for deleting the android dcim thumbnails content.
Method 2 (Automatically)
Step 1: Start with installing the CCleaner app on your Android.
Step 2: Next tap on the “Analyze” button.
Step 3: Then, under the section Other Caches, check mark the option Thumbnail Cache. Now, press the Clean button.
What To Do If DCIM Folder Is Empty?
Sometimes, when you connect your phone to the PC via USB Cable, the DCIM folder is empty while there are photos in the Gallery.
- In this case, check both locations- one is memory card and other is android device memory. Also, you have to drag files from one DCIM folder to another.
- Then, start deleting the cache from External storage and Media Storage app.
How to Delete DCIM Folder
Step 1: Open Settings in your Android. Then, click on the option Apps. After that click on the three dots present on the top right.
Step 2: Click on the option “Show system apps” and then choose ” External Storage” and ” Media Storage” from the list.
Step 3: Click on Clear data and Clear cache button.
Step 4: At last, Reboot your phone.
