Aaaaagh! My Gallery is going crazy! Help...

[micahpop]

Hello Rescue Squad,

Let me start off by saying that I am new to the android world and in general, would consider myself technologically challenged (i.e. I don't have a clue)

I have a Motorola Droid which was given to me (used) but it didn't have an sd card. I took the card from my blackberry storm and placed it in the Droid. Everything seemed to be fine - all my pictures were in the Gallery and all my music files were accessible as well.

This evening I connected the phone to my pc to transfer some pics (from pc to phone). So I just dragged a couple of pics into the Photo Gallery folder and disconnected the usb cable to see if the transfer had occured. When I opened my Gallery, it said "loading new albums and photos" and the pictures were sort of bouncing around. When I tap on a photo to open it, a completely different picture opens.

What the heck is going on? Please help.

Thanks in advance.

 

[teddyearp]

An easy solution would probably be to just reboot your phone and let the gallery rebuilt it's database. I have to do that when I save a pics from a mms to my sdcard.

But what is the folder structure on your sdcard? You might want to think about copying everything from the card to your pc, then format the card via that droid's menu system and then copy the files back to the folders that the droid creates. Just a thought.

good luck

 

[furbearingmammal]

First off, :welcome: to the forum! May I assume this is a Droid 1? I mean, the chances of someone giving you a Droid 2 or a Droid X are slim to none, but I want to make absolutely sure.

Second, did you kill the USB Mass Storage option or just unplug the cable?

 

[furbearingmammal]

Rebooting was going to be my next suggestion and so too the copy/formatting, but I wanted to get the really simple stuff out of the way first.

Listen to Teddy -- he's good.

 

[micahpop]

Thanks for the advice. Let's pretend like I don't know anything (which sholdn't be all that difficult) and consider your suggestions.

Reboot - does this entail powering off, removing and replacing the battery? If so, I did that to no avail.

Copy/Format - so what would be the correct/recommended way to do this? Do I just drag the contents of the sd card onto a folder on my pc?

The first time that I unpugged, I'm not certain that I did tap the "Turn off USB storage" button or if I just yanked the cable out.

Thanks again for the help and yes, it is a Droid 1.

 

[furbearingmammal]

Okay, the copy/format option that Teddy suggested would entail just what you said -- mount the phone via USB storage, which you know how to do, then copy everything into a folder on your PC/Mac. Once the copy is done then you should unmount USB Mass Storage (Android is Linux and Linux is VERY picky about drives being mounted/unmounted), then get into the settings.

Settings> SD card &phone storage settings> Unmount SD card> Format SD card> Reboot. No need to pull the battery, just power off with the button and then power it back on. It may take some time to reboot, don't worry about it unless it takes more than ten minutes. It shouldn't, but you never know.

Okay, once it's rebooted turn USB Mass Storage back on and copy everything from the folder (not the folder itself) back onto your SD card. Should be good to go.

And ALWAYS turn off USB Mass Storage after you've turned it on. Like I said, Linux is VERY picky about drives being mounted/unmounted.

 

[micahpop]

Hmmm... I think I followed your directions but I can't Format SD card - it's not selectable. I unmounted the sd card and now it shows 0 GB as total and available space.

Maybe I'm doing it wrong... here's what I did exactly.

1. Connected phone to PC via USB cable
2. Clicked on "Turn on USB Storage"
3. Clicked on drive (it says Blackberry, I'm assuming because the sd card was originally in my Blackberry Storm)
4. Opened picture folder and copied all files to PC
5. Clicked on "Turn off USB Storage"
6. Settings> SD card & phone storage settings> Unmount SD card
7. Couldn't select Format SD card so physically disconnected USB cable
8. That didn't really change anything

What should I do next? Go buy a new SD card? :icon_eek:

 

[furbearingmammal]

They're cheap enough but you shouldn't have to. Hmm. I am stumped at the moment. Let me get back to you. Someone might have an answer for you before I get back, though.

 

[teddyearp]

Not sure if this is the total solution, but as FBM said linux/android is real picky about mounting/unmounting devices. So that said, it is recommended that you unmount the drive both on your PC and your phone. I usually unmount the drive on my pc first (on windows, that means just close the window), then unmount as usb storage on the phone and unplug it.

If that isn't the hang up, go ahead and plug it back into your pc, mount it as usb storage and format the card with your pc as FAT32. Then go through the unmounting process I described above and see if you can now format it with your phone.

good luck

 

[furbearingmammal]

And you format it through the phone after you've done it on the PC because the phone does a more thorough job. Just leaving it done by the PC is increasing the risk of future problems.

 

[micahpop]

If that isn't the hang up, go ahead and plug it back into your pc, mount it as usb storage and format the card with your pc as FAT32.

I have no idea what FAT32 is... :blink:

But I'll try it if you tell me how. Please and thanks.

 

[furbearingmammal]

FAT32 should be the default option when you go to format your SD card.

 

[micahpop]

So I followed y'all's advice and here's what happened:

1. I plugged into the PC
2. I right-clicked on the drive and there was "Format..." :icon_ banana:
3. It took awhile but formatting was completed
4. I closed the window
5. Turned off USB storage on phone
6. Settings> SD card and Phone storage> CAN'T select Format SD card

On the bright side, there's nothing in my Gallery now.

 

[furbearingmammal]

Hopefully you won't run into any problems with it formatted that way if you have to run it like that, but I'm out of ideas on how to get your phone TO format it. Maybe teddy or some helpful passerby has one?

 

[teddyearp]

So I followed y'all's advice and here's what happened:

1. I plugged into the PC
2. I right-clicked on the drive and there was "Format..." :icon_ banana:
3. It took awhile but formatting was completed
4. I closed the window
5. Turned off USB storage on phone
6. Settings> SD card and Phone storage> CAN'T select Format SD card

On the bright side, there's nothing in my Gallery now.

Well, I just went to replicate your situation and found that the option to format the sdcard does stay greyed out UNTIL you get a notification that your sdcard is safe to remove. So maybe try again and wait for about 30 seconds or so?

Other than that, I am stumped as well.

good luck