Hello?

Well, Rose is yet to show up.

Yepp.

Probably checking Facebook ;)

Lol:)

Hehe, I gave her the link now.

So basically, @SuperThomasLab: We can definitely rule out the .nomedia stuff – are we agreed on that?

@Firelord Yupp, saw that :)

Yep

Second, did I understand correctly the DCIM/Camera folder is completely empty?

Yes, I think so

That means that the files are deleted.

If so: Maybe Rose just checked the internal SD card, but the camera app is using the external card (or vice versa). Android seems to create those folders nevertheless by default, saw that a couple of times.

@SuperThomasLab Not necessarily: ^^

In the Screenshots I saw that there was no sdcard inserted

Maybe they were stored on the sdcard and then the sdcard was removed...

PS: sdcard = external sdcard:)

There she is – welcome!

i am here .. n thanks 4 ur support

@SuperThomasLab I must have missed those screenshots. checking …

i have not inserted any sd card

everything is on phone memory, 8 gb internal memory

@Rosemary did you had an sdcard in your phone before the photos disappeared?

Ah, I see why: the comment was a bit confusing. I've first thought those were Lucky's and wondered what's going on :)

@SuperThomasLab BAM! Why didn't I think of that?

@Izzy because I was first?

I did not have any sd card before

but for sometime, my phone has some abnormal behaviour

Like...

@SuperThomasLab Yeah, I've noticed. Would have been so easy an explanation – but no...

@rosemary Like stuff disappearing from your SD card after a reboot – and stuff you've deleted re-appearing?

@Izzy That's ghostly.

(I'm not kidding here, had that on some other devices)

@Firelord Tell me!

I have no sd card at all@Izzy

Did you install any apps like Clean Master, Speed booster,and all that sort of apps. Some of them have options to delete photos to save space

Took me 1 year until I figured the cause: the entire thing consisted of "bad blocks" – so all I saw was old content and things cached in memory.

but sometimes d screen goes irresponsive n some other app runs without my intervention

@rosemary I didn't ask that ;) There's an "emulated" internal SD card on your device's flash memory. I doubt you will have the same issue I was talking about, but better want to make sure :)

@rosemary Did you start that "other app"?

Remember which app that was? Is it always the same? Something you've installed?

that is google+

@rosemary Did you install any apps like Clean Master, Speed booster,and all that sort of apps. Some of them have options to delete photos to save space

OK. I've thought of some "bad app" (not saying G+ is not bad, but at least I'd not expect that bad from it)

@Izzy Here's her question with that Google+, in case you missed it.

automatically runs..also galaxy aaps run without my intervention

i have 360 security,, but scanning shows no threats..but i still believe there might be malware as u mentioned earlier

Connect your phone with a computer, can you check if the files are still gone when you browse from the PC?

some autorun is causing all these i think

i have checked it with kies..but images not shown at all

Ok

@rosemary "Some autorun" wouldn't erase things from your device (unless you've explicitly told it so – or it's malware).

but one thing i remember, i cleaned some files using 360 antivirus,,don't remember exactly ..

@Firelord Thanks, yes I've missed that. While I've read a few times about such "covers/cover-boxes" causing strange things, deleting photos was not amongst the results ;)

@rosemary Just want to tell you this, when you have solved this (or not), use something like Google Photos Cloud Backup,so if this happens again you still have a backup.

thank you @SuperThomasLab

@SuperThomasLab Agreed on the backup (but not on the target; I personally prefer a more private space for that ;)

but i am still confused what exactly deleted my pics without my knowledge

@rosemary Me too!

thank u soo much!

@rosemary would you dare trying things on the command-line?

@rosemary Did only photos disappear, or also documents,apps etc?

using e.g. a terminal emulator app?

@Izzy Brian acknowledged the mistake here and meanwhile, edited the answer which invalidated it completely. I although rolled back with a slight change (removing my greatness! from it :D ), you might wanna take a look and suggest something more, and say thanks to @AndrewT. :)

@Firelord checking …

as far as i now only photos are affected! @SuperThomasLab

@rosemary Very strange. Did you have a chance to check the logs (and again, would you be willing to use the command-line when guided by us)?

@Firelord Please check my last comment there. My suggestion is helping Brian to make it a real answer.

@Izzy Already on it.

I'm thinking of several apps to (automatically) backup .apk files whenever they're installed, and things like that, so one is always able to revert to a previous version (I'm using AppMonster for that).

@Firelord LOL I didn't see that as we both hit the submit button at the exactly same minute #D

You must have been a second or so faster than me :)

It was under a second. :)

What a timing … :D

Is the problem of Rosemary solved?

@Firelord I don't think so.

in device storage>dcim>.thumbnails there is another type of file looks like .thumbda..67290299

We could rule out several things, but for further steps she seems afraid to answer my suggestion being guided at the command line ;)

on tapping it shows - no app can perform this action

@rosemary The thumbnails are something else (think of it as a "cache of smaller variants to speed up the gallery").

ohh sory @Izzy

:23037850--- show him @rosemary that you're not afraid of anything to get those precious images back!

how do i do that in my phone

Do you have a terminal app installed? Something that has the name "Terminal" or "Term" in its name?

not yet

(sometimes "Android Terminal" is pre-installed)

not installed yet

so what to do with d terminal?

@rosemary OK, two variants now. I'm afraid it's already too late to check the logs anyway, so another install won't harm that any longer.

A terminal app allows you to access the command line (something like the "cmd" command prompt on Windows)

ok :) @Izzy

Same could be accomplished using ADB – but on a Windows computer, I can't guide you through installing that (would have been my first choice else)

So you might check the playstore for a terminal app. Give me a sec, I check a good/trusted one for you …

so that I can restore my files from the device using commands from terminal?? really??

@rosemary It's for troubleshooting.

Maybe first find them ;)

ooooooh

So, here you go: JackPal's Terminal is often pre-installed by trusted sources (such as CyanogenMod).

@SuperThomasLab What's your take on that answer about .nomedia?

While you're getting that installed, I continue typing here (you'll catch up then)

@Firelord Same ghost might have added those overnight, I guess #D

@rosemary once you've installed that, tap its icon to open it. You will probably see not much more than a "black screen" – that's OK :)

Now we can see whether your photos (and other images) are really gone, or if they're just hiding:

ok :)

@Izzy By default she will be in / and that find command will also list useless images in Android folder.

> find . -type f -name "*.jpg"

but i dont remember the file names

@rosemary If you type that (and send it using the "enter" key), you will get a list of all *.jpg names on your device. No matter if you remember their names :)

Be prepared for a pretty long list scrolling through the screen with lightning speed – don't drop your device in shock :)

the full syntax is: find . -type f -name "*.jpg" ?

Yupp, I've put it for you to "copy and paste". Shall I explain the command?

thanks!! @izzy

suppose i have to store all the files in some folder. then what should I do? @Izzy

type f tells find to only check files (f=file). name "*.jpg" gives it a "file mask" to check for – i.e. all files which have the .jpg` extension – your photos and other pictures.

so that i can later transfer them into my pc

how nice!

@rosemary We are not there yet. As we started in the root directory (which is where the terminal will have dropped you), find will list ALL those files from anywhere on your device.

So in the next step, we will want to filter out e.g. those from the Whatsapp directories, as those are just copies.

@Firelord I could delete the answer,or keep it there (it may help other people). What do you think?

As I'm not using WA, I don't know how its directories are named. But let me make a good guess:

@SuperThomasLab I was about to suggest that ;)

@Izzy It needs cleaning if it has to be left for others to be helped.

@rosemary it will probably have "Whats" in its name (hint: Unix/Linux file names are case sensitive, so we have to take extra care).

can i find this chat tomorow?

@rosemary Izzy owns it!

i am soo tired

So everyone should delete the comments on my answer?

@rosemary Running out of time? Ah, I see. Yes, let me help you to that then – and we continue tomorrow.

@SuperThomasLab Mine are unhelpful so I'll remove them

@Firelord LOL! #D

ok .. n thank u soo much.. take care

goodnight!!

@rosemary What's your time, here in the Netherlands it's 17:18

@rosemary to follow up tomorrow: chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/23037979#23037979 is where we started today.

no no .. @Firelord u r too a nice guy

n thank u all

The room of course stays here, though we will probably have some other traffic in it meanwhile ;)

@rosemary Anytime, see you tomorrow then – have a good sleep!

@rosemary It is better if you bookmark the conversation for follow-up before you leave.

Bye!

but i m afraid ..will this chat be deleted?

@rosemary Nope, but bookmark will help to stay focused.

thank U @Firelord good night all!

I'm feeling that she bookmarked it using the browser. Ahem, I should be more detailed in the chat I guess!

@Firelord With some luck, she bookmarked the link I provided as well (for the transcript).

Let's not bother Mods to do that. @Izzy @SuperThomasLab @rosemary a cleanup is definitely required, and whatever good is in the comments, it needs to be succinctly mentioned. The comments here, that is. :)

@Firelord Sure we're ready for that yet? Rose left before we finished.

Though: Checking the comments, I guess everything before my first one can be removed (my comment relates directly to the answer, I think that should stay for now – but might be removed later, once the issue is solved and @SuperThomasLab has "reworked" his answer ;)

flagging obsolete now If @SuperThomasLab and @rosemary are faster with deletion, that saves the mods some work ;)

Supi's first comment below that should stay for now as well.

Leaving my "bold invitation" to the common chat room (here) as well for now, just in case.

Ugh! Who removed Rose's last comment before I could flag it? I thought she went to bed? What's she doing there? #D

OK, done so far: 3 comments should stay (for know, that is) – everything else should go.

Go for it, @SuperThomasLab and @rosemary :)

@Firelord just ordered my first Pi (it's a blue banana ;)

Crazy times. In 2008, when I assembled my last server, hardware costs where about EUR 800. Now my new mail server comes for less than EUR 60 (if I don't count the SSD I will obtain when I've proven everything works as expected; with the SSD ~EUR 100 then).

And it fits into my pocket (almost) – whereas the "old one" required two hands to be moved #D

@Izzy I have deleted all my comments before your first comment.

@SuperThomasLab Ah! Looks much better already. The one below (which is not upvoted) I guess can go as well. But we could also delay the "big cleanup" for tomorrow (in the hope Rose re-appears and we can finally tackle the whole thing).

@Izzy I flagged it. :D

@Firelord Uh. I flagged a bunch of them, but only that single comment disappeared …

@Izzy Great! Product-link? So, you would-be spending time on Serverfault and Rasp-pi, haan?

Oh, jinglebells … my phone rings …

@Firelord The BananaPi unfortunately is off-topic at RasPi :(

@Izzy I actually flagged it for comments clean-up, but only managed to get it removed

But yeah, ServerFault, Unix&Linux, whatever matches my needs when they arise. Plus "camouflaging" on Raspi if it doesn't violate their rules (there are Raspis with ARMv7 as well).

@Izzy So what's the take for buying it? You launching something, or wanna offer a private Photos backup repo considering the recent question? LOL

Good news!! (for me, that is :D ), I'm a Steward now. Yes!

@Firelord Replace my old mail server. The old one was a 19" rack which is "out of maintenance" already for about a year or so, so it needs urgent replace – now even more, since they'll cut the line to that server room end of the year.

@Firelord Congrats!

TechMedia loves creating and pushing fear. All of them seems to be focusing on fear and not even one came up with a slightest idea of what to do to prevent the attack.