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Android phone folders all messed up - redundant, wtf is "DCIM" anyway! (Original Post) cilla4progress Dec 2021 OP
dcim is the default storage forlder for pictures nt msongs Dec 2021 #1
msongs is correct that the DCIM folder is the default location for photos and videos TexasTowelie Dec 2021 #2
Thanks TT! cilla4progress Dec 2021 #3
Since you have everything on your SD card the priority becomes getting TexasTowelie Dec 2021 #4
Thank you for your comprehensive response, Texas! cilla4progress Dec 2021 #5
You're welcome and obviously there are a lot more things to consider than a few years ago. TexasTowelie Dec 2021 #6
Wow ‐ impressive forethought! cilla4progress Dec 2021 #7
Way late to the party.... ManiacJoe Dec 2021 #8

TexasTowelie

(116,768 posts)
2. msongs is correct that the DCIM folder is the default location for photos and videos
Tue Dec 7, 2021, 04:19 PM
Dec 2021

and the acronym stands for "digital camera images."

If you need to clean up that folder on your phone, I suggest using the USB cable that you use for charging the phone and connecting it your computer so that it easier to view the images and so that you can use the file explorer options to sort pictures (such as by date). That way you can select multiple images for deletion rather than having to proceed one image at a time. It will also allow you to rename any images and store them on another device. That will free up the memory on your phone for other uses such as apps you might want to download.

cilla4progress

(25,904 posts)
3. Thanks TT!
Tue Dec 7, 2021, 04:25 PM
Dec 2021

That's what I'm in the process of doing.

I've got everything on my SD card.

Some questions:

where will things be stored on default? For example, podcasts. Where will they go when I dl them? Pictures? Other folders? There is nothing in the folder called podcasts in my "phone" folder.

does it make sense to keep my old music on my phone? i'm not always in wifi range, so, perhaps yes.

do the folders work essentially the same way as in windows? I.e., I can rename, combine, change, reorganize them?

Thank you!!

TexasTowelie

(116,768 posts)
4. Since you have everything on your SD card the priority becomes getting
Tue Dec 7, 2021, 06:56 PM
Dec 2021

that information to more secure locations if the SD card is damaged or you drop the phone in water. I suggest using cloud services such as Google Drive and Google Photos since they are relatively intuitive to use. I suspect that a lot of your information may already be backed up if you use Google on your phone like for Google maps.

For other information that I don't want in the cloud, I resort to old-fashioned physical devices ranging from the PC hard drive, to flash drives and an external hard drive.

My experience deals mostly with transferring photos that my brother takes on his cellphone for work and I transfer the files to his PC so that the photos can be uploaded into the company's inventory system. I've used two different methods to accomplish the task:
1) Tether the phone to the computer with a USB cord. If a message pops up on the phone asking for an outside device (the computer) to be allowed access to the files, then click yes. At that point, open the File Explorer on the computer and you should see a folder that relates to your phone device (e.g., Moto, Android). Click that folder and drill down (maybe one or two levels) until you get to the Camera folder, the DCIM folder should be one level lower. Within that file folder you should see the thumbnails for your photos and you can copy, cut, paste, rename and view other file properties. Normally those files are save in either .jpg or .jpeg format. The quick fix to clean up your SD card would be to select all of the photos, then copy and paste those photos to another location where you want to store the information (this could take several minutes and possibly hours), confirming that everything was transferred to the new desired home, then return to the DCIM folder to select all of the files and delete. Since the PC is tethered to the phone it is allowed access to delete the files stored on the SD card. Removing all of the files from the SD card should free up a significant amount of memory.
2) A slower process that I've used is to use the share features on the cell phone to send a photo to an email address, then detach the file from the email so that it can be either placed on a physical device or uploaded to the Cloud. There is probably a way to do this so that multiple files are sent, but I've never had the need to do so. There will be lag time from when you hit send until it shows in the email since it will have to go through the email server.

Keep in mind that all the information only applies to files that were created using the Camera feature on your cell phone. Depending on how much storage space is available, you may want to compress the files by resizing them using a utility like Microsoft Paint. From what I've read it does not reduce the image quality.

I do not know the answer as to where podcasts are stored on a phone since I don't subscribe to any of them. If you feel like exploring, my advice is to tether the phone to the computer with a USB cord, locate the folder your device, then start drilling down the folders from there. There may be individual folders named Music, Videos, Podcasts. My gut instinct also believes that in some instances it may violate licensing and copyright constraints to transfer that material if it was purchased to use on a specific device.

FWIW, there are probably more efficient work arounds to the suggestions that I made depending on any syncing and networking that you have set up on your devices. I try to use work-arounds that don't cost money, avoid creating accounts and passwords, and placing physical barriers to avoid deleting information and providing backup when I'm learning something new or just fiddling around. I'm not afraid to adapting to new technology, but I've burnt myself a few times in the past so I try to exercise a lot of caution and redundancies.

cilla4progress

(25,904 posts)
5. Thank you for your comprehensive response, Texas!
Tue Dec 7, 2021, 08:41 PM
Dec 2021

I got things fairly organized, but had turned off the auto sync to the cloud. Based on your suggestion, will turn it back on.Hadn't thought about my SD card getting damaged! Just didn't necessarily want google to have all my pics... (privacy you know). They are very boring by the way...😄

Thank you!

TexasTowelie

(116,768 posts)
6. You're welcome and obviously there are a lot more things to consider than a few years ago.
Tue Dec 7, 2021, 09:48 PM
Dec 2021

For instance, there is absolutely no way that I would want the file containing my login credentials and passwords to ever be uploaded to the cloud. I have that file on the hard drive and a flash drive attached to my keychain in case I had to leave the apartment because of a fire. I also print a hard copy of that document periodically so I can still access my accounts at the library in case all of my devices were inaccessible. Like I said, it's beneficial to have redundancies built into almost any type of system that is developed.

cilla4progress

(25,904 posts)
7. Wow ‐ impressive forethought!
Tue Dec 7, 2021, 09:55 PM
Dec 2021

I have a password vault that I keep all my login info in.

Now if there's a fire, I juatllst have to remember it! Your strategy is impressive!!

ManiacJoe

(10,136 posts)
8. Way late to the party....
Sun Dec 12, 2021, 04:59 AM
Dec 2021

Yes, the folders in Android (and iOS) work the same as in Windows (and MacOS). The one big difference -- that everyone hates -- is that when you copy a file, Android does NOT preserve the file dates. This is not normally a big deal except when dealing with pictures and videos. If your picture viewing app wrongly looks at the file dates when it should be looking at the "creation" and "edit" dates in the picture's EXIF data, sorting by "date" will look all jumbled if you copy the files to an SD card or different folder. If you need a picture viewing app that gets it right, try "piktures" from the Play Store.

Some files are expected to be in certain folders:
/Alarms
/Ringtones
/Notifications
/Documents
/Download
/DCIM -- taken by the phone's camera

Some apps will download files into the Downloads folder using a subfolder named for the app. Some apps will put their folder at the root of the drive/card. Some apps let you pick the location, some don't.

Many media apps don't care where the media files are located. As a result, there just end up being common conventions:
/Pictures -- edited or not taken by the phone's camera
/Music
/Movies
/Podcasts

Depending on the mood of the phone maker, your screenshots will normally be in a subfolder of /DCIM or /Pictures.

Android does not have a trash-can/recycle-bin. Some apps will implement their own.

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