How do I take Control of my Android

[101RRS]

I have a recently purchased Google Pixel 2 XL and all its current content was copied over from my old Samsung S4 - not quite the seamless process I was led to believe but I got most of the information across.

All my contacts and photo folders copied across Ok and were working fine. Today Mr Android tells me I need to update the operating system to the absolute latest android version which was quickly done.

But now Mr Android has decided it knows better than me and has completely deleted my Pic folder and created its own - based around its own ideas of subject matter - on of which is selfies - so any pic that has a human face in it has been moved to a selfie folder, not the previous folders of Me, Mum, Brothers, Friends etc. Oh I had 6 different car folders by model name - now all there is, isone folder it calls cars. Yes all the actual pics are still there listed in date order but the folder structure has been completely destroyed.

Also it wants me to use the "cloud" - I have previously told it to **** off but it really wants me to use it which I have no intention of doing but it is still wanting me to sync and go to the cloud.

Oh - why do I need a gmail address - I dont want one but had to create one for the old Samsung but I never used it and it was generally ignored - not any more - to create a contact in my contact list I have to attach it to a gmail address - sorry but I dont want it attached to a gmail address, I just want a contacts list.

Why do I need a gmail address to use my phone - dont need it, dont want it but apparently the phone wants it.

So how to I take control of my latest smart phone so it does what I want it to do and not what Mr Google Android wants it to do.

Also, if I go back and create my photo folders again, will Mr Android take them away again with the next update.

Garry

[Tombie]

What it wants is to be able to restore from a back up if your phone dies.

Hence cloud [emoji41]

Then the gmail account stores contacts

Hence gmail

It’s not a bad thing to do, don’t be stubborn as it has huge upsides...

[speleomike]

Hi

It's part of a fad with operating system and GUI designers - they know better than you how you should arrange your files :-) The best way is to keep your pics, they way you want them arranged, on your PC at home and say to Mr Android that he can't touch them. I find the same with bookmarks, have to keep the canonical set on my Linux machine at home. When I bookmark things on my Android they later get transferred to my home bookmarks file.

A gmail address isn't too bad. It's actually useful.

Mike

[101RRS]

What it wants is to be able to restore from a back up if your phone dies.

Hence cloud [emoji41]

So it can be hacked as has already happened - no thanks. I have my own backup arrangement that works fine. If people want to use the cloud that is fine - their choice but I also want to choose what I want not what Mr Android wants.




Then the gmail account stores contacts

Hence gmail

It’s not a bad thing to do, don’t be stubborn as it has huge upsides...

But I dont need another email account - contacts just need to be in the phone, not attached to an email. Not being stubborn, I just want the phone to do what I want and require, not what Mt Android wants. Sorry but I dont see the upside but plenty of downsides.

Was all fine until the last operating system update. Now beginning to understand why some people are reluctant to update their IT stuff - maybe why I am still on Win 7 on this laptop - works fine - better than the later Win 10+ system.

[Disco-tastic]

Search lineageOS and see if they have an operating system for your phone. You will need to "root" your phone (it means gain root access, not what you're thinking :p) and follow their instructions. You could then try and restore from your S4 backup. I use magisk manager as a tool to access root privileges, and am running lineageOS14 (android 7 equivalent) on my S5. For a pixel 2 I assume that only the android 8 equivalent is available.

There are also other custom ROMs that you can install that might suit you better than vanilla android. Have a look around and see what you prefer.

Take note that you may not be able to restore your phone to factory fresh android. Make sure you do your own research and make your own call

Also, regarding photos, I have mine stored in named folders on my SD card and phone. The pictures app that I have uses those folders in it's UI, and can move photos around the memory, keeping them organised . I'd recommend you use this method (many apps can do it, including most standard photo apps) as physically orders you pictures,and you can just transfer the SD card to a new phone. (Edit: pixel xl may not have an SD card slot! In that case create the folders on your phones memory and back them up as per usual.

Best of luck

Dan

[Tombie]

Garry,

They also hack directly into Droid phones - more common than you think.

So whilst you’re attached to any network of any type you’re already susceptible to attack.

The droid platform has freedoms which create risk.

[Tombie]

Another benefit I find - lost or damaged phone - I will never lose any data [emoji41]

My cloud is regularly updated with new passwords of ridiculous complexity. If they want to hack it to see pics of my bike build, cars, holidays etc then good luck to them!

Changing phones for me is as simple as turning the new one on and entering a user name and password; within minutes my apps, layout, settings, contacts etc all reload and off I go.. handy as I update annually.

[incisor]

what he said!

and it gets away from any brand dependacy

i move seamlessly between *droid and IOS units at will... and in a matter of minutes...

[Disco-tastic]

Another benefit I find - lost or damaged phone - I will never lose any data [emoji41]

My cloud is regularly updated with new passwords of ridiculous complexity. If they want to hack it to see pics of my bike build, cars, holidays etc then good luck to them!

Changing phones for me is as simple as turning the new one on and entering a user name and password; within minutes my apps, layout, settings, contacts etc all reload and off I go.. handy as I update annually.What do you use to copy apps and layouts across?

I'm looking to upgrade the OS and was planning to use titanium backup for apps, but never knew you could keep layouts and other settings between android versions.

[101RRS]

Can anyone recommend a basic android photo management app? I am after something simple that when you take a pic it goes to a camera folder, has a download type folder for pics that are downloaded or bluetoothed and an ability to create folders as i see fit not what android thinks I want - eg when i take a pic of say a car android will often send the pic to a folder it thinks it should go to. Likewise - screen shots currently can end up in the camera folder or the screenshots folder but if taken via voice command can end up anywhere and sometimes cannot be found - I assume they go to the cloud even though I have them turned off.

To be clear - this is a post asking for a recommendation on a simple photo managment app - not issues with how to make the standard android pic management system work.

Thanks

Garry

[AK83]

Can anyone recommend a basic android photo management app? ....

I've used QuickPic for years now.
Of the few various gallery apps I've tried, I think it's the only one that didn't annoy me in some way.
I can't recall all the settings options, but I vaguely remember setting some.
But, the caveat here for me is that I don't use my phone for taking photos(I'm a amateur photography geek type). I only really use the phone/photo combo rarely to show pics to friends if they ask to see some.
So most of my photo usage on the phone is simply 'gallery'.

For management of photos on the phone(that is my real photos, uploaded from PC to phone) is all done via the PC.

If I take a photo via the phone, I care not for where it goes or what it does .. it's always a throwaway photo .. as in most likely something for work(wrong product loaded, or whatever other issue). Sometimes I take a quick snapshot of some work done to car either as a record(remembering how it goes back), or just a quick reference shot of some other type. I doubt I've kept any of these photos longer than a few months or so.

ie. The point made above is that, I'm not entirely sure about your usage of phone/photo environment, but it may be different to how I use it.

For actual management of files and photos or whatever on the phone, my preference is to use MyPhoneExplorer on the PC(app needs to be active on the phone too). If you've never used MPE, it's a handy bit of software to 'take control' of your Android phone via the PC.
So file management is similar to using Windows Explorer on the PC, the MPE software is similar to Windows Explorer, where you get a list of all the storage areas on the phone in a LH pane, and list of the files in the main body of the window.
MPE has many and varied method of connection(Bt/Wifi/USB cable) and that connection speed can determine how fast it operates too.

As for where photos go when I take them:(phone is an LG something-or-other, on Android 6.0.1 here)
it used to store them in a folder called [100ANDRO]. How, who and why??? no idea. But I must have changed something at some point.
it now stores them in a folder called [Camera].
Always on a mSD card tho.

I do remember at some point setting the phone to store photos captured on the SD card, not the phones memory.
Does the Pixel have an external storage device like a microSD card slot?
This could be a major factor in how/why some folks seem to have issues, and others don't.

[101RRS]

Thanks Arthur - lots of information there.

Do you think that QuickPic would meet my basic requirement to manage pics taken by my phone and downloaded etc - I transfer everything from the phone to my laptop every month.

Cheers

garry

[Disco-tastic]

Simple gallery for gallery
A file manager like astro in case you need to create new albums or search files in general
Send anywhere for transferring files to your computer

That's what I use. The original Samsung gallery was great (better than simple gallery) but I can't find a version of it that works on my phone. I mainly need to move photos from the main camera gallery to folders (albums) on my SD card, and if simple gallery won't let me create a folder I use astro to create a new folder where I want it and then move a photo there so the gallery recognises it.

It may sound a but complicated but it really isn't

Send anywhere is super easy to use, though the ads can be annoying

[Tins]

Buy an iPhone... This does not happen with Apple. ( Sorry, Pedro ).

[Landy Red]

I think for you best thing to do is use default gallery but go to settings and turn off 'auto stories.' As for gmail, your contacts get saved here which is great if you lose your phone as your contacts will be saved on your gmail account. The cloud is just online storage you can turn it off in gallery settings. Also, Go into your camera settings and tell it to save to phone (or better to sd card.) You can also use 'my files' app in android to rename, move and find files. You could go there to take control of your files and how and where they are saved.

[AK83]

Thanks Arthur - lots of information there.

Do you think that QuickPic would meet my basic requirement to manage pics taken by my phone and downloaded etc ....

Yeah, I think so.
It has the ability to manage images much better than most default gallery apps(that I've seen).

I'm fairly sure that it will find every image on your device.
So when you take a photo and it seems to go missing, it should locate it in whatever obscure folder that the image was saved too.
It's method to move images is very simples!

[101RRS]

Still got issues with photo management of my Google Pixel 2 XL. I find that Google Photos is absolutely hopeless and is impossible to manage photos into folders that I want - when you take a pic it goes into the standard "camera" folder where you copy it to one of your folders however when you delete the pic from the Camera Holding Folder it also deletes it from the folder as well.

I tried QuickPic but it is just a clone of Google Photos so is not advantage - if I delete or move photos in Google Photos it also changes or deletes photos in QuickPic. Likewise when I connect the phone to the computer, I can move everything around in windows explorer, delete files, create folder etc - so what I want to do but when the phone is disconnected from the computer it is as if nothing has happened.

Likewise if you need to share a pic via SMS etc the only option is to take pics from Google Photos not any other app.

I have tried to delete Google Photos so I can install something else but it cannot be deleted - you can only disable or force stop but comes back as soon as you take a pic.

Does anyone have specific experience using Google Photos and managing pics or how to replace it - I had no issues with my olf Samsung but this is the pits. The Samsung equivalent is great.

Thanks

Garry