• The perversity of Samsung

    From Stan Brown@21:1/5 to All on Wed Sep 18 16:05:16 2024
    I needed to upload a picture from my Samsung A54 5G phone to my
    windows 10 PC. (It's for a passport, so I couldn't just email it to
    myself because the phone compressed it from 4 MB down to 200 KB; the
    State Department wants full resolution.)

    Connected phone to PC by USB cable, picked "Transferring files" in
    the phone's popup. In Windows File Explorer, opened Galaxy A54 5G��
    Internal Storage�� DCIM�� Camera. No sign of my picture. Switched to
    View�� Details so that I could sort newest to oldest, since this
    picture is the one I took most recently. Nothing there more recent
    than last fall, when I switched from a Moto e5+ phone. Hmm. Picture
    must be somewhere on the Samsung, but where?

    Opened Gallery on the phone and the picture was right there. Tapped
    on the i-in-a-circle, and the phone showed the location as /Internal Storage/DCIM/Camera. But that's the folder I have open in File
    Explorer, and the pic isn't there! Maybe the picture is a hidden
    file, and I need to enable viewing hidden files? Clicked View in File
    Explorer, and Hidden Items was already checked.

    Something whispered to me to turn off viewing of Hidden Items. As
    soon as I did that, File Explorer showed the pictures I had taken
    with the Samsung phone. I clicked the photo I wanted and dragged it
    to my desktop/.

    That's right, the picture files are invisible when View�� Hidden
    Items is checked, and visible when View Hidden Items is blank (not
    checked). Oy vey!


    --
    Stan Brown, Tehachapi, California, USA https://BrownMath.com/
    Shikata ga nai...

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  • From Jim the Geordie@21:1/5 to Stan Brown on Thu Sep 19 00:40:43 2024
    On 19/09/2024 00:05, Stan Brown wrote:

    I needed to upload a picture from my Samsung A54 5G phone to my
    windows 10 PC. (It's for a passport, so I couldn't just email it to
    myself because the phone compressed it from 4 MB down to 200 KB; the
    State Department wants full resolution.)

    Connected phone to PC by USB cable, picked "Transferring files" in
    the phone's popup. In Windows File Explorer, opened Galaxy A54 5G » Internal Storage » DCIM » Camera. No sign of my picture. Switched to View » Details so that I could sort newest to oldest, since this
    picture is the one I took most recently. Nothing there more recent
    than last fall, when I switched from a Moto e5+ phone. Hmm. Picture
    must be somewhere on the Samsung, but where?

    Opened Gallery on the phone and the picture was right there. Tapped
    on the i-in-a-circle, and the phone showed the location as /Internal Storage/DCIM/Camera. But that's the folder I have open in File
    Explorer, and the pic isn't there! Maybe the picture is a hidden
    file, and I need to enable viewing hidden files? Clicked View in File Explorer, and Hidden Items was already checked.

    Something whispered to me to turn off viewing of Hidden Items. As
    soon as I did that, File Explorer showed the pictures I had taken
    with the Samsung phone. I clicked the photo I wanted and dragged it
    to my desktop/.

    That's right, the picture files are invisible when View » Hidden
    Items is checked, and visible when View Hidden Items is blank (not
    checked). Oy vey!


    Just go to the nearest photo booth and save the hassle.

    --
    Jim the Geordie

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  • From Andrew@21:1/5 to Jim the Geordie on Thu Sep 19 00:28:29 2024
    Jim the Geordie wrote on Thu, 19 Sep 2024 00:40:43 +0100 :

    That's right, the picture files are invisible when View�� Hidden
    Items is checked, and visible when View Hidden Items is blank (not
    checked). Oy vey!

    Just go to the nearest photo booth and save the hassle.

    A search for free, ad free passport photo apps in the app finder
    shows these apps are available for Android passport photo making.

    https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.yuanfang2345.passport https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.passportphoto.visaid.photomaker
    https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.darkgalaxy.client.app_id_photo

    None have costs (that I know of) nor ads but since costs can come later, I tried each one of them once for you and they seem to be legit free apps.

    If you use them, let us know how they work so we benefit from your action.

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  • From Steve Hayes@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Thu Sep 19 07:24:25 2024
    On Wed, 18 Sep 2024 16:05:16 -0700, Stan Brown
    <[email protected]> wrote:


    I needed to upload a picture from my Samsung A54 5G phone to my
    windows 10 PC. (It's for a passport, so I couldn't just email it to
    myself because the phone compressed it from 4 MB down to 200 KB; the
    State Department wants full resolution.)

    Connected phone to PC by USB cable, picked "Transferring files" in
    the phone's popup. In Windows File Explorer, opened Galaxy A54 5G » >Internal Storage » DCIM » Camera. No sign of my picture. Switched to >View » Details so that I could sort newest to oldest, since this
    picture is the one I took most recently. Nothing there more recent
    than last fall, when I switched from a Moto e5+ phone. Hmm. Picture
    must be somewhere on the Samsung, but where?

    My Samsung phone is even more perverse.

    Four times out of fice, when I plug it in to transfer the picture, it
    tells me "Charging" and refuses to show me anything on the phone at
    all.

    It requires several reboots of both the phone and the computer to get
    it to show the picture directory at all, or anything other than
    "charging".




    --
    Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
    Web: http://www.khanya.org.za/stevesig.htm
    Blog: http://khanya.wordpress.com
    E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk

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  • From Java Jive@21:1/5 to Stan Brown on Thu Sep 19 10:01:56 2024
    On 2024-09-19 00:05, Stan Brown wrote:

    I needed to upload a picture from my Samsung A54 5G phone to my
    windows 10 PC. (It's for a passport, so I couldn't just email it to
    myself because the phone compressed it from 4 MB down to 200 KB; the
    State Department wants full resolution.)

    Connected phone to PC by USB cable, picked "Transferring files" in
    the phone's popup. In Windows File Explorer, opened Galaxy A54 5G » Internal Storage » DCIM » Camera. No sign of my picture. Switched to View » Details so that I could sort newest to oldest, since this
    picture is the one I took most recently. Nothing there more recent
    than last fall, when I switched from a Moto e5+ phone. Hmm. Picture
    must be somewhere on the Samsung, but where?

    Opened Gallery on the phone and the picture was right there. Tapped
    on the i-in-a-circle, and the phone showed the location as /Internal Storage/DCIM/Camera. But that's the folder I have open in File
    Explorer, and the pic isn't there! Maybe the picture is a hidden
    file, and I need to enable viewing hidden files? Clicked View in File Explorer, and Hidden Items was already checked.

    Something whispered to me to turn off viewing of Hidden Items. As
    soon as I did that, File Explorer showed the pictures I had taken
    with the Samsung phone. I clicked the photo I wanted and dragged it
    to my desktop/.

    That's right, the picture files are invisible when View » Hidden
    Items is checked, and visible when View Hidden Items is blank (not
    checked). Oy vey!

    This has never been my experience with any Samsung or Android phone.
    I have never had problems with hidden photo files. The only 'problem' I
    have ever had is whereas with my first Samsung phone, a Galaxy Note 2
    now long since dead, you could just connect the phone to the PC and
    everything would be accessible, now I have to 'sign in' to a phone by
    whatever method you have set up, for example fingerprint recognition or
    PIN, and possibly make suitable choices on it before the phone's
    directory structure appears in Windows Explorer.

    Once I've 'signed in' to my Samsung SM-T719, I can see the directory
    structure, including photos in:
    Tablet\DCIM\Camera

    Once I've 'signed in' to my Pixel 8a, I have to swipe down to bring up
    the notifications and make further choices there before I can see the
    directory structure on the PC, including photos in:
    DCIM\Camera

    --

    Fake news kills!

    I may be contacted via the contact address given on my website:
    www.macfh.co.uk

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  • From Frank Slootweg@21:1/5 to Stan Brown on Thu Sep 19 14:56:11 2024
    Stan Brown <[email protected]> wrote:

    I needed to upload a picture from my Samsung A54 5G phone to my
    windows 10 PC. (It's for a passport, so I couldn't just email it to
    myself because the phone compressed it from 4 MB down to 200 KB; the
    State Department wants full resolution.)

    Connected phone to PC by USB cable, picked "Transferring files" in
    the phone's popup. In Windows File Explorer, opened Galaxy A54 5G��
    Internal Storage�� DCIM�� Camera. No sign of my picture. Switched to
    View�� Details so that I could sort newest to oldest, since this
    picture is the one I took most recently. Nothing there more recent
    than last fall, when I switched from a Moto e5+ phone. Hmm. Picture
    must be somewhere on the Samsung, but where?

    Opened Gallery on the phone and the picture was right there. Tapped
    on the i-in-a-circle, and the phone showed the location as /Internal Storage/DCIM/Camera. But that's the folder I have open in File
    Explorer, and the pic isn't there! Maybe the picture is a hidden
    file, and I need to enable viewing hidden files? Clicked View in File Explorer, and Hidden Items was already checked.

    Something whispered to me to turn off viewing of Hidden Items. As
    soon as I did that, File Explorer showed the pictures I had taken
    with the Samsung phone. I clicked the photo I wanted and dragged it
    to my desktop/.

    That's right, the picture files are invisible when View�� Hidden
    Items is checked, and visible when View Hidden Items is blank (not
    checked). Oy vey!

    I'm sorry, but I don't have that problem for my Samsung Galaxy A51
    (Android 13) phone with Windows 11 (and didn't have it for earlier
    Android and Windows versionsi). View (-> Show) -> Hidden items behaves
    exactly as it should. My Camera folder has one hidden file .<something>
    (don't ask) which is hidden if Hidden items is off/unticked and shown if
    it's on/ticked.

    Anyway, if anything, this is more likely a Windows/MTP problem than a
    phone problem, so unless your PC is also a Samsung, your subject line is probably misplaced! :-)

    BTW, for single file transfers, you might want to use 'Quick Share from Google' on your computer, instead of a USB/MTP connection. (FWIW, I use
    both Quick Share and USB/MTP as suits me.)

    There have been some name-changes for this facility, so here are some relevant references:

    https://9to5google.com/2024/02/01/android-quick-share-direct-share-menu/

    https://www.sammobile.com/news/new-quick-share-released-galaxy-phones-tablets/

    https://www.techradar.com/phones/android/google-and-samsungs-version-of-airdrop-is-starting-to-roll-out-to-android-devices

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  • From Arno Welzel@21:1/5 to All on Thu Sep 26 01:06:59 2024
    Stan Brown, 2024-09-19 01:05:


    I needed to upload a picture from my Samsung A54 5G phone to my
    windows 10 PC. (It's for a passport, so I couldn't just email it to
    myself because the phone compressed it from 4 MB down to 200 KB; the
    State Department wants full resolution.)
    [...]
    That's right, the picture files are invisible when View » Hidden
    Items is checked, and visible when View Hidden Items is blank (not
    checked). Oy vey!

    Next time use Cx File Explorer, enable "Access from Network" and then
    FileZilla on the PC to download the files.

    Cx File Explorer:

    <https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cxinventor.file.explorer>

    FileZilla:

    <https://filezilla-project.org>

    OR:

    Share a folder on your PC in Windows and use Cx File Explorer to access
    that as network location. Then you can copy the pictures from Android to
    the PC using the copy function of Cx File Explorer.



    --
    Arno Welzel
    https://arnowelzel.de

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  • From Stan Brown@21:1/5 to All on Thu Sep 26 13:31:05 2024
    And in yesterday's update, Samsung changed my Google messages app
    theme from dark to light.

    What is it with these software makers who gratuitously change user
    preferences during an update?

    --
    Stan Brown, Tehachapi, California, USA https://BrownMath.com/
    Shikata ga nai...

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Stan Brown@21:1/5 to Frank Slootweg on Sat Sep 28 16:49:37 2024
    On 27 Sep 2024 10:15:49 GMT, Frank Slootweg wrote:
    Stan Brown <[email protected]> wrote:
    And in yesterday's update, Samsung changed my Google messages app
    theme from dark to light.

    If that's an in-app setting, it's unlikely that Samsung made that
    change, especially as Samsung have their own Messages app.

    Perhaps there was a 'Google Play system update' at the same time (or
    that update was put in effect by the reboot)?

    If there was, it wasn't mentioned in Samsung's update notice, nor in
    the on-screen messages during the update.


    --
    Stan Brown, Tehachapi, California, USA https://BrownMath.com/
    Shikata ga nai...

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Frank Slootweg@21:1/5 to Stan Brown on Mon Sep 30 09:44:47 2024
    Stan Brown <[email protected]> wrote:
    On 27 Sep 2024 10:15:49 GMT, Frank Slootweg wrote:
    Stan Brown <[email protected]> wrote:
    And in yesterday's update, Samsung changed my Google messages app
    theme from dark to light.

    If that's an in-app setting, it's unlikely that Samsung made that
    change, especially as Samsung have their own Messages app.

    Perhaps there was a 'Google Play system update' at the same time (or
    that update was put in effect by the reboot)?

    If there was, it wasn't mentioned in Samsung's update notice, nor in
    the on-screen messages during the update.

    A Samsung update notice is unlikely to mention a Google update, as
    they're not related.

    A 'Google Play system update' is mostly silent. At bootup, you can
    only see the installation progress on the notification panel, but as
    that's normally hidden, you won't see it, unless you specifically go
    looking at it.

    AFAIK, you can only see which version of the Google Play system
    update is installed (and check if there's a newer one), but I don't
    think you can see when that update was installed, i.e. you can't see if
    it was installed just before the theme change.

    To see the version:

    Settings -> Abut phone -> Software information ->

    "Google Play system update
    <month> <day>, <year>"

    Tap that info field to see if there is an update which needs to be
    installed.

    Another place for info on 'Google Play system update's is:

    Settings -> Security and privacy -> Updates

    This lists both Samsung syste/security updates and 'Google Play system update's. For the latter, you'll see an orange exclamation mark if
    there's a new update or a green 'V' if you already have the latest. But
    a green 'V' does not mean the latest has already been *installed*, so
    tap on the info info to see if it needs a restart.

    Hope this helps.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Andrew@21:1/5 to Frank Slootweg on Wed Oct 2 19:38:54 2024
    Frank Slootweg wrote on 30 Sep 2024 09:44:47 GMT :


    If there was, it wasn't mentioned in Samsung's update notice, nor in
    the on-screen messages during the update.

    A Samsung update notice is unlikely to mention a Google update, as
    they're not related.

    Just so Stan is aware, there are a TON of updates that happen to the
    Android phone, most of which, as Frank noted, you don't even see them.

    Every single month, for example, there are updates to as many as 30
    underlying Android packages, which is completely controlled over the
    Internet, by Google, and which has nothing to do with Samsung or the
    carrier.

    Then there are the updates by Samsung.
    And the updates by the carrier.

    And even more, as Qualcomm sneaks in there too.

    On this newsgroup we've discussed every one of those, so this is just a
    summary that Frank is correct that there are updates you never see because Android updates in asynchronous layers. It's not a monolith.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Frank Slootweg@21:1/5 to Stan Brown on Fri Sep 27 10:15:49 2024
    Stan Brown <[email protected]> wrote:
    And in yesterday's update, Samsung changed my Google messages app
    theme from dark to light.

    If that's an in-app setting, it's unlikely that Samsung made that
    change, especially as Samsung have their own Messages app.

    Perhaps there was a 'Google Play system update' at the same time (or
    that update was put in effect by the reboot)?

    What is it with these software makers who gratuitously change user preferences during an update?

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From micky@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Fri Oct 4 02:35:01 2024
    In comp.mobile.android, on Thu, 19 Sep 2024 07:24:25 +0200, Steve Hayes <[email protected]> wrote:

    On Wed, 18 Sep 2024 16:05:16 -0700, Stan Brown
    <[email protected]> wrote:


    I needed to upload a picture from my Samsung A54 5G phone to my
    windows 10 PC. (It's for a passport, so I couldn't just email it to
    myself because the phone compressed it from 4 MB down to 200 KB; the
    State Department wants full resolution.)

    Connected phone to PC by USB cable, picked "Transferring files" in
    the phone's popup. In Windows File Explorer, opened Galaxy A54 5G�� >>Internal Storage�� DCIM�� Camera. No sign of my picture. Switched to
    View�� Details so that I could sort newest to oldest, since this
    picture is the one I took most recently. Nothing there more recent
    than last fall, when I switched from a Moto e5+ phone. Hmm. Picture
    must be somewhere on the Samsung, but where?

    My Samsung phone is even more perverse.

    Four times out of fice, when I plug it in to transfer the picture, it
    tells me "Charging" and refuses to show me anything on the phone at
    all.

    It requires several reboots of both the phone and the computer to get
    it to show the picture directory at all, or anything other than
    "charging".

    Charging is very important. You should be glad that it's charging.
    There are amsll phones in China that don't charge at all.

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