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trouble with google photos app and should I switch to something else? (lemmy.world)
submitted 4 months ago by solrize@lemmy.world to c/android@lemmy.world
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Phone is Moto G Stylus with Android 13. Whenever I launch the built in photos app, it now gives me a nag screen to download a version upgrade. When I click "upgrade", nothing happens. It's conceivable that I have network permission disabled for the app. I better check.

  1. Is this a familiar thing? How do I make it stop, either by installing the upgrade or by shutting off the nag screen?

  2. Is there a FOSS photo viewer that anyone recommends instead, that I can install from F-droid? I'm reasonably satisfied with the UI of the Google one. It allows sharing photos, moving them into subfolders, seeing the metadata, and some minor editing, all of which are useful. I don't care in the slightest about cloud sync or google drive so it's ok if the replacement app doesn't have those.

Thanks!

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[-] CrayonRosary@lemmy.world 13 points 4 months ago

Fossify Gallery is the new fork of Simple Gallery after the latter was bought by a marketing company. It's on F-Droid and Droid-ify. https://www.f-droid.org/packages/org.fossify.gallery/

It's very customizable, and does everything you mentioned. Except that Google Photos can share a photo through the cloud. Fossify just has the normal Android share mechanism to send the photo to your email app, text app, etc.

The built-in basic editor is very basic. Instead, I use "Photo Editor" from dev.macguyver. It's practically Photoshop, but doing basic edits are pretty easy. I paid for the ad-free version, and it's totally worth it. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.iudesk.android.photo.editor

[-] sbv@sh.itjust.works 3 points 4 months ago

That photo editor looks great! Thanks!

[-] CrayonRosary@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago

It's amazing. It has Curves, Clone Stamp, arbitrary rotation, image overlay, text overlay, drawing tools... and on and on. You can sort the buttons at the bottom to have your most used tools on the left. There's a menu that does it: Use the three-bar menu in that row which opens all of the tools buttons for easy access in a single window, and at the bottom is a sort icon that lets you drag them up and down in a list.

[-] solrize@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Thanks! I just installed fossify gallery and it looks good so far. Is there a way to manually organize the folders on the screen? Basically I want to get the camera folder shown at the top. The other folders don't matter as much. This seems like a nice app that will take some getting used to.

Added: hmm, I hoped it could show some thumbnails for each folder like Google photos does.

[-] CrayonRosary@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago

Yes, you can "pin" a folder. Long press a folder then check the 3-dot menu.

Sadly, I don't know of a way to show multiple thumbnails for a folder.

I did recently discover the icon in the search bar that looks like a stack of image. It makes it show all photos by date, regardless of folder. Very handy. When combined with changing the column count in the menu (Or doing a pinch-to-zoom out, which can be a little laggy) you can see a ton of recent photos as once.

[-] solrize@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago

Thanks! Pinning the camera folder worked.

[-] Contort3860@links.hackliberty.org 2 points 4 months ago

You can sort folders from settings. It's also possible to pin the camera folder so it's always first.

[-] macattack@lemmy.world 10 points 4 months ago

In terms of a long-term solution, if you have a lot of time and want to learn a new hobby, you could self-host Immich.

In the short-term, have you cleared cache or tried deleting and reinstalling?

[-] CrayonRosary@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago

I think you missed this part.

I don't care in the slightest about cloud sync or google drive so it's ok if the replacement app doesn't have those.

[-] solrize@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago

I'll look at immich but I already have a self hosted next cloud that I use for occasional photo uploads. Thanks.

[-] michel@friend.ketterle.ch 2 points 4 months ago

@solrize

I strongly propose
f-droid.org/de/packages/decker…

[-] solrize@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago

Thanks, thanks looks interesting and I might give it a try. I've already gotten a little bit used to fossify gallery though.

[-] michel@friend.ketterle.ch 2 points 4 months ago

@solrize
What I like most, is the support of Album, Title and Tags this in a really good Design.

[-] peter@feddit.uk 1 points 4 months ago

If you don't use the cloud sync does your phone not have a system gallery app that's sufficient?

[-] tubaruco@lemm.ee 1 points 4 months ago

motorola doesnt come with its own gallery app, only google photos, unfortunately

[-] solrize@lemmy.world 0 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

I thought the system app was google photos? I'll look in the apps screen again though.

[-] tubaruco@lemm.ee 1 points 4 months ago

every motorola phone ive had never had any builtin gallery app, only google photos (which i disable and install fossify gallery instead)

this is probably because motorola adds very little to stock android, and as far as i know, stock android only has google photos, sadly

[-] solrize@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago

My last moto (g4) was basically stock Android but the current phone had a ton of crap that I deleted or disabled.

[-] tubaruco@lemm.ee 1 points 4 months ago

well my family has moto g8 plays and some other, newer models. what android version was the g4?

and yeah, stock android does have a lot of useless stuff

[-] solrize@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago

The G4 was shipped with Android 6 and there was an OTA upgrade to Android 7. It was a nice phone but it became stupidly slow with modern web bloat, and the software generally became flaky over time. The new phone is a huge improvement despite a few regressions.

[-] vamp07@lemm.ee 0 points 4 months ago

It's this kind of nonsense that always makes me run back to my iPhone.

this post was submitted on 14 Feb 2024
21 points (100.0% liked)

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