On Samsung smartphones running Android, the native gallery and Google Photos share the same pool of local files. The confusion rarely arises from active synchronization between the two applications, but from the fact that the Samsung gallery indexes all folders containing media, including those managed by Google Photos. Turning off cloud backup does not change this local display, which explains the recurring frustration on forums.
.nomedia file and folder exclusion on Samsung
The most reliable method to prevent the Samsung gallery from displaying images from Google Photos is to act at the file system level, not in the app settings. Android uses a marker file named .nomedia: any folder containing this file is ignored by the system’s media scanners.
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Specifically, the Samsung gallery does not scan Google Photos as an application. It scans the directories of internal storage. If Google Photos has downloaded pictures into a local folder (cache or offline download), that folder will appear in the gallery.
To create a .nomedia file, we recommend a file manager capable of displaying hidden files. Samsung’s “My Files” app is suitable, provided you enable the option in its settings.
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- Navigate to the relevant folder (often Android/data/com.google.android.apps.photos or a subfolder of cache)
- Create an empty text file and rename it exactly “.nomedia” (with the initial dot, without the .txt extension)
- Restart the phone or force a re-scan by clearing the cache of the Gallery app in Settings > Apps
After this manipulation, the images in this folder disappear from the Samsung gallery without being deleted from the cloud or local storage. The procedure to unlink Google Photos from the gallery on Samsung is based on this logic of folder visibility, much more than on a simple disconnect button.
Folder backup in Google Photos: the often-overlooked setting
Google Photos does not automatically back up all folders on the phone. Only the DCIM/Camera folder is enabled by default. Other directories (screenshots, WhatsApp, downloads) require manual activation in the backup settings.
This detail is central: many users think that Google Photos pulls in their entire gallery, while folder backup must be manually enabled for each source. The reverse problem also exists. Folders mistakenly activated send unwanted images to the cloud.
Check and modify backed-up folders
Open Google Photos, tap your avatar in the top right, then “Photos Settings” and finally “Backup”. Under the “Back up device folders” section, each detected directory appears with an individual switch.
Disabling a folder here does not delete the photos already sent to the cloud. It only prevents future additions. To remove existing cloud copies, you must go through Google Photos directly and remove them manually, making sure not to check “Also delete from device”.
Difference between gallery display and cloud backup on Android
We observe that the majority of “unlinking” requests stem from confusion between two independent mechanisms. The display in the Samsung gallery is a local scan of storage. The Google Photos backup is a transfer to Google’s servers.
Disabling cloud backup does not prevent the gallery from displaying local files. Conversely, deleting a photo from the Samsung gallery may trigger its deletion in Google Photos if bidirectional synchronization is active.
Google account settings on Samsung
In Settings > Accounts and backup > Account management, select your Google account. The “Sync account” option lists the synchronized services. Unchecking Google Photos here cuts off synchronization of metadata (albums, edits), but does not affect the physical files already present on the device.
For a clean separation, the following combination covers both layers:
- Disable backup in Google Photos (Photos Settings > Backup > disable)
- Uncheck Google account synchronization for the Photos service
- Place a .nomedia file in the cache folders of Google Photos to block indexing by the gallery
- Clear the cache of the Gallery app to force a new scan
Automatic saving of third-party media in the Samsung gallery
One last point deserves attention. Some third-party applications (WhatsApp, Telegram, web browsers) save media in folders that Google Photos and the Samsung gallery index simultaneously. The overlap does not come from Google Photos itself but from the shared folder.
On Samsung, the Gallery app offers a “Hidden albums” feature accessible via the three-dot menu in the Albums view. Hiding an album does not delete anything: it simply removes the folder from the main display. This approach is less radical than the .nomedia file and is suitable for users who want to keep Google Photos functional while visually cleaning up their gallery.
The complete unlinking between Google Photos and the Samsung gallery involves three distinct levels: cloud backup, account synchronization, and visibility of local folders. Acting on only one of these levels leaves the other two active, which explains why so many tutorials only partially resolve the issue.