So I got this funny situation at the moment. My phone, a Pixel 6, has run out of space. Normally, I would be okay with using a cloud service, but a bulk of the files on my phone are images and videos. Again, I would be ok with storing all of these in a cloud, but I couldn’t stand Google Photos and wanted more options, so I installed an app called F-Stop. I have been in love with it and have made it my main gallery app, but now I have run out of storage.

So I got this funny situation at the moment. My phone, a Pixel 6, has run out of space. Normally, I would be okay with using a cloud service, but a bulk of the files on my phone are images and videos. Again, I would be okay with storing all of these in a cloud, but I couldn’t stand Google Photos and wanted more options, so I installed an app called F-Stop. I have been in love with it and have made it my main gallery app, but now I have run out of storage.

Here is where my problem arises. I can get my flash drives and micro SD to connect to my phone. Both with the pluggable and a basic adaptor. When I go into my files using a file viewing app, I can see my phone’s files and the files of all the connected storage devices. What I can’t do is get any gallery app to work with these storage devices. I tried my F-Stop, Google Photos, and a few other basic gallery apps. I have the ability to move images into my storage devices using a file viewer app, but I can’t see these moved images when in a gallery app.

Is there a way to view images in a storage device that isn’t a files app? I just want to see these images in one of my gallery apps. I imagine that if I can get one working, then I can figure out from there why F-Stop isn’t seeing these folders.

In each of the gallery apps, I tried giving the apps permission to view and edit the folders of the storage units. I have tried downloading the sandisk app, though that only works with a basic adaptor and not a pluggable. The sandisk app was saying something OTG but I didn’t understand what it was saying and couldn’t find a setting in my settings that was related. My phone says that in settings, it sees a USB is connected, but it says “USB controlled by” “Connected Device” and not “This Device”. I can’t get it to switch. It also says “Use USB for” “Nothing” instead of “File Transfer / Android Auto”, another setting I can’t change. I don’t know if this has anything to do with it.

Googling a solution for this has been a nightmare. Google prioritizes the search results to its own support forum, and it never gives me anything related to my search. I don’t know if I am just bad at making the right search or if I am typing too many buzzwords that google is trying to send me somewhere else. Most search results are regarding moving files from a storage unit to the phone and vice versa, but I don’t want that, I just want the ability to see my storage’s images in my gallery apps.

I am going to keep searching for a solution and trying different things out. I apologize if this is the wrong subreddit for this kind of issue or if this post isn’t posted correctly for this subreddit. I appreciate you reading this far and thank you for any help/suggestions you may have.