Gallery can't find any pictures

Question

I've always had most of my pictures saved in different folders so the gallery will show multiple albums. I never had a problem until today.  I backed up my pictures to my computer and moved a few folders around.  When I disconnected my phone, my gallery could no longer find any pictures--not even Camera Shots or the sample pictures that came with it, which I didn't move.  The pictures are still on my phone--I can see them in Astro File Manager, they appear in the correct folders when I connect the phone to my computer as a disk drive, and none of my contacts' pictures have changed.  Any thoughts?  I do NOT want to do a reset that will erase my phone's data and settings; I'd rather use a third party app (even if it costs money) if there's no way to get the stock gallery to work again.

I appreciate any help you can provide!

msbork · Accepted Answer

After fiddling around with it some more, I think I fixed it.  On my SD Card, I moved the pictures that were still in the "Pictures" folder to the card's root.  (Most of my pictures were already there.)  After that folder was empty, I deleted it.  Then I disconnected the phone from the computer and rebooted the phone.  When it came back up, the pictures I had stored on the SD Card were showing up in the Gallery and could be used for wallpaper, my contacts' pictures, etc.  I created a new folder called "Pictures," but I don't have anything in it at the moment.

The DCIM folder in phone storage gave me more trouble, though I was able to get the sample pictures back (oh boy!) after completing the above steps and restoring everything but the Camera Shots.  I changed my camera shots to go to the SD Card instead of internal storage, and everything seems to be OK, even after another reboot (knock on wood).

Thanks to anyone who may have looked at this and considered what was going on. Hopefully this can help someone else in the future!