Photos remain in Camera folder after factory reset

attila123456 · Jan 17, 2014

I performed a factory reset from the settings menu on my N4, all seemed fine, after reboot the phone was like new, asking for google account etc. Then, after signing in (not with the same account I had there before), the gallery app shows all of my old photos in the Camera folder. Shouldn't factory reset wipe all user data? Phone is rooted.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using xda app-developers app

bladebuddy · Jan 17, 2014

Not if you're pictures are stored on you're sd card as that isn't touched on a factory reset.

Phone : Nexus 4 /Rom : cataclysm / Kernel : Stock.

ksavai · Jan 17, 2014

attila123456 said:
I performed a factory reset from the settings menu on my N4, all seemed fine, after reboot the phone was like new, asking for google account etc. Then, after signing in (not with the same account I had there before), the gallery app shows all of my old photos in the Camera folder. Shouldn't factory reset wipe all user data? Phone is rooted.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using xda app-developers app

in recovery, there is option to wipe/format SD card

attila123456 · Jan 17, 2014

But there is no SD card in the Nexus 4...

attila123456 · Jan 17, 2014

If all personal data stays on the phone, that defeats the purpose of a factory reset, or am I missing something? I'm aware of the wipe options in recovery but no average (non-tech) user would ever use that... Especially when there's a factory reset option in Settings.

opssemnik · Jan 17, 2014

attila123456 said:
But there is no SD card in the Nexus 4...

there is a INTERNAL SDCARD or just SDCARD.
the n4 does not have a SLOT FOR EXTERNAL SDCARD.
(caps are just to diferentiate better. dont get me rude please.)

attila123456 · Jan 17, 2014

bladebuddy said:
Not if you're pictures are stored on you're sd card as that isn't touched on a factory reset.

I'm just splitting hairs here but where else would my pictures be stored if not on the internal SD card?

Anyways - I'll conclude that the 'standard' factory reset in android is.. well, broken.

bladebuddy · Jan 17, 2014

If you're factory resetting it wouldn't touch young sd card and your pictures will be in your DCIM or picture folder on you're virtual sd card that's the only place they can be after a factory reset. Unless you've stored them in cloud storage which means there still there or made a new folder.

Phone : Nexus 4 /Rom : cataclysm / Kernel : Stock.

---------- Post added at 03:26 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:24 PM ----------

Download a file manager and navigate to the above mentioned folders and delete them if you don't want them.

Phone : Nexus 4 /Rom : cataclysm / Kernel : Stock.

---------- Post added at 03:36 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:26 PM ----------

All a factory reset does is remove all SYSTEM data like apps and accounts e.t.c doesn't touch you're personal data you have saved over time as that's stored separately on the phones internal sd card the exact same as a removable ad card with the difference being you cannot remove it. Hope this helps.

Phone : Nexus 4 /Rom : cataclysm / Kernel : Stock.

---------- Post added at 03:42 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:36 PM ----------

Hang on are these photos only showing after you have signed into Google +.

Phone : Nexus 4 /Rom : cataclysm / Kernel : Stock.

Neet · Jan 19, 2014

attila123456 said:
I performed a factory reset from the settings menu on my N4, all seemed fine, after reboot the phone was like new, asking for google account etc. Then, after signing in (not with the same account I had there before), the gallery app shows all of my old photos in the Camera folder. Shouldn't factory reset wipe all user data? Phone is rooted.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using xda app-developers app

Do you by any chance have enabled auto backup in google+?
And then the pics show after you have signed into your Google account and initiated the sync?

attila123456 · Jan 19, 2014

After reset the phone was started with a different (new) google account, so it's not a sync thing.
Based on replies in this thread, factory reset doesn't wipe personal data from the internal storage.

arffrhn · Jan 19, 2014

attila123456 said:
After reset the phone was started with a different (new) google account, so it's not a sync thing.
Based on replies in this thread, factory reset doesn't wipe personal data from the internal storage.

Just a correction. You are using stock recovery or custom? If it's the latter, then that's it. Custom recovery like cwm/twrp won't wipe your sdcard (a.k.a your internal sd card). But if you are using stock recovery, factory reset will wipe all of it including your sdcard partition. So if you are using stock recovery and still the data is there..well that's weird.

attila123456 · Jan 19, 2014

Hm. I did have twrp... So when I do a reset via the settings menu, it uses recovery to perform the actual reset? And then because I had twrp, the data partition wasn't wiped?

arffrhn · Jan 19, 2014

attila123456 said:
Hm. I did have twrp... So when I do a reset via the settings menu, it uses recovery to perform the actual reset? And then because I had twrp, the data partition wasn't wiped?

Yeah because both twrp and cwm are set like that. Try factory reset using stock recovery and you'll see nothing left on your phone. Just like how you first bought it from store.

Neet · Jan 20, 2014

attila123456 said:
Hm. I did have twrp... So when I do a reset via the settings menu, it uses recovery to perform the actual reset? And then because I had twrp, the data partition wasn't wiped?

You can actually do complete wipe from custom recovery... You just have to manually select individual portions including sdcard...

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Photos remain in Camera folder after factory reset

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