---
title: "Move your photos to a new gallery"
slug: move-your-photos-to-a-new-gallery
summary: "Every photo, every album, nothing left behind."
difficulty: medium
time_minutes: 30
android_min: 8
tested_on: []
categories: [gallery]
apps: [com.diune.pictures, org.fossify.gallery, deckers.thibault.aves.libre]
requires: [back-up-before-you-switch]
risk: "A gallery reads the photos already on the phone. It does not usually copy them. Cloud-only photos stay in the old app until you export them."
published: 2026-10-17
updated: 2026-10-17
author: Unstock
featured: false
oneliner: "Every photo, every album, nothing left behind."
steps: 6
---

A new gallery shows the pictures already in DCIM and Pictures. It does not steal them from the old app. If some of your photos live only in a cloud, export those first.

Coming from Google Photos? See the [Google Photos alternatives](/alternatives/google-photos).

Piktures, Fossify Gallery and Aves Libre are the examples. Pick one.

## Before you start

- The new gallery installed.
- A backup, if anything important lives only in Google Photos. See Back up before you switch.
- TODO: Google Takeout steps are not verified in this v1. Do not follow guessed click-paths. Use Google's own export tool and confirm the folder it writes.

## What can go wrong

The new app shows an empty library because it has no permission, or because the files are still only in the cloud. Grant permission, or export, then open the app again. Uninstalling the old gallery does not delete DCIM.

:::step Install the gallery.
Pick Piktures, Fossify Gallery or Aves Libre from the Gallery category. Install it. Do not uninstall the old one yet.

:::step Grant photos permission.
Open the new app. Allow access to photos and videos. On Android 13 and later this is a Photos and videos permission, not Storage. TODO: confirm the exact Pixel 8 prompt.

:::step Set it as the default, if Android asks.
Open a photo from Files or a message. Pick the new gallery, Always.

:::step Check an album you care about.
Camera, Screenshots, a folder you made. If a cloud-only album is missing, it was never on the phone. Export it before you hide the old app.

:::step Hide or disable the old gallery, don't delete yet.
Disable it in Settings, Apps. Live with the new one for a week. TODO: Samsung Gallery disable vs uninstall — device check.

:::step Uninstall the old one only when you are sure.
Local photos stay in DCIM. Cloud photos do not.

## Undo it

Enable the old gallery. Set it as default the same way.

## Next guides

Theme the icons so the new gallery's icon matches the rest of the phone.