Question How do I open pics/vids saved in a Private Gallery via an app that were saved to a Micro SD card?

[Gryphon1975]

I had a Private Gallery app on an old phone for pics/vids several years back. When the phone was about to be retired, I saved everything to a Micro SD Card.

I recently found the Micro SD Card and put it in my Samsung Galaxy S9+ and found the Private Gallery file where all the pics/vids were saved with the app.

The problem is I can't open any of them and I have no clue what Private Gallery app I used back then. There is a $ at the end of each pic/vid title (.jpeg$ or .mp4$) and it shows the size of each pic/vid in megabytes or gigabytes, but it prompts me to search the App Store to find the proper app to open them whenever I try to open them and I haven't found anything that works.

Is there any way to open them without knowing what private file app I used on the old phone?

 

[webworkings]

You will need the app that they were created in, and even then it might not work. It depends on the restrictions the app had.

Your account at the play store should have a list of all the apps you have installed before which should allow you to narrow it down. However, there is the possibility that the app you used is no more. It could no longer exist or have been removed from the site for a variety of reasons.

Start by checking your installation history for the account. If the other phone was through a different account, then you will need to access the old account.

 

[Gryphon1975]

Thanks for the reply! I initially tried looking at my download history on the Google Play Store, but it's only showing me a handful of apps that I actually didn't download. Apps that seemed to be preloaded on my phone when I purchased it. The apps on my phone I'm 100% certain I downloaded aren't even populating in the list, oddly enough.

My old phone was a Tmobile Coolpad Quattro, but I don't have access to my old Tmobile account having switched to Sprint awhile back. I really wish I could remember what Private Gallery app that was.

I was hoping I could pop the SD card into a PC and there would be some way to open them since they seem to be on the SD card. Nothing is ever that simple, tho...lol.

 

[Gryphon1975]

MetroPCS, not Tmobile! Sorry!

 

[webworkings]

The history wouldn't be something on the phone, it would be on the play store. It should have a history of all your apps, current or otherwise.

 

[Gryphon1975]

Yes, that's where I looked. On my account under Purchase History in the Play Store. It just list a bunch off Google and Sprint service apps that the Sprint Rep must have downloaded at the store when I purchased the app. None of the actual apps I've downloaded for use. Although I've been downloading apps from Google Play since around 2011, it's only showing a Purchase History going back to 2018.

It's weird because the video files in the Private Gallery on the SD card have a screen grab image in another file on the SD card. The screen grab images have the exact same file name as the original video files in the Private Gallery, except the have a - and an additional number at the end. That why I was hoping the data was on the SD card, just encrypted by the Private Gallery app.

 

[webworkings]

Are you looking for them through a phone or a computer? It is easier to see the list on the computer is why. You would log into the playstore site, then click on "my apps".

Not your purchase history.

Additionally, there should be a little "All Apps" with a drop down you can click on. In there it will list any/all phones that have been connected to this account. So you can look up apps for any phone that had been on this account.