Snapchat is undoubtedly fun as you share each moment. But I’ve had the scare of my life once with the platform when I couldn’t find my camera roll even when those photos had just been taken minutes earlier.
As it turns out, there are things you must look into to ensure your Snapshot camera roll will show all your photos. Sadly, I didn’t know that until I started looking for ways to recover my lost photos.
Well, if you have the same problem, you’re in luck! Read on to learn everything you need to know about this issue and what I did to make my Snapchat photos appear in my camera roll as candidly as I want them to be.
Why is the Snapchat camera roll not showing all my photos?
Below are some reasons why your Snapchat app’s camera roll doesn’t show all your photos. It would be best to study these common causes to determine the best action for dealing with them to reveal your disappeared photos.
- Faulty or Unstable Internet Connection: An unreliable internet connection is the most common reason Snapchat fails to show your photos in its camera roll. After all, an internet connection is essential for an online app to work correctly.
- Incompatible File Type: Downloaded and received photos may not appear in your Snapchat camera roll if their file type is unsupported. Sticking to common image types, like JPEG and PNG, is the best way to prevent this from happening.
- Corrupt Cache Storage: Like most apps, Snapchat stores cached data for smoother performance. Unfortunately, it’s inevitable for cached data to become corrupt while using your apps, resulting in various errors and malfunctions.
- Buggy Snapchat App: Snapchat isn’t immune to minor bugs and glitches that can make it stop working correctly. It often results from using an outdated app, but you must note that even new versions can carry some bugs and glitches.
- VPN Use: A VPN helps spoof your location and hide your online activities. However, when used simultaneously with Snapchat, it may cause connection errors or a locked account if used for actions that violate community guidelines.
- Server Outage: Since Snapchat relies on its servers’ stability, it won’t work if there’s an outage in your area. Unfortunately, you can’t troubleshoot server problems, so your only option is to wait for Snapchat servers to run again.
How to Fix Snapchat Camera Roll Not Showing All Photos
Below are ways to fix Snapchat when its camera roll skips showing all your photos. These solutions will address the causes discussed above, so identifying the root of the problem will help you determine which action is best to take.
FIX 1. Reconnect to WiFi
| Difficulty | Very Easy ●○○○○ |
| Number of Steps | 4 |
| Time to Perform Fix | 25 seconds |
| Things Needed | A smartphone A working internet connection |
Reconnecting your smartphone to your WiFi network is a quick and straightforward solution for network connectivity issues. This action helps with connection errors that prevent your smartphone from communicating with the Snapchat servers.
Doing so should help with your faulty Snapchat camera roll that doesn’t show your photos due to connection failure.
Once your phone reconnects to your network, you can re-open your Snapchat app and view your photos from its camera roll.
If you’re using mobile data, you can turn it off and on to reset your connection with your cellular network provider. Don’t forget to double-check your data plan to ensure you haven’t reached your monthly data limit or cap!
| Step 1: Open your smartphone’s notification or quick settings panel.  |
| Step 2: Hold the WiFi switch to open your smartphone’s wireless network settings.  |
| Step 3: Tap the cog icon beside the current WiFi network and click Forget Network to remove it.  |
| Step 4: Re-select the removed network to enter its WiFi password and click Connect to re-establish your smartphone’s internet connection.  Note: After reconnecting to your WiFi network, open Snapchat and check whether your photos appear in the camera roll. |
FIX 2. Restart your phone
| Difficulty | Very Easy ●○○○○ |
| Number of Steps | 4 |
| Time to Perform Fix | 50 seconds |
| Things Needed | Any smartphone |
All smartphones will suffer from minor device errors and bugs at some point, which affects how your apps behave and perform. When this happens, your Snapchat camera roll may fail to show your photos until you resolve your device’s issues.
An excellent method for troubleshooting faulty devices is to perform a restart sequence. With this, you can refresh your phone’s system memory and delete any corrupt temporary data, correcting its errors.
After this process, your phone should perform better and faster, and should result in your Snapchat app working without issues.
| Step 1: Force-restart your smartphone by holding its power and volume down buttons.  Note: Some devices only require holding the power button. |
| Step 2: Wait for your smartphone to boot into its brand logo and release both buttons,  |
Step 3: Wait for your smartphone to complete the restart sequence. |
| Step 4: Open Snapchat and check whether your photos appear in the camera roll. |
FIX 3. Reset network settings
| Difficulty | Very Easy ●○○○○ |
| Number of Steps | 7 |
| Time to Perform Fix | 40 seconds |
| Things Needed | Any smartphone |
Regarding connectivity problems, your smartphone’s network settings are among the likely culprits. So, you should perform a network reset if reconnecting to your WiFi or mobile data doesn’t fix your Snapchat camera roll still isn’t showing photos.
Remember that even small changes to your device’s network settings can cause it to experience connectivity issues. As such, we advise against reconfiguring your network settings unless you’re a pro at it—undoing your configurations can be tricky!
So, resetting your device’s network settings is the best solution to restore your device’s default network settings and improve your internet connectivity.
Step 1: Go to Settings. |
Step 2: Open General Management. |
Step 3: Go to Reset. |
Step 4: Select “Reset Network Settings.” |
Step 5: Tap Reset Settings. |
Step 6: Tap Reset this action. |
| Step 7: Look for a reset confirmation on your screen.  Note: Some devices may not show a reset confirmation. |
FIX 4. Clear Snapchat cache
| Difficulty | Very Easy ●○○○○ |
| Number of Steps | 7 |
| Time to Perform Fix | 40 seconds |
| Things Needed | Any smartphone |
Snapchat’s cache storage will inevitably store corrupt data as you use it. Sadly, this happens to most apps, so you can treat this as a regular occurrence that you must deal with frequently.
Using this fix, you can address various Snapchat errors, not just when its camera roll isn’t showing all your photos. Clearing the app cache is crucial in improving its overall performance and stability!
The enhanced stability should help your Snapchat app work correctly and reduce the likelihood of further errors. Unfortunately, this solution isn’t a permanent fix because apps continue storing cached data as you use them.
Although, the next time Snapchat acts up, you’ll know what to do to fix it!
Step 1: Go to Settings. |
Step 2: Go to Apps. |
Step 3: Click Manage Apps. |
Step 4: Scroll down and select Snapchat. |
Step 5: Click Clear Data. |
Step 6: Click Clear Cache. |
| Step 7: Click OK to clear the Snapchat app’s cache storage.  |
FIX 5. Update Snapchat
| Difficulty | Very Easy ●○○○○ |
| Number of Steps | 5 |
| Time to Perform Fix | 50 seconds |
| Things Needed | Any smartphone A working internet connection |
An app error could be at play if your Snapchat camera roll fails to show all your photos. When this happens, it’s usually because of using an outdated version of the app, which is buggy and prone to many recurring issues.
Thankfully, solving this problem is easy since you only need to update Snapchat using your phone’s app store. The update process should bring bug fixes and quality-of-life improvements to the app, enhancing user experience.
| Step 1: Go to the built-in app store on your smartphone.  |
Step 2: Go to your app store’s search bar. |
Step 3: Search for the Snapchat app. |
| Step 4: Click Update to install Snapchat’s latest version.  |
| Step 5: Click Open to launch Snapchat after a successful update and check whether your photos appear in the camera roll.  |
FIX 6. Reinstall Snapchat
| Difficulty | Easy ●●○○○ |
| Number of Steps | 11 |
| Time to Perform Fix | 1 minute and 20 seconds |
| Things Needed | Any smartphone A working internet connection |
Removing a problematic app is sometimes better than troubleshooting it to no avail.
In particular, this fix is the best solution if your Snapchat app isn’t working correctly due to an installation error. This error happens to recently added apps that encounter an issue during installation.
So, your currently installed Snapchat app may misbehave or malfunction when you run it. To solve this error, uninstall your faulty Snapchat app and reinstall it afterward.
| Step 1: Go to Settings. |
| Step 2: Go to Apps. |
| Step 3: Click Manage Apps. |
| Step 4: Scroll down and select Snapchat. |
Step 5: Click Uninstall. |
| Step 6: Click OK to remove the Snapchat app on your smartphone.  |
| Step 7: Return to the home screen and open the built-in app store on your smartphone. |
| Step 8: Go to your app store’s search bar. |
| Step 9: Search for the Snapchat app. |
Step 10: Click Install to download and install Snapchat. |
| Step 11: Click Open to launch Snapchat after a successful installation and check whether your photos appear in the camera roll. Note: You’ll need to sign into your Snapchat account since you’re using the app for the first time again. |
Why are my Snapchat photos not saving to the camera roll?
Users can select their Snapchat photo’s storage location, so you likely didn’t set your camera roll as one. You can change your photo’s save destination by navigating to Settings > Memories > Save Button.
You must select between the “Memories & Camera Roll” or “Camera Roll Only” options to save your Snapchat photos on your camera roll. More importantly, the app must have permission to access your camera roll.
How to Fix Snapchat Pictures Not Showing in Gallery
| Difficulty | Very Easy ●○○○○ |
| Number of Steps | 3 |
| Time to Perform Fix | 10 seconds |
| Things Needed | Any smartphone |
If your Snapchat photos aren’t showing up on the Gallery, you can fix this problem by troubleshooting your smartphone using our previous solutions. Or, you can clear your Gallery app’s cache storage to eliminate the temporary data causing this issue.
| Step 1: Hold the Gallery app icon and go to App Info.  |
Step 2: Click Clear Cache. |
| Step 3: Click OK to clear your Gallery app’s cache storage.  |
If clearing the Gallery’s cache storage doesn’t fix the issue, you might need to reset your app preferences. Follow our previous instructions to open your device’s app menu and click the kebab menu (three vertical dots) in the upper-right corner.
Click the “Reset app preferences” option to restore its default configuration. This method should work for photos and videos that don’t appear in the Gallery.
How to Give Snapchat Access to Your Camera Roll
| Difficulty | Very Easy ●○○○○ |
| Number of Steps | 3 |
| Time to Perform Fix | 10 seconds |
| Things Needed | Any smartphone |
Access to your camera roll is an app permission you must give to the Snapchat app beforehand. You can change this in your app settings menu using the steps below.
| Step 1: Follow our previous instructions to open your device’s apps menu and select Snapchat. |
Step 2: Select App Permissions. |
| Step 3: Give Snapchat “Camera” and “Files and Media” permissions.  Note: For iPhones, you must permit Snapchat to access your photos. |
Why can’t I see saved pictures on Snapchat chat?
Saved pictures won’t appear in your chat box, just like Snapchat’s camera roll won’t show all your photos. Thus, you can refer to our previously discussed reasons to determine what’s causing your saved pictures not to appear.
Moreover, you can use the previous solutions to address this issue.
Snapchat Folder Not Showing In Google Photos
A usual error with Google Photos is its inability to detect images inside the albums on your smartphone’s DCIM folder, apart from the camera album. Since the Snapchat folder is inside the DCIM folder, your pictures won’t appear on Google Photos.
The only solution for this problem is to move your Snapchat folder to any directory outside the DCIM folder. You can use your smartphone’s file manager or plug it into a computer.
