My photos have disappeared from the app — are they gone?

Stop — read this first

Do not uninstall or reinstall the app. Do not clear its data or storage. Do not delete photos from the app or from your phone's gallery. Photos live on the device, and if they are currently not displaying, they are almost certainly still there. The only way a display problem becomes permanent loss is a "fix" that deletes the underlying files.

Why this happens

Buildsnapper keeps every photo as a file in the app's storage and keeps a record of where each one lives. Historically, app updates could leave those records pointing at a stale location (the storage path changes in ways the record did not anticipate), and the app would show a blank or a red cross even though the file sat safely on disk. Current versions resolve photo locations at display time precisely to heal this — but if you are seeing missing photos, treat it as this class of problem until proven otherwise: files present, display failing.

Other benign explanations we see regularly:

• Wrong device. Photos only exist on the phone that captured them. Signing into a second phone shows your projects but not the images — that is the design, not a loss (the capturing phone still has everything).
• The record synced but you are looking at a different plot or section than the one the photo was added to.

Genuine file loss is rare and almost always traces back to an uninstall, a "clear data", a gallery purge or a phone wipe. If you have already uninstalled and reinstalled the app, the situation and the recovery route are different — go straight to photos after a reinstall.

What to do

1. Change nothing on the phone. No deletions, no reinstalls, no storage "clean-up" apps.
2. Note what you can see: which project, which plots, whether thumbnails are blank or show a red cross, and whether it started after an app update or phone change.
3. Take a screenshot of what the plot screen shows.
4. Contact support — choosing "Evidence at risk on site" if a report deadline or an imminent closing-up is involved. Include: iPhone or Android, the app version (iPhone: Settings → General → iPhone Storage → Buildsnapper; Android: Settings → Apps → Buildsnapper), the project/plot names, and when the photos last displayed correctly.
5. We reply within 24 hours. Because the files are usually intact, the fix is typically ours to make, and your evidence comes back exactly as captured.

The safety nets, for your peace of mind while you wait

• Every photo taken with version 2.0 or later also wrote a full-resolution, location-tagged copy to your phone's photo gallery — check your gallery around the capture dates; seeing them there confirms the evidence survives regardless of the app display.
• Any report already sent is entirely safe: the PDF and photo archive are stored with us and your assessor retains access.

What we ask of you is genuinely just patience and inaction — an unresolved display bug is fully recoverable, deleted files are not.