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At some point in time (about a week ago) something happened to my Motorola Moto Z2 Play / Android 8.0 that caused my base apps to not have access to my media files (i.e. audio, photos etc.).

Examples:

  • all my custom ringtones (i.e. based on my own media files) were reset to default sound:
    • Contact apps reset custom ringtones for contacts to default one,
    • Alarms & Clock app reset custom alarm tone to default one,
    • SMS (Messages) app reset custom message notification tone to default one,
    • system-wide default notification tone (set by me to custom) was reset as well,
    • system-wide default ringtone (set by me to custom one) was reset,
  • I cannot pick a photo for a contact because my contacts app keeps saying: "No pictures are available on the device".

While first situation is resolved. I see my custom ringtone files in the list and I can go through my contacts and assign them again. But second situation is not resolved. I see this error all the time and I cannot change any contact's photo.

This is verified as not a bug (tested three different contacts-like applications and all of them shows exactly the same message, when trying to change contact's photo). But still, it seems that problem is limited to contacts-related apps only. Other apps still has read and write access to my custom files.

For example: :

  • (read) I can pick any photo or other custom file and attach it to an e-mail, send it as MMS or share it in any other way or
  • (read) upload it to OneDrive or Google Drive etc. or
  • (write) my Camera app is still able to make new photos and store them in "DCIM" or
  • (write) my sound recorder is able to record sound and write audio files.

The only thing that has changed on my phone recently and that I suspect as the cause of above metioned situation was Android 7.1.2 --> Android 8.0.0 update.

Is there anything I can do (since replacing contacts app didn't resolve the situation) or check in this case? Or resetting the phone to factory defaults is the only option that I am left with?

EDIT: I have cleared cache and data of media app, as suggested in comment. It didn't help.

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  • It seems your media store database got corrupted. Did you try clearing cache of Media Storage app and then forcing media scanning? Some details here: android.stackexchange.com/a/209119/218526
    – Irfan Latif
    Commented Jul 8, 2020 at 20:44
  • @IrfanLatif As in an updated question -- I did so and there was no effect. Plus, it seems that more apps were affected by the "reset custom tone to default one" problem.
    – trejder
    Commented Jul 11, 2020 at 10:57

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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• I think there are two options to change contact's photo- Take a photo and select a photo. Does the take photo option works. Or try changing the app to choose photos for changing the pic. • If your contacts are backed upto Google then you can goto https://contacts.google.com/ sign in with the account and can change the contcat pic. Upvote if it helps.

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  • Either I am missing something or you are answering a wrong question. Your answer belongs to my other question (here), about changing contacts photo. This question is about no access to media files by base apps.
    – trejder
    Commented Jul 11, 2020 at 10:51

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