PC issue with pictures download

[Big T]

I have, over the last 30 plus years, taken 10s of thousands of photos for work and personal.

I would connect my camera/phone/ SD card to my computer and a box would pop up asking where I wanted the pictures to go, and I would choose Pictures.

A few years back, I bought a PC tower with 2 large hard drives to sort my pictures and label those missing a label. It runs Win 10 and I'm fine with that


My problem is this:

In the last year or so, the pop up no longer includes Pictures as a destination. Instead, Google photos is the default destination.

Now, I can download to Google Photos and transfer them to Pictures, but that is clumsy and I don't want my photos in their cloud.

Attempting to bypass Photos is a really convoluted process that makes my PC stall.


Does anyone know of an app that will let me do what I've done for decades?

[Sandy]

I've been retired now for several years so everyone bear with me cause I've forgotten lots and not near my computer right now. Anyway after you've plugged the phone or sd card in can you do a right ckick on it in Windows Explore and turn off the auto connect feature. Turning it back on might allow you to choose your auto options again or just leave it off and copy manually. Maybe also go Settings>Apps>Defaults and see if Google pictures is set to default.

[Grimly]

Probably Chrome inserted Google as a default destination.
It can be howked out and things restored to normal.

[Big T]

Well, I guess I didn't explain the problem well enough, it's that Pictures is no longer an option at all. Either in Preferences, or the pop up box

This is the pop up box

[Big T]

This is Preferences

[Cipher]

This is Preferences

The pics you ar posting are uselessly small

[Sandy]

Looks you're out of luck with the old Pictures and Photoviewer apps. Looks like they were a carry over from Win 7 to Win 10 but disappeared with an update somewhere along the line and replaced with Photos. Can you not select Photos as the default app and open them there? Can't see what your options are from the tiny little pictures.

[Nessism]

The pop up box should have an option to open the device in an explorer view. The folder icon should be that. Or, ignore the pop up box and follow below...

Then do as Sandy says, and open Windows Explorer. You can then navigate to your phone or card reader, and click that to open. Navigate though the system folders and find the photos on your device. Highlight the photos you want to transfer, right click, and "Copy" or "Cut".

Now, open another session of Windows Explorer, go to Pictures, right click into the space, or folder you want, and "Paste". That will put the photos were you want.