Samsung Gallery Ends OneDrive Sync After the 2021 Swap

Samsung Gallery will no longer sync directly with OneDrive after September 30, 2026, Microsoft Support said. Photos already sitting in OneDrive are not deleted. They will drop out of Gallery, and they will stop showing up on some Samsung TVs and Family Hub screens unless you copy the originals back to the phone first.

This is the second cloud move for anyone who followed Samsung’s last order. In 2021 the company shut Gallery Sync on Samsung Cloud and told people to send those libraries to Microsoft. Five years later, Gallery is cutting the Microsoft link.

Samsung Gallery Stops Syncing With OneDrive on September 30

Microsoft’s help page, last updated May 14, 2026, sets the full stop on September 30. After that date, new users cannot link Samsung Gallery to OneDrive, and anyone who already used Gallery sync has to turn on camera backup in the OneDrive app if they want new shots to keep landing in Microsoft’s cloud.

Samsung’s Cloud notice uses the same day. After September 30, photos and videos stored in OneDrive will no longer be viewable through the Gallery app. Both companies say the files stay in OneDrive and can be opened at onedrive.com or in the OneDrive app on any signed-in device.

Earlier dates that went around this year were wrong. A leaked One UI 8.5 banner pointed at April 11, 2026, and some roundups still say June 30. The live Microsoft and Samsung pages both name September 30, 2026.

Public posts about the cutoff peaked in late May and then faded. By mid-July the thread was mostly reminder cards, and through late August it has stayed quiet even though the date is about five weeks out. The people who still have the Gallery toggle on can keep using it until the deadline. Everyone else is already on the long path through the OneDrive app.

The May Cutoff for New Gallery Links

September 30 is when the remaining sync dies. Microsoft stopped adding new Gallery links months earlier. Its privacy page for the Samsung connection says that as of May 1, 2026, new users can no longer connect Samsung Gallery to OneDrive, and that existing linked users should set up camera roll backup before September 30.

SamMobile, Android Authority, and 9to5Google then reported that newer Gallery builds were already hiding the OneDrive switch. People who had never turned the feature on could not turn it on, even though the formal end date was still months away. People who already had it running could keep syncing until September. On some of those builds there was no warning, only a missing option.

If Sync with OneDrive still appears in Gallery settings, leave it on until camera backup is working in the OneDrive app. Frandroid warned that turning the Gallery switch off now can make the option vanish for good on that phone.

Five Years After the Forced OneDrive Migration

Samsung did not invent a Microsoft photo cloud in 2026 and then walk away. It spent years making OneDrive the replacement for its own Gallery Sync, then started taking that replacement out of Gallery. The sequence is why the September cutoff lands harder than a buried settings change.

THE CLOUD HAND-OFF

1. 2019: Samsung Gallery begins offering cloud backup to Microsoft OneDrive, which SamMobile later described as a seven-year run.
2. August 2020: Samsung says Gallery Sync and Drive storage for My Files will end, with Microsoft OneDrive as the path for those photo and file libraries.
3. 2021: Samsung runs a staged shutdown by region. Android Central reported that an extra three months were added, with migration support ending before October 1 and Gallery Sync and Drive storage stopping on November 30, 2021, after which remaining data on those features was deleted.
4. May 1, 2026: Microsoft blocks new Samsung Gallery links to OneDrive.
5. Late May 2026: Newer Gallery builds hide the OneDrive toggle for anyone who is not already synced, according to SamMobile and Android Authority.
6. September 30, 2026: Gallery sync ends, OneDrive albums leave Gallery, and Samsung says Microsoft-Samsung account links are wiped.

Samsung Cloud itself did not vanish in 2021. Contacts, calendar, and notes stayed. Photo libraries did not. People who ignored the prompts lost those Gallery Sync files when Samsung deleted them from its servers.

The sweetener was small. A free OneDrive account is 5 GB of cloud storage. TechRadar and Android Central reported that Samsung Cloud migrants received 15 GB for one year, matching the old free Samsung Cloud bucket, after which the extra space expired.

The Gallery link also let people sign in with a Samsung account and land photos and My Files documents in OneDrive. Microsoft said that link was for personal OneDrive accounts only, not OneDrive for work or school. That Samsung-to-Microsoft sign-in is part of what now goes away with the sync.

What Disappears From Gallery on September 30

On September 30, Gallery stops uploading new photos to OneDrive and stops showing the OneDrive copies you already have. The Microsoft library itself is unchanged. If you want those shots in Gallery, on a Samsung TV, or on Family Hub, you have to download originals before the cutoff or live with them only in the OneDrive app.

Your photos and videos already stored in OneDrive remain safe and unchanged. They continue to be accessible from all your devices where OneDrive is available. They are not deleted or modified.

Microsoft Support, Changes to Samsung Gallery Sync and OneDrive

That is the opposite of a wipe. It is a display cut, and it is wide.

Samsung’s notice tells people who still want those shots inside Gallery to use Download Originals before the service ends. In Gallery, open Menu, then Settings, then Gallery sync with OneDrive, then Download Originals, and pick an album. Samsung notes that a bulk download only fills as much space as the phone still has free, so a large OneDrive library will not come back in one tap on a full device.

Camera Backup Is a One-Way Copy

Microsoft’s replacement is the same camera backup every other Android phone already had. Install OneDrive, sign in with the Microsoft account that holds the photos (it may not be the Samsung account), open the profile, and turn Camera backup on. Grant access to all photos and videos when Android asks. New shots then upload while the app is allowed to run.

It is not the old Gallery sync. Microsoft’s camera backup page says the phone does not sync photos both ways. Delete a backed-up shot on the phone and the OneDrive copy stays. Delete it in OneDrive and Gallery will not mirror that deletion the way the old two-way link could. How-To Geek noted that two-way behavior, including deletes, was the reason Gallery could stand in for Google Photos.

CAMERA BACKUP LIMITS

• One direction: New photos copy up to OneDrive; Gallery is no longer a live view of that cloud.
• One account: Camera backup can run on only one OneDrive account at a time, personal or work.
• App must stay up: Microsoft says backups happen only if the OneDrive app is running, so swiping it away from recents can stop new uploads.
• Full photo access: Android has to let OneDrive see all photos and videos, not a single album, for background backup to work.

You also have to stay inside your storage quota. A free 5 GB account fills up fast on a modern Galaxy camera. Microsoft’s own change page flags that point and points people at paid plans if the library is already larger than the free slice.

Why Microsoft 365 Subscribers Still Have to Flip a Switch

A paid Microsoft 365 plan does not keep Gallery sync alive. Personal is 1 TB for $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year, Basic is 100 GB for $1.99 a month or $19.99 a year, and Family is $129.99 a year for up to six people with 1 TB each, according to Microsoft’s current OneDrive plan pages. Those terabytes stay. The Gallery window on them does not.

Households that already pay Microsoft for photo storage still have to open the OneDrive app and grant it access to every photo and video on the phone. The Gallery login they finished years ago does not carry over. That is the group with something real to lose, because the pictures they billed monthly to keep will otherwise sit in a cloud they no longer see when they open Gallery.

ONEDRIVE STORAGE RIGHT NOW

• Free tier: 5 GB of OneDrive space, which Microsoft lists as the no-cost plan for one person.
• Microsoft 365 Basic: 100 GB for $1.99 a month or $19.99 a year.
• Microsoft 365 Personal: 1 TB (1000 GB) for $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year.
• Microsoft 365 Family: Up to 6 TB, 1 TB per person for as many as six people, at $129.99 a year.

Work or school OneDrive never rode inside Gallery. Microsoft limited the Samsung Gallery link to personal accounts. The OneDrive app can point camera backup at a work account, but only one account at a time, so a phone that already uploads to a personal library cannot also run the work library in the same switch.

Blank Screens on TVs and Family Hub

The phone Gallery is only the first screen that goes empty. Samsung’s discontinuation notice lists the other cuts, and they reach the living room.

FEATURES SAMSUNG SAYS END ON SEPTEMBER 30

• Gallery sync: Direct Samsung Gallery sync with OneDrive stops.
• Story Sync: Certain Gallery features, including Story Sync, stop with the cloud link.
• TV and monitor Gallery: OneDrive-synced photos and videos can no longer be viewed in the Gallery app on Samsung TVs and monitors.
• Family Hub: The same albums leave the Family Hub Gallery app on Samsung home appliances.

Samsung also says account linking information will also be deleted between Microsoft and Samsung accounts. The detailed schedule, it adds, may change with business circumstances. As of the live notice, the date is still September 30, 2026.

Samsung Cloud was supposed to take this job back. One UI 8.5 leaks last year pointed at a return of native photo backup, and some users still expect it. Samsung’s own ending-soon page does not send people to a new Samsung photo cloud. It sends them to OneDrive camera backup. Late-summer posts from Galaxy owners keep asking what replaces Gallery sync and keep getting no shipping answer. Google Photos is the path that needs no partnership and no extra switch, which is why it will pick up anyone who does not want to babysit a second Microsoft app after the Gallery pipe closes.

If those OneDrive shots still need to live in Gallery, on the TV, or on the fridge screen, Download Originals has to happen before September 30. The OneDrive copies remain either way.