Samsung Gallery will stop syncing directly with OneDrive on September 30, 2026. Microsoft's support page, updated earlier this month, sets that as the official cutoff, and Galaxy owners who currently rely on the integration need to update their camera roll settings before that date, not just to keep backing up new photos, but also to keep accessing previously backed-up photos through the OneDrive app.
New users will not be able to link the two apps after September 30. Users who only store photos locally and have never used OneDrive sync are unaffected.
One note on the timeline: an earlier date of April 11, 2026 surfaced in internal software builds and was reported last October. Microsoft's official documentation supersedes it. September 30 is the confirmed cutoff.
What actually changes on September 30, and what stays the same
After the cutoff, photos and videos synced through Samsung Gallery will disappear from the Gallery app's view. The files themselves stay put. Microsoft is explicit that existing OneDrive content remains safe and unmodified — nothing is deleted on Microsoft's end, per the support page.
All previously synced content remains accessible through onedrive.com or any device with the standalone OneDrive app installed. Samsung Gallery is losing its window into that library, not destroying it.
The practical shift is straightforward: today, Gallery syncs photos to OneDrive in the background with no extra app required, and the same photos appear in both places as a linked pair. After September 30, that connection is gone. Gallery shows only locally stored photos. OneDrive shows only what its own camera backup has captured.
One behavioral difference is worth knowing. Under the old sync arrangement, deleting a photo in Gallery removed it from OneDrive as well. The standalone camera backup Microsoft recommends instead doesn't work that way — files uploaded to OneDrive stay there regardless of what happens inside Gallery, as the Samsung Community noted when the change was announced. For anyone who has ever lost a photo by deleting it locally, the new model is more forgiving.
How to keep backing up to OneDrive after Samsung Gallery stops syncing
OneDrive photo backup doesn't end on September 30. The built-in Gallery shortcut does. Users who want to continue uploading photos to Microsoft's cloud need to switch to OneDrive's standalone camera backup feature, which requires a deliberate setup but runs automatically once enabled, per Microsoft.
The steps are as follows:
Open the OneDrive app; download it from the Play Store if it isn't already installed.
Sign in with a Microsoft account. This may differ from a Samsung account, so confirm the correct one is selected before proceeding.
Tap the account profile icon in the top-left corner of the app.
Select Camera backup and toggle it on.
Grant OneDrive access to all photos and videos when prompted. Background backup requires full library access to function properly.
Once configured, new photos and videos will upload automatically going forward.
Check storage before any of that. Camera backup stops working if the OneDrive account hits its storage limit, and users with large photo libraries should check their current quota well ahead of September 30. Those close to the ceiling may need to clear space or move to a paid plan — a process that takes time.
For users who complete setup but don't see new photos appearing in OneDrive, Microsoft's troubleshooting checklist covers four things to verify: camera backup is toggled on, the correct Microsoft account is active, sufficient storage is available, and a stable internet connection is present.
Beyond the deadline: what this signals for Samsung's cloud direction
The end of Gallery's OneDrive sync doesn't appear to be a routine feature retirement. Android Authority reported last October that Samsung appeared to be preparing to replace the OneDrive integration with its own cloud solution, steering users toward Samsung Cloud instead. That reporting has not been officially confirmed by Samsung, and the company has not said what that replacement will look like, which devices or regions it will cover, or when it will be broadly available.
That last gap is the unresolved variable. Whether a Samsung-built alternative arrives before or after September 30 has real consequences for users who want continuous automatic backup rather than a gap between the two systems. Android Authority's May reporting noted the same uncertainty. Right now, Samsung hasn't said when.
Removing one of its most visible Microsoft integrations from the default Galaxy experience points to a deliberate move toward platform independence. The September 30 cutoff is the first concrete marker of that shift, and users are being asked to act on it before the destination is fully clear.
Three things to do before September 30
Check OneDrive storage first. Camera backup stops working once a storage quota is exceeded. Users with large libraries may need to free up space or upgrade to a paid plan, per Microsoft. That process shouldn't be left to the final week of September.
Enable OneDrive camera backup before the cutoff. Open the OneDrive app, navigate to Camera backup under the account profile, and switch it on. Doing this now means no gap in coverage when the Gallery sync shuts off.
Decide on a longer-term backup strategy. Users who prefer not to use OneDrive can export their content and migrate to another service or keep it stored locally. The Samsung Community notes that exporting is straightforward, though moving a large library takes time and storage to do properly.
The September 30 deadline gives users time to act. What it doesn't give them is clarity on what Samsung's own replacement will be and that's reason enough not to put this off.
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