Tip: Create your own photo album folders on your Windows Phone

The quality and even relevance of wpcentral content lately, seems to be in complete freefall. It wont be long before i sadly end up finding another primary source for my WP news, come on guys, sort it out. Too many editors, falling over themselves to post anything and everything they can, its almost as if they're only paid per article or something...

I challenge you to find another source. Seriously. Tip: we don't write articles for just the core crowd, but we write for everyone. Including those just getting their first Windows Phone for the first time and who want tips/advice. For instance, read the comments of the people who didn't know this and are happy to learn it. So does your complaint weigh more than their thanks? Nope. The world is bigger than you, learn to recognize that.

wmpoweruser

I read both (wpcentral/wmpoweruser).. although it's more often than not that I read the same content... with an exception of wpcentral actually having people commenting their articles...

Well said....

Just complaining lots around... Nevermind!!!!!!

(y)

I am gonna write a post about "how to swipe to the app list" and "how to swipe down to see more apps in app list". For the first time WP8 users. Lol.

Daniel: I think you guys at WPcentral are doing an awesome job in writing about WP-stuff! There is a great number of people that is following you every day, including myself. And so far...you have the best place to read about WP!   I wish all the reporters on WPC a merry christmas, and a happy WP-year! :-)

I have to disagree with you. A lot. WPCentral is the best provider of WP news, and they are very professional and informative. I bet you'd complain if they barely posted stuff.

This comment was in freefall after the first sentence. Really.

MattLFC - u r a dork

I didn't know about this and I'm a Windows Phone expert so get off your high horse and yes if you find a better source please let us know.

No offence, if you didn't know about this, you are an expert of nothing windows related mate. Nothing. I say this from my butt firmly planted in my high horse seat.

Yes I didn't know about this because I rarely tether my PC to USB as I use Skydrive for my pics, I really don't think it has anything to do with what Windows is or not, the only time a USB cable enters my phone is when I'm flashing it. Then again lots of people are making the jump for Windows and might not know what Windows even is and self inflated grandure of knowing Windows should not stand in the way of such knowledge being offered to those new to platform.
  :) the last part of your comment made me chuckle so much so I didn't care about the first part ;D.

I don't know, I usually consider myself pretty tech savy and with WP. However, I just simply never thought of this before. In hindsight, I'm of course thinking, "Well DUH," but people just miss the obvious in life sometimes. Besides, aside from charging, the USB cable rarely enters my phone. I simply don't have my computer and phone interact that much, aside from syncing across SkyDrive. Anyways, while this is a neat little trick for novices and/or (like me) more advanced users who just so happened to overlook the obvious, I still want to be able to do this on my phone itself (which I was expecting when I read the title, but was a little disappointed).

Yeah, I also thought it was on the phone when I read the title, and that's what I've been waiting for since wp7 xD Known how to do it on PC since wp7, but rarely do it xD

SwimSwim, Chin up. It is possible to do this on your phone. I just found an app "Photo Folders" in the store that looks pretty sweet! http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/photo-folders/d9f1503a-212d-4d40-924d-960628f4b39e 

Haha, damn, wasn't expecting a reply to a comment made so long ago. Apps no longer required, as Windows Phone 8.1 has blessed us with built-in file managers. Files is the only app for all my file needs. :)

You're not an "expert" if you didn't know that you could use file explorer to manage your files on WP.

Come on Matt, all of us at one time or another have been shown something basic that makes us smack our head and go "D'oh" and feel embarrassed we didn't know it. So it's not just for new folk.

@MatlLFC, You are a selfish person posting a comment like this. I  am an IT manager and work with 75 people that claim to know everything but in reality they don't know squad. I am sure many people learn the most basic things from browsing the internet and looking in comments of subjects they have a question about.   I applaud WPcentral to also think about those people. I agree with Daniel, find another source so up to date as WPcentral..Seriously Now. be seated!!!

Not to be picky or claim to know everything, but it's squat that people don't know, not squad. Squad is usually a small tactical military unit. But then, most people indeed do not know any squads, so you are technically still mostly right. I agree though, most 'regular' non-alpha-geek people probably don't know about this method of organizing photos, vids, and such on their Windows Phone...

You are picky, it was either a typo or it's because I am Dutch..excuse my French ;-)

wmpoweruser

Honestly, I didn't know this until about two weeks ago when I stumbled upon it. I was so used to having to sync with Zune and that horrible software that was suppose to replace it.  It was news to me and I've been with WP since day 1 and I'm a tech savvy person.  Some people just might not be aware they can do this. In addition - you won't find a better source for WP news. There are some decent sites out there but none as all inclusive.

My first inclination was "you gotta be kidding. If someone's using WP8, they most certainly already know this." Then thinking about it, I recommend newly converted WP friends to this site to learn tips and tricks, so I guess it's all good.

That's exactly it. It's the best of both worlds. We can't treat all of our audience as experts, because then we pigeon hole the site, making new owners feels out of the loop. 

Well said Dan

^^This.

I appreciate info like this. People whining didn't have to click and read. If you knew about it, good for you. Why bitch and whine over this? It benefits some people so get over yourselves or get lost.

Dont get offended Daniel. Let jerks be jerks. Im sure this helped someone alot!

How about you guys title these "tips for newbies" so that the other longstanding users don't waste their time. That would make everyone happy WPCentral

+1

I'm a wp dev and a user of windows mobile/phone through all incarnations yet I didn't know this, i do wish wpcentral would filter stuff though like i want wp news not xbox news!

We'll be doing for that in 2014, no worries.

Hey Dan filter one for 512 mb devices too.... Can't withstand the fact of good games only on 1gb ram devices.... Makes me less patient and loose concentration in studies:(

Its part of the ecosystem. You should expect this tie-in from time to time.

Your apps must suck.

LOL You're not. Actually, if anything, I was SHOCKED I couldn't do this on WP7 when I moved from Symbian. You can do this for quite a while on any OS, except WP7.

Really?? I'm still on WP7 and I've been doing this for a while.

Never iOS.

Definitely can on WP7

Lets show some appreciation for WPC. Stop acting like they dont help us daily. I dont have to worry im not up to date on WP8 bcoz WPC keeps me posted on things. I am thankful. As always, haters gona hate. WPC is probably my favorite app thats not built into the OS. Ignore it Daniel. Doesn't matter. As long as you guys are posting then im happy. Damn trolls

Yup.

Well I've been using Windows since 95 and I didn't knew this.

Kill yourself.

I don't like to curse around here, but some of you brats are assholes. You don't like these posts you know-it-all brats, then get lost.

Ha! I was just about to post damn near he exact same thing.

Yeah, I thought everyone knew this :\ On WP7 these were just created in the Zune synched pictures folder (i.e. C:\Users\YOUR_NAME\My WP7\Pictures\). You can create folders / Albums, chuck photos in there and sync them across

So much for so little

Or just use SkyDrive! I keep 5GB of photos there (I got 25GB of total storage)

Lolwut??! I have done this right from the moment I plugged my WP to my laptop!

Lolwut, some people just bought their first windows phone this month.

Exactly.

Ouch, that hurt.

Or some of us were used to doing it with the zune software. Maybe I had a bum device but I damn sure couldn't do this with my Focus. I just assumed WP8 was the same. I happened upon it by accident at work.  So even to some seasoned users, it's new. Don't act all high an mighty because no matter how good you are at something there's someone better. :)

Excellent tip; I recall reading this when WP8 was released but I have never tried it.  Maybe I will try it now.  I move so much to the cloud that i normally just jump into SkyDrive when I want to find a picture

LOL. What's new in this?
I can't believe WP Central is posting this.

Its kinda funny, sounds like some instructions from Windows 3.1.
If you don't know how to make/organize folders... then you probably shouldn't bother.
I've got thousands of photos and they have all been properly organized in folders for years.

Sounds like a great achievement for you, good job, now, would you want a cookie for that too?
P.S. Obviously most of the people missing the point of this article

I already ate all of your cookies.

@nawzil, smarten up

Why? Not everyone knew you can do this with WP. I never thought to try it because I just figured too many things locked down. How the hell do you whine about this post? Not everyone is you, not everyone knew you could do this. Thanks for posting WPC

I do hate the other folders in there....can i delete those?

I want a way to do it from the phone...

Yeah agreed. Opened the article hoping it was a trick or an app to be able move photo to the folders I have already created.

Same here.

Agreed. This is ok, I've done this since day one. But being able to save a pic on my phone and choose which folder to save it in would be awesome. Making a new folder on your PC and moving the pics is fine when you want to do that, but I'd just prefer a "built in" option.

Exactly, I've always known I could do this, but I want to be able to do it directly on the phone. One of those "little things" that I cannot believe MS haven't added yet. An "add folder" option in the Photo Hub would be so nice. I guess that's one reason Nokia came out with Storyteller (that I'm still impatientely waiting to get on my 920). In their quest for simplicity they made WP but lush, but there's areas that don't work so well when you get too many items (photos, apps, etc). In those cases they need to give people options for breaking down content into categories.

Yup, same here, we need to be able to do this rigth IN the phone, without having to connect to a PC.  At the very least, allow us to SAVE the pic/vid/whatever into any existing folder... I really don't understand why MS hasn't enabled this already; really, I can't believe it's that hard to give the option to move/save a pic into another folder...

I never thought of this. Using this tip today. Merry Christmas.

I've created an album that way (some photos in it and folder within with a couple more "favorite" ones). Once I removed it later it stayed in the pictures hub shown as an empty folder with another empty folder in it. PC shows no folder at all. It can be deleted in pictures hub but appears back instantly. MSft Answers keep silence. I wouldn't have advised to create albums that way on internal storage.

And added to that... you can move pics to that new folder only though your laptop. I have no options to move pics to that folder in the phone, makes the folder with no sense.

We knw it

I just wish you could move pics from folder to folder by phone

I hope MS implement the ability to create albums and manage it right from the photo hub. As it is now, I have to organize the phone AND the SkyDrive.

Great tip! Never gave it any thought to create new folders! Thanks!

When I first read the title I thought there is a new update or app that allow me to do it straight on the phone, I got excited and continue reading then got disappointed because it is totally useless article to me...

Of course! Doesn't everybody do it like this?!

No.

Good tip. I have been using wps for some time and still hadn't realized it.

I, for one, appreciate WP posting the "simple stuff". The thought of creating a folder never occurred to me. Thanks for the info.

Sure thing. It's the little things that make a difference ;)

The stocking always had my favorite gifts as a little kid.

This is really informative.  Thanks. I also found out that if you push vol down (or up) you can change to the silent/vibrate or ringtone settings. I kid, I kid...don't hate me!

I wish you could turn off the vibrate feature by using the volume down button (say by pressing it again when volume is already at zero).

I cant believe I never thought of this earlier. Good tip! Keep it up :)

So I guess the only way to do this in OS X would be to sync iPhoto then?

Is there a way to remove facebook albums from picture hub, beside removing facebook account?

Yeah by delinking Facebook from your account settings. But that way, you also lose all feed in your People hub, and the contacts too.

Honestly, the only thing that SHOCKED me was that I couldn't do this on WP7 when I moved from Symbian. This has been a feature on phones for quite a while. But seeing how many people here are saying they didn't know this...I think it's a useful tip! That said, it's yet another shortcoming of WP8 compared to Symbian (and I'm talking Symbian because it's Nokia. I'm not even going to bring Android into this): you can't organize your photos by using your phone alone. You need to connect it to a PC and then organize, while on Symbian you could do it from the phone. It's one of those little things that Microsoft should have never missed and should address in WP8.1.

Agree, folder management of photos needs more control. I think (literally, that's not a sly nod) that Nokia's StoryTeller app is a step in that direction and I wouldn't be surprised to see that come to Windows Phone in general. I want to tag photos, sort them, create folders, etc. 

Noted!

Technically, it was possible. You just have to have the same photo directory structure on your PC before you sync with Zune. It syncs to your WP7 device with the same directory structure.

Yeah, that was how I handled it on WP7. However it forced me to create a sort of "virtual Lumia 800" on my computer. If I wanted to have stuff from my computer transfered to the phone without messing the way I have Windows organized (and I do have it pretty well organized, I must say) I had to create a copy of the image, sound etc and place it on that special folder so that if would sync only the content I wanted.
It was pretty nightmarish to me and one of the reasons I ever got a WP8 device so soon after getting the Lumia 800.

True, good point.  You just reminded me of how I had to do that as well.  Luckily for me, I kept both libraries very similar, so I didn't have to do it as much.

Awesome tip!  I didn't even think of doing that. I don't understand how people can complain about certain articles.  If you're not interested, just stop reading and go read something else...  With a website this big, do you actually believe that every article is tailored to just you?

Some people are so smart, they know lots of stuff, and others of us are dumb, we know so little. Pat yourself on the back everyone who knew about folders and made fun of wpcentral and everyone else...you're geniuses!!

People lighten up a bit, its a "Tip" ! While most of us here knows it , I'm sure some will find it useful. Relax , its suppose to be a holiday, have some holiday\Christmas spirit. Good tip guys, keep up the excellent work.

[knew this] I think its useless because each time you need to connect to PC to move files from one folder to another. It would awesome if you could move them w/o PC

Would have been nice to be able to do this directly on the phone though

Lol I knew this the first day I got my Lumia.

Cool.  Will you be my pet? Just what I always wanted. My own little WP expert. I will name him George, and I will hug him and pet him and squeeze him... ...and pat him and pet him and... ...and rub him and caress him and... Oh George... you were naughty to pretend you was a WP expert. I will punish you good. Bad old George!

Honestly, you took all that trouble writing this? Why not get a real pet instead and have the real fun? Just kidding. :P

haha classic cartoons

I can't believe I never thought to try this. Can I move photos between folders on my phone, or will I have to use my PC?

You need PC to move files from one folder to another

Or you could just create albums on skydrive and your phone picks it up.

But the photos and videos are not synced back down to your phone. Viewing SkyDrive albums from the app or photo hub is not nearly as fast as viewing albums that are actually stored on your device.

I light of this, maybe it's time a (very long) "Did you know WP could..." article?

Nice tip, but was really hoping for something on the device, not having to rely on another device. This and playlist management are sorely needed as basic functions, along with smart dialing.

There's an easier way... Its called the Skydrive App!!!

I always find it so humours the way Daniel Rubino takes such great offence to peoples' comments.Like it hits him so hard that he has to reply in the most sarcastic/ snide ways. I can imagine if movie directors, song producers and celebrities were the same, to actually take time out to reply to each piece of criticism. The net would be so much more fun. Let's celebrate Daniel for takign the time out of his busy day to respond to the criticism. (y)

I just wish there was a way to move pictures from "Saved Pictures" into one of these folders [within the phone]

I've known this since the beginning of WP. What I want is to move them into folders using the phone. Not needing to connect to a PC.

Second to that.

Seriously, you need a computer pc to create a folder? Come on wp8.

Try pocket file manager

I feel like an idiot for not thinking of this waaaaaayyyyy sooner... Thanks for the tip though. However, this functionality should still be accessible via the device itself, I don't see why I need to plug it into my computer just to organize my photos...

This isn't a tip! This procedure is well explained in the manual. Reading this tip makes it seem like that reddit guy is some kind of hero who discovered something new. Guys, really, just read the damn manual! In other news, this guy shows a shockingly easy way to make actual calls with your Windows Phone....

Known this for awhile now..

What we're learning here is how many ppl are migrating from shitty ass iOS VS how many ppl were former Symbian, Android, WinMo, Palm and BB users... Seriously though... This not meant to be demeaning at all, but my tip: If you buy ANY device and it comes with a USB cable, try plugging it in to USB ports. Try it on your PS3. try it on you Macbook. Try it on the USB port in your new car. You never know until you try.

Wow...no shit?

Um, after I create the folder on PC, can I move photos into folders using my phone?

No, you have to do that on a PC. Hopefully this feature comes with WP 8.1.
On your phone you can only delete and edit pics and upload them which moves them into the uploads folder (but that doesn't really count as moving them from one folder to another).

And, why is it not possible for us to do this via on the phone itself? Security concerns again? Basic stuffs like these and we need a PC to do it. A smart phone indeed.

I've known this for a while now. In fact if you move your videos to your camera roll you can categorize them into folders and also you can share them via Bluetooth which you cannot from the music+videos hub

Thanks for the article, folks! We (ok, it's for my wife and maybe I'll get to use it on occasion:)) just recently got an L1020 and she didn't know this. Normally we sync to the cloud, however, we like to have everything nice and neat and tidy. Keep posting articles like this please regardless of what the maturity level of most of the responders is. This 'holier than thou I'll insult everyone I can because I'm a coward and hide behind a pseudonym,' can get quite tiring, I know. Best to ignore bullies. Thanks again for the post, it helped my wife, at least.

To all the people complaining they knew this and that the article was useless: Guess what? Your comments were useless. Get over yourselves.

Nice article. WPC team is doing a great job. Waiting for more of these useful tips!

Hey ,
Is there any app so that we can click pictures and it will be go automatically to a assigned folder ,instead of wasting time to organise the files . like i am going out for picnic i will open that app and make a folder picnic and click pictures all that pictures will be saved in picnic album , now at night i will open the app and create a folder party and all the photos i click will go into the party folder , instant organizing of our awesome lumia clicks :P :P  If this app doesnt exist plz plz make it devlopers :P :) 

Not yet.

Thanks! I did not know that TBH

Ok, I apologize for my earlier remark expressing my surprise that such an obvious thing required an article.. It is only after reading the many comments here that I realised that this wasnt such an obvious thing after all. In hindsight, you probably wrote this article following the many queries you might have received. Having said all this, like most here I agree that there should be a way to create folders on the phone itself, and the ability to move pictures therein. There already is a beautiful selector in WP, which kicks in when deleting pictures or sending over Bluetooth, and recently for adding pictures to WhatsApp. The same selector could also be used to select pictures and move it to some other folder. Hope this comes in WP8.1.

After reading the headline I thought there's a way to do it on the phone I hadn't known about. Oh well. Hoping for 8.1....

Nooooooo this is not a solution in anyway. I have been doing this since the birth of WP8. The problem is to create and sort them out on the phone when we save them.

I found this tip useful and all the stupid comments should.help me remember it.

I did this trick 6 months before. Not a big deal!!

I'm new to Windows phone, but not new to Windows and this never occurred to me. Partly because I expected to be able to do this on my phone ( i think my N8 could do this?) So thanks for that info.

What's the point of this anyway?We can't move any photos from one folder to other(until 8.1 that too maybe).So a worthless thing except for those who have a craze of taking photos.

I already did this before and I had a hard time deleting the folder. That's why I'm not creating new folders anymore.

Frelling rediculous that users have to go through all that and can't do it on the phone.... Who's genius idea was this..   I have been an avid MS fan/supporter for a long time but I just can not figure out what the F they are thinking these days.  It just seems like everything they do now-a-days is always half-hearted and only partially complete.    

Ive added the new folders on my pc but when i disconnected they didn't show up on my phone (i have the 520) , what do i do?

Rather than going through all this pain, simply use REAL PHOTO ALBUMS http://www.windowsphone.com/s?appid=c68a75ec-ef92-42aa-9b22-e62698e7b8bd

Very odd. When I create a new picture folder on my Nokia Lumia 520 (using my laptop) and move some of the pictures on my phone to that new folder, they are still in their old place on my phone, even after I restart my phone.

I cannot belive it. Are you saying that the phone is unable to clasify photos by itself? . Windows phone needs a 1000 € and more tha 1 Kg of weight  machine, conneted to electrical power, an usb cord to do that?  

OK, I have an issue. I recently copied all my photos to my computer, removed the SD card (32GB) and replaced it with a bigger one (64GB). Now though when I try to create folders within 'Pictures' to use as Album Folders, some of them don't appear. I tried to copy all folders at once and only some appeared with some of the missing folders being a mix of empty folders (I didn't expect these to appear) while others had photos in them.
Throughout my efforts I have noticed that it is not always the same folders either that show or don't show. Sometimes if I create 10 'New Folder' they will all show if I copy a single image in to the folder but as soon as I rename it then they disappear again, even though I haven't deleted the image inside. I have tried using the Windows Phone Desktop app, going through the connection that appears in the task bar as well as going through my device that appears in My Computer and each method has thrown up the same issue and I just can not get my photo albums back the way they were. I have tried turning the phone off, leaving it for hours at a time and nothing happens. I am starting to think that maybe I will have to reset my phone to see if that solves the issue but I really don't want to go through that only to find out that the issue persistes. Can anyone help?

Just simply use Real Photo Albums https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/apps/real-photo-albums/9wzdncrfjwv3