When I take a photo of myself with my laptop camera, what directory is it placed in?

Question

I took a picture using my laptop's camera but I have no idea where the picture is. I currently am using the picture for my account profile on my computer.

Here are the things I have already tried: looked in the obvious place, the "Photos" directory, looked in the "Camera Roll" folder in the "Photos" directory, looked in my "Downloads" directory, went to the "View" tab in File Explorer and checked off the "Hidden Items" box, and looked at the OneDrive folder. I tried all of the aforementioned things and have still not found it. Does anyone have any insight as to where it might have been placed? I don't have the name of the photo so I can't look for it that way either.

I also have noticed that pictures taken with my laptop always go to the Camera Roll directory except when I take a picture when I am in Windows Settings/Accounts/Your info for my account profile.

My laptop is a MSI GP62MVRX Leopard Pro-699 with a Windows 10 operating system. I used the default built-in Camera application to take the picture.

According to an alternative answer to [this](https://superuser.com/questions/501390/where-does-the-camera-app-save-videos) it is possible that it might be saving to your OneDrive camera folder. — Mokubai, Oct 01 '18 at 07:19
If still cannot find them, try to search in **file explore** by `kind:=picture` in `this pc`, and sort them by the date to find the picture, then you can find the location. This will cost a long time, but it should work. — OOOO, Oct 01 '18 at 07:24
Thank you @Mokubai for the suggestion but there is nothing in my OneDrive folder. — Darien Springer, Oct 01 '18 at 07:26
I kept trying to search using `kind:=picture` but I have to admit I just find it too laborious. It is a good suggestion though. — Darien Springer, Oct 03 '18 at 01:43

Alex Myers · Answer 1 · 2018-10-03T05:19:49.863

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By default, your pictures should appear in your Pictures\Camera Roll folder. If they aren't there, follow these steps to figure out where they are being saved:

Take a picture with the camera app.
Click the thumbnail of the picture you just took at the bottom right of the app.
When the photo viewer opens, click the three dots (...) at the top right and select "File Info".

A panel will then appear and it will tell you the directory where your picture is located.

If you created your account picture by going to your account settings and then selecting "create your picture -> camera", then the picture will not have been stored in your camera roll. It will be located in %AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\AccountPictures as mentioned by @kicken.

edited Oct 03 '18 at 05:19

answered Oct 02 '18 at 20:21

Alex Myers

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I looked there but the picture I took isn't there. It may have to do with the fact that I am using the picture for my account profile on my computer. I don't know if that has something to do with it. – Darien Springer Oct 03 '18 at 01:41
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This makes me think you might have taken the picture directly from your account settings, in which case the picture would not have been saved to your camera roll. I edited the answer. – Alex Myers Oct 03 '18 at 05:21

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 03 '18 at 02:50

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Photos used for your account picture are stored in the %AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\AccountPictures directory. The file is not a standard picture format however and will need to be converted if you want to use it elsewhere.

answered Oct 03 '18 at 02:50

kicken

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For me it was specifically located in `C:\Users\Me\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Account Pictures` – Darien Springer Oct 03 '18 at 05:46
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Indeed, `%AppData%` is a shortcut for the `C:\Users\Me\AppData\Roaming` part. Explorer recognizes these so you can just copy/paste the path with the variable into the location bar. – kicken Oct 03 '18 at 06:02

When I take a photo of myself with my laptop camera, what directory is it placed in?

2 Answers2