Photos app doesn't show any photos when Internet connectivity is limited It seems when access to Google's servers is blocked (by a firewall for example) Photos doesn't display my photos. The photos are locally available and can be browsed with a file explorer app. I don't want all my photos stored in the cloud nor do I like the idea that Google is checking something every time I open the Photos app. Is there a workaround to disable this behavior?

Edit: The bounty auto-selected an answer but the answer does not work. This is the main "Assistant" view:

This is the device folders view:
Even thought the photos are stored locally, when in the main view of the photos app only the thumbnails or nothing at all (if thumbs are not cached) will be shown when internet is off/blocked/limited.

The only way you can access the local copies while using the photos app is to open the menu on the left and select "Device Folders" and then go into the Camera folder (or wherever it is you are trying to access).

Click Images to enlarge





Unfortunately because the internet is limited you wont have access to the nice new features such as the advanced photo search or the nice date order layout as these are all server-based features.