Under: settings>Apps>(the 3 dots) >permission manager > photos and videos>(3 dots again) show system click on gallery stoires and click don't allow. Hopefully this helps I'll update in a couple weeks to see if it works.
Thank you! I had customization off under gallery but would still get these ridiculous "stories" put together. The way Samsung and Google have been going, it's like they don't want anyone to want their products anymore.
Finally, after many searches and simply erroneous efforts by others, your solution worked. A very poorly thought through Gallery menu system. I've suggested to Samsung to improve these menu options in the gallery app directly. Will save a lot of stress and irritation. Thanks.
