iPad not saving photos from AirDrop or web searches

I’m working on a new iPad with 26.1 and the photos aren’t saving unless they’re a screenshot.

what I’ve tried so far:

1.) I’ve turned off the iCloud feature to make sure it isn’t a storage issue, and they aren’t saving either way.

2.) I’ve checked each folder including: recents, hidden, all photos, collections and every utilities sub category.

3.) adjusted the sort features to sort photos based on different metrics.

I’m including a screenshot of my photos section, cropped, which shows another screenshot of a skull reference I was trying to save. As you can see, only the screengrab is showing up, not the proper reference photo I wanted to save. It’s a problem specific to airdropping and search engines, because photos are saving from my Procreate app just fine.

Is this a known issue with the latest updates? Is there a setting I can adjust? What’s happening?