Ok Don, I think you are on to something here...My phone is also encrypted..and your description fits mine exactly.

I got agravated at the upgrade and knowing my pics were there but I couldnt look at them..So I backed them all up with Kies and then did a full reset to 4.4.4. This solved the issue completely..I think you are spot on with the cache too..

I am a little bummed at how little has changed from 4.4.2 to 4.4.4. I was in BestBuy looking at the Note 4 (with 4.4.4) and there were some real differences. So I looked up what you are supposed to get with 4.4.4 and I dont see most of what they say it has...e.g. The Phone and Contacts apps look very different on Note 4...Maybe its a hardware thing, or maybe it didnt fully update..either way it wa not worth the agravation in my opinion..

Did you notice differences when you updated?