Where are deleted photos stored on Android? Recover Deleted Photos from Samsung Phones

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Modern smartphone users download information of various kinds onto them, and often also constantly photograph everything that surrounds them. In our article we will tell you how to recover deleted photo on phone using an Android device as an example. It is obvious that these devices, among other things, are more affordable due to the affordable pricing policy of the manufacturers.

How can I recover a photo deleted from my Android phone?

No matter what brand of device we use, most likely we also use a memory card. When you delete any information, the files are not completely lost, but are only replaced by new data. So, before the pictures are completely lost from your smartphone, you can try to restore them. It is recommended to use special software for this.

A program called Android Data Recovery will help us recover a variety of data, including contacts, messages, videos and photos. A convenient feature of the application is the function of previewing the image before restoration, which significantly speeds up the search. In addition, when you restore a photo, its original quality is preserved.

You can download the program for free from the Internet. There is support for all Android devices. The program works on both Mac and Windows. It will help in recovering files both in internal memory and from any media, including memory cards and mini-discs. Now let's talk about how to recover a deleted photo on your phone using this program.

Instructions for recovering a deleted photo on your phone using Android Data Recovery

Once Android Data Recovery is installed, our further actions are not much more complicated, for example. The said program supports a number of image formats including JPEG, JPG, TIF and so on. Moreover, it works with all brands of mobile devices and all versions of Windows OS.

We connect the smartphone to the PC using a USB cable and wait until the computer recognizes it. After that, enable USB debugging. The specific way to enable it depends on the version of the Android system. For example, if we have version 2 and earlier, go to “Applications” through the settings. Select the “Development” item and check the debugging item. In versions 3 or 4.1, debugging is enabled in the “For Developers” item, and in 4.2 you must first go to the “About phone” item and press the build number several times in a row until we get to the mode we need. After that, also select the “For Developers” menu.

Enabling debugging will help us perform subsequent scanning of deleted information. Click “Start”. After some time, click “Allow” and click the “Start” button again.

Once the scanning procedure is complete, the deleted files should be displayed. Among them there will be photographs. At this stage, it is recommended to use the preview function. We select the necessary pictures and click “Recovery”, after which we save the files to the PC.

To recover photos deleted from your phone, use one of the specialized applications available in the Play Store. Some of them only work if you have root access on the phone, others do not require the activation of superuser rights. The DiskDigger photo recovery program supports mixed operating mode. When launched without root, a simple search for deleted photos is performed, and with additional rights, a full scan of the file system is performed.

Among the advantages of the DiskDigger program, one can also note that it is free. Go to the application page in the Play Store and click the Install button.

When the download and installation are complete, click “Open” to launch the utility.

Note! One of the alternative applications that has similar functionality: “Restore Image (Super Easy)”.

Search for deleted photos

Select the search type - simple or full. If you are not rooted, only the first option is available. It is not recommended to gain root access after deleting files. Such actions significantly reduce the chance of successful recovery. This is due to the fact that during the process of activating the superuser, information will be written to the internal memory of the phone. It can overwrite files that have been deleted but physically remain in memory.

In the next step, the application will request access to the device's internal memory. For correct operation, provide it by clicking the “Allow” link. No additional access is required.

A rather lengthy analysis process will begin. The utility will check both the internal memory and the SD card, if present in the smartphone. The duration of the search depends on the amount of memory and the speed of the phone. The number of image files found will be displayed at the bottom of the screen.

Recovering deleted photos

If the photos you want to save have already been found, stop searching. You can do this by clicking the “Pause” button in the upper right corner of the application. Select the required photos and click “Recovery”. For single files, you can use the “Recover this file” item in the photo’s context menu.

Select the application through which you want to export the recovered files. This is required to ensure that data is not saved to the smartphone’s memory. The ability to restore information directly depends on the number of write operations performed after deletion. The fewer there are, the higher the chance of returning data.

Important! You can also use the "Save this file locally" option. This is faster and easier, but the likelihood of successfully recovering all subsequent photos is reduced.

To save a photo to Dropbox, open the folder where you want to save it. Click the "Add" button in the lower left corner. After this, you can open your account and view the saved photo on any device, not just your phone. When writing to the “Public” directory, access to data can be obtained via a link, without authorization.

A telephone, like any technology, is not a perfect device. And, for example, if you accidentally erased a photo, you won’t be able to get it back using the gadget’s standard options. If you are wondering whether it is possible to recover deleted photos from your phone's memory card using some other method, then we have good news - yes, it can be done. To solve this problem you will need a computer and PhotoDOCTOR.

Step 1. Download the software

Click the "Download Now" button and specify the location where the browser needs to place the distribution. Double click to launch the file. Select the folder in which to install the program and start working with the application.

Step 2. Connect the phone to the PC

Launch the software. After this, you will see a nice-looking start menu on your computer screen, which will briefly describe how the application works. Immediately connect your phone to your computer via a USB cable. Then click the "Next" button. The program will automatically detect all removable media that can be scanned for deleted files. Select the one you need from the list on the screen and proceed to the next step of these instructions.

Step 3. Set up scanning

Next, the software will prompt you to select the type of scanning that the software will need to perform. In total, PhotoDOCTOR has two operating modes. The first one is called "Quick Scan". The function will help you save time and quickly check your device for potential files suitable for recovery.

However, if you want to know how to restore photos on your phone for sure, we recommend that you conduct a full analysis of your phone’s memory card. Select a mode and click Next. For accurate scanning, the software will offer to mark the formats and sizes of files that need to be searched.

Step 4. Recovering files

Start scanning. The process will take some time. After this, a detailed report of the work done will appear on your screen. If you wish, you can customize its display. To do this, click “View” and select the appropriate option: list, table, large icons.

If necessary, sort files by size, name, format, or presence/absence of previews. You can also use filters and instruct the software to show only files of a certain format or size in the list. Then mark the photos you want to return and click "Recover".

Finishing touches

All you have to do is choose the location where the recovered files will be placed: it can be any folder on your computer, and the recovered objects can be written to disk or uploaded to an FTP server.

Ready! Now you can always figure out how to recover deleted photos on your phone using a computer and the PhotoDOCTOR program, and you can always quickly get back photos that were accidentally or intentionally erased from your device.

With the advent of high-quality cameras on Android smartphones, users almost no longer need to buy a camera. The phone is always at hand, the pictures come out good, they are always stored on the device - all advantages. However, sometimes users accidentally or intentionally delete photos from their smartphone's memory.

In such a situation, a reasonable question arises: how to recover deleted photos on Android. A huge number of recovery utilities have been invented for hard drives and flash drives: Recuva, DMDE, GetDataBack, Photorec. Let's see what programs can work with the Android OS, and whether they can be used to recover erased pictures.

Enable debugging

To connect to a PC and work with an Android smartphone, you need to enable USB debugging.

1. Open the settings of your smartphone/tablet and go to the “ System" You need the item " About the device».

2. Find the line " Build number" Press it 7-10 times (after about the 5th time a message will appear indicating how many presses are left before turning on

developer mode).

3. Return to settings and go to the “For Developers” section. Check the "USB Debugging" box.

On some smartphones, after connecting to a PC, you need to select “ Enable USB storage"so that the gadget is identified as two removable media that can be worked with like regular flash drives.

Recovery conditions

The main condition for successful data recovery is the absence of overwriting. Erased photos do not disappear without a trace, the file system simply sees that space has become free and shows it as writable. If you don't write anything to this location, any lost data can be easily recovered. Therefore, if you discover that important photos are missing, stop any actions with your phone to avoid overwriting the information.

This leads to another rule: you cannot save recovered data on the media from which it was deleted. Place them on a PC hard drive or flash drive to prevent overwriting.

Deleted photos from microSD

If the deleted data was stored on the card, then to restore it it is better to use universal utilities that can return erased files. You can read about how such software works in the instructions on how to recover data from a hard drive. If your smartphone is detected as two removable drives when connected to a computer, you can try using the same utilities to return data deleted from the internal memory. The problem is that most modern Android devices are defined as a media player.

So, you have a microSD on which the photos were located before deletion. Let's try to find them using the free Photorec utility, which is part of the TestDisk package.

Application Photorec is known to many Linux users, but it also works in the Windows environment. Until recently, the utility did not have a graphical interface, scaring off inexperienced users. From this link you can download Photorec for Windows with a graphical interface (as part of TestDisk).

1. Connect the memory card to the computer using a card reader. If the phone is detected as a removable drive, then enable USB debugging on it and connect to the PC.

2. Unpack the TestDisk archive. Run the file qphotorec_win.exe.

3. Select the connected microSD card from the list of detected devices. See the drive among devices Drive.

4. There is no need to change the file system, the program will determine it itself. Specify scan mode " Whole" Analysis and restoration will take longer, but all images will be returned.

If you only need to recover photos, then click on the “ File Formats" and select the required file extensions. Click " Reset» to reset all marks. Look at what format the pictures are stored in on your phone - usually JPG.

Return to the main Photorec window and click " Browse" Create a folder on your computer where the recovered images will be saved. Start scanning with the " Search».

After scanning is completed, go to the specified folder. Inside you will see a bunch of files, among which you can find data whose existence you have long forgotten. Photos will have different names, but should open correctly.

Recovering data from internal memory

If the erased photos were stored in the internal memory of the phone, then use the free 7-Data Android Recovery program to get them back.

• Enable USB debugging on your device and connect it to your computer.
• Launch the utility and click the " Further».
• You will see a list of storage devices - internal storage and microSD card. Select the drive where the images were stored and click " Further».

A full scan of the selected media will start. Once the analysis is complete, you can use the preview function to choose which photos you want to save on your computer.

Instead of 7-Data Android Recovery, you can use other utilities: EASEUS Mobisaver for Android, Wondershare Dr.Fone for Android, GT Recovery. The disadvantage of these applications is that they are either paid or require superuser rights (root rights). Therefore, to return erased files, it is better to use the programs mentioned above - they are free and do not impose any requirements on the rights to the file system of the Android smartphone.

Sometimes on Android smartphones you may encounter a problem: opening "Gallery", but all the images disappeared from it. We want to tell you what to do in such cases.

The reasons for such a failure can be divided into two groups: software and hardware. The first is cache corruption. "Galleries", the action of malicious applications, violation of the file system of a memory card or internal storage. The second is damage to memory devices.

The first thing you need to find out is whether there are photos on the memory card or internal storage. To do this, you need to connect either a memory card to the computer (for example, through a special card reader), or a phone if the images from the built-in storage have disappeared. If the photos are recognized on your computer, then you are most likely experiencing a software glitch. If there are no pictures or problems arise during the connection (for example, Windows suggests formatting the drive), then the problem is hardware. Luckily, in most cases you will be able to get your images back.

Method 1: Clear the Gallery cache

Due to the peculiarities of Android, the gallery cache may fail, as a result of which photos are not displayed on the system, although they are recognized and opened when connected to a computer. When faced with this type of problem, do the following:

1. Open "Settings" in any possible way.



2. Go to general settings and look for the item "Applications" or "Application Manager".



3. Go to the tab "All" or similar in meaning, and find the application among the system ones "Gallery". Tap on it to go to the details page.



4. Find the “Cache” mark on the page. Depending on the number of images on the device, the cache can occupy from 100 MB to 2 GB or more. Click the button "Clear". Then - "Clear data".



5. After clearing the gallery cache, go back to the general list of applications in the manager and find "Media storage". Go to the properties page of this application and also clear its cache and data.



6. Restart your smartphone or tablet.

If the problem was a gallery failure, then after these steps it will disappear. If this does not happen, read on.

Method 2: Delete .nomedia files

Sometimes, due to the actions of viruses or the carelessness of the user himself, files called .nomedia may appear in photo directories. This file migrated to Android with the Linux kernel and represents service data that prevents the file system from indexing multimedia content in the directory where they are located. Simply put, photos (and videos and music) from the folder in which the file is .nomedia, will not be displayed in the gallery. To return the photos to their place, this file must be deleted. This can be done, for example, using .

1. After installing Total Commander, log into the application. Call up the menu by pressing the three dots or the corresponding key. In the pop-up menu, tap on " Settings...".



2. In the settings, check the box next to the item "Hidden files/folders".



3. Then visit your photos folder. Typically this is a directory called "DCIM".



4. The specific folder with photos depends on many factors: firmware, Android version, the camera used, etc. But as a rule, photos are stored in directories with names "100ANDRO", "Camera" or right in the very "DCIM".



5. Let's say photos have disappeared from the folder "Camera". Let's go into it. Total Commander algorithms place system and service files above all others in the directory during standard display, so that the presence .nomedia can be noticed immediately.
   
   Press and hold it to bring up the context menu. To delete a file, select "Delete".
   
   Confirm deletion.



6. Also check other folders where photos may be located (for example, a download directory, messenger folders or social network clients). If they also have .nomedia, remove it using the method described in the previous step.
7. Reboot your device.

After reboot, go to "Gallery" and check if the photos are restored. If nothing has changed, read on.

Method 3: Photo Recovery

If Methods 1 and 2 did not help you, we can conclude that the essence of the problem lies in the drive itself. Regardless of the reasons for its occurrence, it will no longer be possible to do without file recovery. The details of the procedure are described in the article below, so we will not dwell on them in detail.

Conclusion

As we see, the disappearance of photographs from "Galleries" There is no reason to panic at all: in most cases it will be possible to return them.