How to recover deleted photos from camera on Android

Deletion or damage of photos on phone external or internal memory is always an unpleasant case, but you can find a solution. At least in half of the cases you can find the images in temporary storage or recover them via special Android app or Windows utility. The most important is to keep trying out different variants in an attempt to find a perfect one which will solve the problem. We've collected for you in this article the most effective methods among the existing ones.

Check out all the places where the photos can be stored

All the devices running under Android operating system store photos at the same address:

• /storage/emmc/DCIM on your device internal memory
• /storage/sdcard0/DCIM on an external storage device

In some cases, the images won't display in the Gallery due to messed up settings. However, the files actually are at their place, where they can easily be found with the help of a user-friendly file manager like ES Explorer or Total Commander.

The system create smaller copies (thumbnails) of all created images and pictures for a quick download of preview icons. Thumbnails are stored here by default:

• /storage/emmc/DCIM/.thumbnails on device internal memory
• /storage/sdcard0/DCIM/.thumbnails — on a sd card

Their quality is much worse than of the original, but it's better to recover at least them rather than nothing.

How to find thumbnails folder on Android

Go through the contents of Google Photos Recycle Bin

You're extremely lucky, if backing up photos onto Google Photos was set on your device by default. In such case, even if anything has disappeared from your device or "Google Photos" files list, a part of the missing files can be found in the service Recycle Bin.

Try to check Recycle Bin contents and recover it:

1. Launch Google Photos app.
2. Choose "Bin" (Recycle Bin) tab from the menu.
3. Mark the files and folders you need in the contents list.
4. Click "Restore" (Recover).

Following your actions the files will be recovered at the same address they were available оn оr before deletion. Files from Google Photos Recycle Bin are permanently deleted after 60 days of storing by default.

Read the guide

Test out the best apps for camera photo recovery

A simple search didn't help? It's high time to start acting decisively. Install one or more app for recovering deleted files onto your device:

DiskDigger for Android

Free

Pro version: $14.99

Download

Dr Fone for Android

Pro version: $49.95

Download

MobiSaver for Android

Free

Pro version: $59.95

Download

All the listed above software products allow you to recover accidentally deleted from your device memory photos, screenshots and pictures absolutely for free. To start the recovery process you have to launch scanning, mark in shown results the photos you need for photo recovery and click on start recovery button. Depending on the app you choose, the buttons and operating mode can differ, but the general principle is the same no matter what.

Recovering photos taken by a camera via Recuva program

If apps for recovering deleted data on Android don't help, you should give a try to Windows tools. On such occasions Recuva is the most efficient one among camera photo recovery apps. In addition to this, it has a step-by-step mode for beginners in order to simplify the working process.

To start the searching process plug in your flash drive/phone, open "Welcome to Recuva Wizard" mode and scan the device after setting "Pictures" as the type of files. If the results don't satisfy you, deep scan option is there to help you (Options – Actions – Deep Scan). In order to recover images indicate their thumbnails by a check mark in the scanning results and click "Recover".

What to do if images taken by a camera have been damaged

The following apps will assist you in fixing photos recovered in awful quality: PixRecovery, RS File Repair, JPEGfix and etc.

Every app has its own operating peculiarities, but the process of adjusting recovery settings in general is the same:

1. You choose a photo.
2. Specify a folder for saving the result.
3. Launch the recovery process.

The following happens: in technical information of a jpg file the software finds data required for recovering it to the original state and uses this data to eliminate the impact of viruses and device software and hardware failures.

If none of the above mentioned apps help

If you didn't succeed in recovering camera photos,

• perform safe formatting via SDFormatter and deep recovery of all non clobbered information on your storage device,
• reach out to companies that provide recovery service.

Read more: https://howtorecover.me/how-recover-files-sd-card-without-formatting

FAQ

I was planning to delete some photos that were taken on my phone camera, but accidentally I pressed "mark all" and all the camera photos were deleted. I couldn't prevent it from happening. Now I have no idea how to recover them. There were all the photos I've taken since I bought this phone and among them were a lot of important photos.

The answer. If the images have been deleted from the camera recently, DiskDigger for Android will help you. If you need to restore camera photos from a memory card, then the best option is Recuva. In general, the methods we describe above can save the situation.

Hello! Firstly, my Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 wouldn't recognize the SD card (with which everything was fine) and I started saving photos onto its internal memory. Then it began constantly sending notifications stating that there wasn't enough memory. I cut "Camera" folder from DCIM on my phone and then I paste the folder on my computer, but instead of 500 photos only 40 were transferred. Obviously "Camera" folder is gone from the phone. My question is: how can I recover the photos which weren't transferred?

The answer. Those photos can be stored on a memory card. You won't find them on your computer as there wasn't enough time for them to be transfered. Focus on your sd card and try to solve the case via relevant programs.

[how to recover lost pictures from my mobile set]

while taking pictures, it was shown memory is running out. then what happened i do not know... later on i find out all the pictures taken by camera are lost. kindly suggest how to recover those.

The answer. Most likely, you won't manage to recover the photographs due to the fact that if there isn't enough memory, there are no chances that the files can be physically saved.

When I was going through new photos in the Gallery, I came up with a decision to transfer my favourite photos from "camera" folder to another one for the sake of convenience. I chose "images" folder from all the available as it had the smallest amount of files. I wanted to check what I had transferred and I ended up not being able to find the folder. Photos are gone from my phone, but they are on Google photos, where they are displayed as gray squares. Everything is stored on my phone internal memory. How can I  recover deleted camera photos from Android?

The answer. First of all you should try to recover those files through Google Photos, as it's described in this guide. If it doesn't help either, give a try to DiskDigger or Undeleter app for Android. For full operation of these programs root access is required.

1. My phone is Lenovo. We took some photos with the phone camera. Before taking just another photo a window with "deny" or "allow" popped up. I don't remember what exactly it was saying. Firstly I pressed "deny" but then I couldn't take a photo so I pressed "allow". We managed to took photos, everything is OK. Then while going through them, I noticed that the phone shows only the last photos which were made after I pressed "allow". And the previous are gone. I restarted the phone: and now it shows only the previous photos and the latest ones disappeared and we can't find them anywhere.

2. I downloaded Sweet selfie app on my phone. After I took the photo I forgot to click on "Save" and the photo wasn't saved. Now I need it. Is there a chance that the photo can be somewhere on my phone?

The answer. Definitely not.