Were you doing some cleanup among the photos you took with your Android photos smartphone and accidentally deleted some shots you were supposed to keep as well? Don’t despair, there might still be a chance to recover them. If the portion of memory on which your images were saved hasn’t already been overwritten by other data, you can restore the photos even if you’ve removed them. You just need to use the right tools for where to Find Saved Web Pages in Android.
If you want to give it a try, below you will find explained how to recover deleted Android photos thanks to some apps that you can run directly from your mobile device or PC. As a general rule, the ones you run from your computer would be preferable, because this way you don’t copy new data to your phone (or tablet) and thus reduce the risk of the photos to be recovered being overwritten by other data, but apps running directly from Android are also very reliable (as well as very convenient to use).
Let’s be clear, then: based on what I’ve just told you, I can’t 100% assure you that, at the end of this guide, you’ll get your shots back, but it won’t hurt to try. So, let’s stop talking and get to work! Get comfortable, take your device, and put into practice the instructions below. Good reading and good luck!
How to recover deleted Android photos without root
If you haven’t rooted your device, which allows you to bypass the standard Android security measures that, as a rule, do not allow users to act on certain advanced aspects of the system (e.g. adjusting the CPU frequency, blocking the execution of apps while the device is on standby and, indeed, thoroughly scanning the memory of the phone or tablet for files to be recovered after deletion), you cannot properly take advantage of the features offered by data recovery apps, about which you can find more details in the next step.
What you can do, however, is try to recover the images you’re interested in without resorting to more complex solutions by looking in the Recycle Bin of the app you use as your Gallery. You may not know this, but Google Photos and other Gallery apps pre-installed on Android devices have a handy trash can, similar to the one on computers, where all images and movies you delete from the app automatically go, and where they remain for 60 days before they are permanently deleted.
So, to try recovering deleted Android photos without rooting as I just indicated, take your device, unlock it (if necessary), access the home screen and/or drawer and launch the Google Photos or Alternative Gallery app you use by selecting its icon.
Once you see the main screen of the app, tap on the word Collection that is located in the lower right corner and then the word Trash on the new screen. At this point, if among the items in the recycle bin there are also deleted photos of your interest, to recover them tap on the Select heading located in the upper right corner, select the contents of your interest and tap on the Restore option twice. The instructions I’ve just given you apply to Google Photos, but they are also applicable to other Gallery apps.
How to recover deleted Android photos: apps
Another way to recover deleted photos from Android is to use some apps that are designed for data recovery, i.e. not only images, but also videos, audios, etc. As I mentioned before, you should keep in mind that such solutions are effective only if the device is rooted.
DiskDigger photo recovery
The first app to recover deleted photos on Android that I suggest you try is DiskDigger photo recovery. It is a tool through which you can recover JPG and PNG images deleted from your device. It’s free, but it’s also available in a paid version and allows you to restore other file types as well. It allows you to work both on the device’s internal memory and on any external media in use. To work, as I mentioned, it requires root.
To download and install the app on your device, visit the relevant section of the Play Store and press the Install button (if you’re using a device that lacks Google services, you can download the app from alternative stores). Next, launch the app by selecting its icon that has been added to the home screen and/or drawer.
Now that you see DiskDigger photo recovery’s main screen, grant the required permissions, refuse to upgrade to the Pro version, select the drive where you want to search for photos (it should be the one selected by default), check the JPG and/or PNG entries and tap the OK button to start searching for deleted files.
Once the scan is over, check the thumbnails of the photos you want to recover, tap the Recover button in the upper right corner and select one of the icons in the menu that opens: the cloud if you want to auto-send the photos to yourself via email or save them to a cloud storage service, the folder if you want to save them to your device’s memory or the arrow if you want to upload them to an FTP server.
Undeleter Recover Files & Data
Undeleter Recover Files & Data is another application to recover deleted photos on Android, which acts by going to perform a thorough scan of the memory of your smartphone, or tablet, in order to recover all data that has not yet physically disappeared from the device. Even in this case, root is required to work properly. Note that it’s basic free, but to save any recovered data you need to upgrade to the full version via in-app purchases
To use Undeleter Recover Files & Data, retrieve the app from the relevant section of the Play Store (or from alternative stores), then launch the app by selecting its icon in the home screen and/or drawer and, once the main screen of Undeleter Recover Files & Data appears, grant the required permissions.
Next, choose the Restore files option, select the drive to be scanned, indicate whether to perform a deep or general scan, check the JPG and PNG options in the Images section and tap the Scan button to start the image search.
Once you’re done with the process, select the images you’re interested in recovering and, if you decide to purchase the full version of the app, tap on their thumbnails, then on the button with the three vertical dots in the top right corner, tap on the Save File heading from the menu that opens and indicate the output location.
How to recover deleted Android photos from PC
Are you interested in understanding how to recover deleted Android photos from PC? Then continue reading. Below you’ll find the best programs to recover deleted photos from Android. I sincerely hope they can help you.
PhotoRec (Windows/MacOS/Linux)
If your Android smartphone or tablet has a microSD card on which images are stored, the most effective computer-based solution you can use to recover deleted photos on Android is PhotoRec. It is a free software for Windows, macOS and Linux that restores all recoverable files from external storage drives. Note, however, that it only has a user interface on the Microsoft operating system. It comes bundled with TestDisk, another free program for recovering lost partitions and repairing damaged disks at the software level, but you are only interested in PhotoRec.
To download PhotoRec to your computer, visit the program’s website and click on the link for your operating system under TestDisk & PhotoRec x.x (month, day, year), Data Recovery.
After the download is complete, if you are using Windows, extract the ZIP archive to any folder and run qphotorec_win.exe.
Next, click on the entry for the primary partition of the card (it should be the one named FAT32, FAT16 or exFAT) and check the FAT/NTFS/HFS+/ReiferFS and Free entries.
Then click the File formats button and in the window that opens tick only the JPG or PNG entries or the image formats you are interested in so that PhotoRec will try to recover only these files. To reset the default selection of all extensions, click the Reset button.
Finally, click the OK button, select the folder where you want PhotoRec to save the recovered photos by pressing the Browse button and start scanning the microSD card by clicking the Search button. After the scan is finished, you will find all the photos recovered by PhotoRec in the folder you specified above. It was easy, wasn’t it?
If you’re using macOS, open the tar.bz2 archive instead.
The Terminal window will then open. So, use the right arrow of the keyboard to select the Sudo option, press the Enter key and enter the Mac administration password.
Next, select the drive related to the microSD card of your smartphone or tablet, indicate the partition on which you want to act, select the file system with which it is formatted and decide whether to scan only the space marked as free or to thoroughly check the entire drive.
Next, specify the folder where you want to save the contents of the memory card once the recovery process is complete, press the C key on the keyboard to confirm your intentions and wait for the scan to complete.
Wondershare dr.Fone
Download Wondershare dr.Fone to your computer
Once the download is complete, if you are using Windows, open the obtained .exe file, click the Yes button in the window that is shown on your desktop and then the OK button. After that, select the I accept the terms of the license agreement item, click the Next button (four times in a row), wait for all the files necessary for the software to be downloaded from the Internet and press the button to start the program and finish the setup.
If you are using macOS, on the other hand, open the downloaded .dmg package, click on the Accept button and drag the icon of Wondershare dr.Fone to it.
Now that you see the main window of the software on the screen, connect your Android smartphone or tablet to the computer, using its charging cable, click on the button related to data recovery, making sure beforehand that USB debugging is enabled on the device in the developer options,
Next, accept the installation of Connector and Dr.Fone on your smartphone or tablet, which are two apps that are necessary for the proper functioning of Wondershare dr.Fone, answer in affirmative to the
When the screen for choosing the data to be recovered appears, choose the Phone Data Recovery tab in the left sidebar. Alternatively, you can perform data recovery from the microSD card.
Next, check the Gallery option, click the Next button and wait for the scanning process to be completed. If you have a rooted device, check the Scan for Deleted box, go ahead, grant dr.Fone root permissions on the device and wait for the device scan to complete.
Finally, select the thumbnails of the photos you want to recover, click the button to recover data on your device or the button to recover data on your computer, confirm your intentions and you’re done.