Best Ways To Recover Deleted Photos on Android Phone Or Tablet
Everyone loves taking pictures from their mobile phones. We sometimes capture valuable moments or important events and majorly random clicks. Most of the people clear their phone’s photo gallery when the storage capacity gets full.
This might sometimes lead to loss of a valuable photo. So, if you have ever experienced a similar situation on your Android device, we are here to help you recover deleted photos.
Recovering lost data on Android phones is not easy, unlike iOS systems they don’t have a trash folder where the deleted files are stored. But, don’t lose hope, because there is a way to retrieve the deleted photos. In this blog, you will find several ways and tips on how to get back lost photos on Android devices. But, be quick as you might not have much time before the images become unrecoverable.
Cloud Storage App and websites:
There are several cloud storage devices available nowadays, it is especially great for Android devices. If you have been using any such cloud storage app on your Android phone there is a chance to restore deleted photos.
If by any chance you have backed up your photo data or may have chosen to sync photos, you will be able to restore your photos back.
We have mentioned four popular cloud storage apps available for Android devices and how to restore photos from them. See if any of these apps are installed on your phone phones.
Google Photos
Google developed this cloud storage app to save photos and share them across devices effectively. All the synced images stay in the cloud storage folder and the deleted photos get saved in the trash folder for up to 60 days.
Note that you can restore the deleted photos within 60 days of deletion after which the photos will automatically disappear from the trash.
Here is how to get back the photos from Google photos that got deleted from your phone:
Step1: Open Google photos app or website from browser on any of your device
Step2: Click on the three-dotted menu at top right corner
Step3: Select trash option from the menu
Step4: Look for the photos you want to recover, next, tap and hold the photos.
Step5: Click on the restore option at the bottom and your photos will be back on your device.
Dropbox
Like Google Photos, Dropbox also saves deleted photos in the trash folder but it is available for much shorter time i.e 30 days. Now, if you have Dropbox in your mobile phone, check if you have backed up or synched in data on it. To do so go through the following steps:
Step1: Launch Dropbox app on your phone or open the website on your device browser.
Step2: Head to the sidebar on the left and click on the File menu.
Step3: Select Deleted Files from the list
Step4: Look for the photos you wish to restore and once selected click on the restore button.
You can select as many photos as you want for restoration, but restoration time will be longer for a large number of images.
Google Drive
Before July 2019 photos stored on Google drive were visible on Google photos Cloud as well, but not anymore. So, you now have another Cloud storage from Google to store, share and restore photos of your drive. If you had saved any deleted photo on Google drive here is how you can restore it.
Step1: Open the Google Drive app on your phone and if you are using another device open through the browser.
Step2: Go to the photos’ folder and select the ones you wish to restore.
Step3: Click on the three dots at the top right corner, next, click on the download option from the menu.
One drive
If you have an Android phone from Nokia ,you may be using its cloud storage-One drive. If you have synced or backed up data on One drive ,here is how you can recover it back on your device.
Step1: Open one drive on your phone
Step2: Go to Me option and select Recycle bin from the menu
Step3: Select all the images you want to recover
Step4: Click on the Restore button and all the photos will get downloaded on your device.
Note that similar to dropbox, One drive saves deleted photos up to 30 days after which it automatically deletes it.
Recover Photos From Internal storage- Rooted required
If you have not used any cloud storage service to back up your photos, you still have some options left. Another method to recover deleted photos is through your Android phone’s internal memory. I know what you are thinking, how can a deleted photo exist? It can, however, its a bit tricky.
So, when you delete a photo from your phone gallery, it just gets cleared from the gallery and doesn’t get deleted from the device right away.
Instead, it is just marked for deletion and exists on your phone’s internal memory. You can restore back your photo from the internal phone space, If you have not filled up the storage or cleared it.
Now, to restore photos from your phone’s internal memory, you will need an Android data recovery app or software. There are several software options available. Look into a few apps and download the one you find most suitable. If not you can go for what we are using here i.e Dr.Fone-Android Data Recovery.
The software will scan your Android device fully for all lost data including deleted photos and helps you to restore it back. Also, it doesn’t affect the existing data. Follow the steps given below to recover deleted photos through this software.
Step1: Install the software on your Windows or Mac computer and open it once installed.
Step2: Connect your Android phone with your computer using a USB cable and enable USB debugging mode.
Step3: Go to Gallery and pictures folders, scan for deleted files, Click Next
Step4: Here is the important step: root your phone with the KingRoot app to completely scan your phone.
Step5: At last, preview, all the scanned photos, press the recover button and select location on your computer.
Restore Deleted Photos from SD Card- Rooting is not Required
If you use External SD cards instead of internal storage to save your phone data, you still have the chance to get back your deleted photo. You will have to use Data recovery software on your computer but this time you don’t need to root your system.
There are numerous data recovery software to choose from, you can try a few and choose the best one. For better results use a tool designed for scanning and recovering lost data, damaged files from external sources like SD cards, memory sticks, HDD, and more. Once you install the software on your computer, follow the steps mentioned below:
Step 1: Connect your Storage Disk with your computer using a card reader.
Step 2: Open the software and choose the data type you want to recover.
Step 3: Next, select the disk drive where you want to recover your lost file. Select image and your phone’s SD card name.
Step 4: Click for Quick or Deep scan to thoroughly scan the storage disk.
Step 5: Once the scanning is finished, select all photos you want to restore and click on the recover button. Choose a location on your computer where you wish to store all the photos.
You can now copy recovered photos on your Android device or SD card.
Other ways to Recover Deleted Photos
So far we discussed the major methods to recover deleted photos. But, there still exist few other recovery methods to try out.
These methods may or may not work better than the above-mentioned ones. It might be a bit time consuming as well, but it’s better to try all the possible ways of recovery rather than losing a valuable photo.
Email and messages
Many email operators provide users with unlimited storage to save important emails as well as attachments. So, if you have sent the deleted photos to someone through emails you will probably find it in your Sent.
Social Media sites
Social media sites are not the best option to back your photos for privacy purposes. However, many people sync their activities or images. So, check if you can recover such photos from your social media account.
If this is not the case, your friends or family members might have shared or posted the image you are looking for on their social media account. Dig down deep and you may find your lost photo somewhere.
Backed up files
Try to remember if you have backed up your phone data in the past. If yes, it’s time to check it out. Now, before you restore your old backup, have a backup of current data to be on the safer side. So that after you recover your lost photo, you can restore your phone back to the original state.
How to Avoid Losing your Photos the Next Time
You may have heard the phrase “Prevention is better than cure” and even though you have recovered the deleted photo, you might not want to miss out on any other valuable data. Recovering data on Android devices can be difficult sometimes, even with all the methods we mentioned in the blog.
So, in order to save important data, you should take precautionary steps. Here are a few tips that will help you avoid losing photos as well as other valuable data on your Android device:
Back up
When it comes to securing phone data, Backup is the most useful step. A complete phone backup will keep all your phone data secure from accidental data loss.
Whether it is photos, contacts, videos, apps or any other files, you can restore your data back on your device whenever you want. Also, you can factory reset your phone when needed without worrying about data loss.
Upload Photos on a cloud storage
Other than Backup, Cloud storage is an excellent way to keep your data secure. It is both convenient and effective. You will find plenty of cloud storage apps and services these days.
These apps and websites will securely save your data in their database. The best part about using Cloud services is that you can access it from any device and there is no need for data transfer. With cloud storage apps you can get access to your backed up or synced data even if you damage or lose your phone.
Clear Cached images from Photo gallery
You might have experienced a thumbnail error on your phone, when you click a thumbnail in the gallery but nothing happens. The error occurs when your phone’s operating system is unable to generate a thumbnail correctly. These are the cached images.
The only way to solve this error is to delete the thumbnail from the DCIM folder. You can delete thumbnails using a disk space cleaner or using a file browser.
Remove junk from Storage space
When low on storage space, Android devices can behave weirdly, this might affect your device images as well. Images on your device may also start to disappear and if this is the case on your device, check how much storage space is occupied on your phone. If you are running low on storage space, it is time to clean up the junk from your device.
Think before deleting
The last tip is pretty obvious, but useful, Android devices do not have trash folder options like the iPhone. So, when you delete a photo, it won’t stay in your device for long. So, before you choose to delete an image, think if it’s important or not.
That’s our list of methods to recover lost images on Android devices, we hope you found this blog useful. Do let us know which method worked for you. Also, if you have another tip for us we will value your feedback. Write to us in the comment section below. For more such information visit our website.
