How to recover deleted files on Android

How to recover deleted files on Android

How to recover deleted files on Android. How to recover deleted data on Android. We all know the pain of when we accidentally delete a file. You realize what you've done late! Maybe it was the photo of a happy memory that you cannot relive now. Maybe it was an important document you needed to work on. Either way, losing or deleting a file on your phone is bad, but it's part of life in the digital age. Here's where our tutorial on recovering deleted files on Android comes in.

There may still be a way to recover that file. Depending on the nature of the file, how you deleted it and how lucky or unlucky you are depending on the success of the recovery; there are some methods to recover deleted data on Android. Read on and you will know some of the best techniques to recover lost or deleted files on Android.

How to recover deleted files on Android. Stop!

If you are reading this article, chances are good that you just deleted an important file. I hope that after deleting it you came to my blog: because before doing anything else, you must read this section! The most important thing to know when you need to recover a deleted file on Android is that you must stop using the phone as soon as possible. Doing so increases the chances of recovering your file, video, photo, song, etc. Everything.

See, when you delete a file, the data is not actually permanently deleted from your phone. This is because Android marks the space where information is stored as "empty". This means that you will not be able to find the file, because Android treats this data as missing. This also means that the slots that once contained the data are marked as OK for overwriting, this should be the space where new files will be saved. It is only when this happens that the data is actually erased and it is not possible to recover it.

That's why it's so important that you stop using your phone (including) even taking new photos or installing new apps. In fact, I strongly advise you to put the phone in airplane mode: in this way you will prevent downloading emails, WhatsApp photos and updates.

1. Check the trash

If you're lucky, you haven't deleted your files! Just like a PC, many Android apps have a recycle bin, which means that the files are not completely removed immediately. For example, the Gallery app provided with Samsung phones has such a safety net (this can also explain why deleting photos doesn't free up space on your device!) To check the trash, you will simply have to go back to the top level in the Images tab o Albums, then touch the menu at the top right. This will open a menu that includes a "Trash" option. Select it and you will be taken to a folder with all your "deleted photos".

Other apps also have this option, such as the popular ES File Explorer file manager  . Whichever app you used to delete the file, check carefully to see if it has a recycle bin!

2. Check your cloud backup

Google Photos has a trash bin that stores photos for 60 days, but works slightly differently: by backing up photos to Google Drive. This means that even if you completely deleted a photo through another app, it could still be recoverable through Google Photos.

If you don't see your photo or video here, check out the basket from the hamburger menu in the upper left. The files will remain here for 60 days. If you're not lucky, you can try visiting 

photos.google.com . Also check out the Trash folder in the hamburger menu.

Even if you removed your photos from the trash in Google Photos, there is still a chance that these changes have not yet been made in Google Drive - so check back here quickly too! Something you may not know about Google Drive is that you can actually ask to backup any folder on your device .

Just open Photos, access the settings, then select "Backup device folders". This is a useful preventive measure to avoid Android data loss in the future. Of course, many other apps like Gmail will store your files in the cloud by default.

Read Also: Cloud Backup Solutions

3. Recover WhatsApp photos

If it's a WhatsApp photo that you accidentally deleted, there are a number of options for trying to recover those photos . First, check the backup built into WhatsApp itself. Go to  Settings> Chat> Chat Backup . You should see some information that tells you when the last backup was made. If this is recent, then uninstall the app and reinstall it from the Play Store. This therefore offers you the possibility to restore your old chats and multimedia contents. You'll also see the option to back up photos to Google Drive , so try looking here too if this option is enabled.

But what if you accidentally overwrote your last backup? What happens if I delete the photo and save a more recent backup photo? Even then, there is still hope! This is because WhatsApp will actually keep a number of backup files on your device by asking you which photos you want to recover from the server.

Use your favorite file browser and then  go  to  WhatsApp> Database . Here you will see a number of files with names like msgstore-2020-01-05.crypt12. Simply find the most recent of these and rename it to msgstore-1997.crypt12 (or whatever you like). Now WhatsApp will go to the second most recent backup file when it recovers your photos!

You can also try searching the WhatsApp media folder to see if your photos are there. Remember, WhatsApp stores copies of the photos you send and those you receive. So if you sent someone a photo but then deleted it from your phone's camera folder, there may still be a copy in the WhatsApp Media folder! Or you could simply ask the person you sent it to to send it to you. Have you tried it already?

4. Try the apps to recover deleted files on Android

If none of these steps worked, you will need to start trying third-party solutions. Android data recovery apps are sometimes able to recover data that has actually been lost. It works by observing where the data was stored even when it was marked as deleted from Android.

This is where it becomes important to stop using the phone as soon as possible to avoid corrupting the data you are trying to recover.

To recover deleted data on Android, you can also try using a desktop computer recovery app first. We recommend  Recuva  as a good starting point. Install this app and the wizard will guide you through a series of steps to try to recover deleted files on Android. This method to recover deleted data on Android works better for files stored on memory cards than files stored on the phone memory.

5. Use the Android Play Store to recover deleted files on Android

If Recuva didn't work for you, the next step is to try the Android data recovery apps installed directly on your device. Different apps tend to use slightly different methods, so you definitely don't hurt to try.

6. Restore the file

Occasionally, it is possible to "recover" a file, only to find out that it is corrupt. For example, you may be able to save a photo and be able to view only the first few lines of the image, or you may be able to recover a video file that is not playing.

In this case, there are actually services that offer recovery of damaged files. This may be possible depending on the amount of original file still intact (only a small deviation will make it unreadable by most apps, and this can sometimes be solved manually).

There are also programs that offer this same service, but I advise you to work only with services managed by real human beings. Otherwise, you risk spending a lot of money on software that doesn't work in the end. I once used a service called MP4Repair.org successfully.

Conclusion

Unfortunately, there is no guarantee of recovering lost Android files. With a little luck and determination, however, there is at least a reasonable possibility. Having said that, I sincerely hope that one of these Android data recovery methods will work for you and that you will be able to recover your intact files.