Imagine that a failure on the SD card or a forced factory reset deleted the photos from your Android phone. Sometimes we get lucky and the images end up in the Google Apps trash, but in most cases, it is necessary to explore restoration options. If you want to know how to recover deleted photos on Android, today we offer two tools: One that works outside the smartphone on the SD card, and the other from inside it, with root access.
Any user who goes through Google's help section to learn how to recover deleted photos on Android will find that there is actually not much help there. The only solid recommendation is to check the Google Photos app trash because it's possible that some images end up there by accident.
However, if the photos in question have been in the trash for more than 60 days or if it was emptied manually, recovery through that means is impossible. What alternatives do we have? Abandon Mountain View's "help" and attack the problem from another angle.
How to recover deleted photos on the SD card
If the deleted images were stored on the SD card, then there is a good chance to restore that content using standard PC software. Turn off your phone and remove the card, connect it to your computer (either directly or with an adapter), and download a copy of EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard in its free edition.
The Free license has a recovery limit of 2 GB per session, but something tells me that will be enough for most cases. Do a custom installation (so you can disable telemetry), open the program, select the SD card in its interface, and let it complete its analysis.
EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard will separate the results by content type, and all you have to do is look for image categories (JPEG, Portable Network Graphic, etc.). Mark the images to extract, click the Recover button, and save their copies to a folder.
How to recover deleted photos on Android with DiskDigger
Obviously, we cannot rule out the possibility that your smartphone does not have an SD card slot from the factory, and that the 'incident' happens in internal memory. That's when the popular DiskDigger app, available through the Play Store, comes in. Install a copy, choose Full Scan, select the device's internal memory, the types of files to look for (again, JPEG-PNG), and let DiskDigger do its magic.
The process takes its time because DiskDigger finds all images in internal memory, instead of just the deleted ones. The good news is that the app enables the use of filters to reduce the number of results. Select the photos to recover, and tap the Recover button.
Now, what's the fine print of DiskDigger? Its basic analysis only offers access to thumbnails and copies of images left in cache. The only way to activate the full scan and recover deleted photos is with root access on the smartphone. It's not ideal, but if we're facing an emergency and we don't have backups, we must follow that path.
In summary
Finally, remember that recovering deleted photos on Android is not an exact science. Devices overwrite information frequently, and it is likely that some images can only be rescued partially. The most effective thing is still prevention. Backup, backup, backup. Without wanting to offend, if you store thousands of photos on your phone without having a minimal backup, you are doing things wrong. Don't be surprised by a technical failure or a spontaneous error, because sooner or later it will happen. Good luck!
Download EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard: Click here
Download DiskDigger (Play Store): Click here
