How to recover lost photos

The sooner you act, the greater the chance of recovering the photos.

What do you want?

Why do photos disappear?

The most common causes are accidental deletion while clearing the gallery, formatted memory card, factory reset, and failure to transfer files from one device to another.

In most of these cases, the file doesn't disappear immediately. The space is only marked as free until something new is written over it.

Which path to choose?

See which situation matches yours.

Deleted via Google Photos

The photo remains in the trash for up to 60 days when it was backed up. Restoring it takes less than a minute.

It was deleted from the phone's memory

If the photo has never been on Google Photos or the trash has already been emptied, DiskDigger searches for remnants of the image in memory, without root access or a computer.

Lost photos from your memory card or hard drive?

SD cards, USB flash drives, and external hard drives can be read on a computer using Recuva, a free program for Windows.

The first step

Stop using the device as soon as you notice the loss. Each new photo, download, or update can occupy the space of the deleted image.

Turn on airplane mode and don't reformat the card.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can photos deleted months ago reappear?

Sometimes. It depends on how much the device has been used since. If nothing new has occupied that space, a recovery app might still be able to find the image.

Do I need to pay anything?

No. Google Photos, DiskDigger's basic search, and Recuva all have free versions.

Do photos from WhatsApp also come back?

Many files remain in the WhatsApp media folder even after disappearing from the gallery. Check this folder in a file manager before trying anything else.