Android Recover deleted photos | Android

honest1

honest1

Skilled
Hey everyone,

I made a big mistake today! I attended an event and took around 150-200 photos on my Android phone, which were backed up to Google Photos (I have a paid Google One plan). Unfortunately, due to some confusion, I ended up deleting all of them from photos.google.com and even emptied the recycle bin, so they’re permanently gone.

I know, it sounds pretty dumb, and trust me, it feels just as bad!

I’ve tried all the usual recovery apps, but they’re only detecting some old thumbnails, which aren’t helpful. I’ve also contacted Google for assistance, but I’m not sure if they can help at this point.

What are my best options now? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance!
 
If the photos got transferred to google cloud and got during form your phone in the event then you are out of luck as

Restore recently deleted photos & videos - Android - Google Photos Help

You can restore recently deleted photos and videos that are still in your trash. Items that are permanently deleted can’t be restored. Backed up photos and videos stay in your trash for 60 days. Phot
support.google.com

Yet "You can recover deleted photos and videos from Google Photos if they are still in the trash within 60 days:" Login from your laptop and check as phone gives ltd. visibility!

Unlike a computers data recovery, a phones data recovery is not guaranteed at all as its highly unlikely you will recover anything only unless it was deleted from your phone by yourselves as the algorithm of capturing a pic, storing locally temporarily and backing up on the cloud while deleting entirely from your phone is a system automated highly secured process ensuring zero recovery!

No harm trying those android recovery tools though but bitter truth is tough luck without any success!

https://www.reddit.com/r/DataRecoveryHelp/comments/19bhc2j
 
See if your phone's Gallery app has it's own Trash Bin. Just like GPhotos, local deletes are moved to the bin for x no. of days and can be recovered.

Else, if your phone has a microSD slot and the photos were stored there, recovering them on PC is simple enough.
 
nRiTeCh said:
https://www.reddit.com/r/DataRecoveryHelp/comments/19bhc2j
Click to expand...
An interesting read with a point I understood.

If you can root the phone, chances of recovery go up. Just like nothing ever gets deleted of PC storage in normal use. To an extent the same goes for phone storage.

Except default android hides a lot of that and makes it near impossible to recover from.

So those companies charging the big bucks to recover things that are not recoverable must be going the rooting way wherever possible. Not guaranteed but could work.

In a way this almost acts as a guide as to which phones to get and which to avoid. Rootable is better and we see googles phones top the list.

Since OP is a pixel fan and if this was on a pixel phone then there are possibilities for recovery?
 
Last edited:
nRiTeCh said:
If the photos got transferred to google cloud and got during form your phone in the event then you are out of luck as

Restore recently deleted photos & videos - Android - Google Photos Help

You can restore recently deleted photos and videos that are still in your trash. Items that are permanently deleted can’t be restored. Backed up photos and videos stay in your trash for 60 days. Phot
support.google.com

Yet "You can recover deleted photos and videos from Google Photos if they are still in the trash within 60 days:" Login from your laptop and check as phone gives ltd. visibility!

Unlike a computers data recovery, a phones data recovery is not guaranteed at all as its highly unlikely you will recover anything only unless it was deleted from your phone by yourselves as the algorithm of capturing a pic, storing locally temporarily and backing up on the cloud while deleting entirely from your phone is a system automated highly secured process ensuring zero recovery!

No harm trying those android recovery tools though but bitter truth is tough luck without any success!

https://www.reddit.com/r/DataRecoveryHelp/comments/19bhc2j
Click to expand...
Tried all the normal ways like backups and also some of the advanced tools like Dr.Fone and EaseUS with no success.
The only thing left is rooting the phone and then trying. I am still not sure whether it will help but still thinking to root.
BTW, this is for Pixel 8 phone on which I am trying to recover the pics.
blr_p said:
An interesting read with a point I understood.

If you can root the phone, chances of recovery go up. Just like nothing ever gets deleted of PC storage in normal use. To an extent the same goes for phone storage.

Except default android hides a lot of that and makes it near impossible to recover from.

So those companies charging the big bucks to recover things that are not recoverable must be going the rooting way wherever possible. Not guaranteed but could work.

In a way this almost acts as a guide as to which phones to get and which to avoid. Rootable is better and we see googles phones top the list.

Since OP is a pixel fan and if this was on a pixel phone then there are possibilities for recovery?
Click to expand...
Thats the only thing left now but then even if I root my phone now, it will be complete wipe as the bootloader has to be unlocked resulting in wiping.
I dont know how much data will I be able to recover it after that :(
 
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honest1 said:
Thats the only thing left now but then even if I root my phone now, it will be complete wipe as the bootloader has to be unlocked resulting in wiping.
I dont know how much data will I be able to recover it after that :(
Click to expand...
I didn't know rooting meant the phone has to completely wiped.
 
honest1 said:
Not for rooting essentially but when bootloader is unlocked, it needs complete wipe and then only it can be rooted !
Click to expand...
It's a security mechanism to protect your data in case phone is stolen and someone attempts to root it to gain access to the data. So unlocking bootloader means default wiping.

Well,i don't know what you do in this case.
 
I was in a similar situation a few years back (around Android 8-9). I took some photos and they were supposed to be uploaded to the cloud (don't remember if it was google) and then I would delete them from local storage. Unfortunately, I received a notification about an old backup being successfully pushed and went on to clean up the local storage, not realizing that the backup was ongoing. To my horror, the new backup job didn't even start yet. In the end, I found the thumbnails of the pictures in the local storage and was able to recover them. I mean still saved the memories albeit in a very low quality, still better than nothing.

Btw I don't think Google actually deletes your photos (Apple doesn't either) (wink**wink). It's just that officially you can't recover it.
 
honest1 said:
Not for rooting essentially but when bootloader is unlocked, it needs complete wipe and then only it can be rooted !
Click to expand...
For rooting the bootloader needs to be unlocked and for it to unlock a full phone wipe is a mandate and when you do a full phone wipe there are ZERO% chances of recovery whatsoever even if you give it to any pro recovery as the mechanism is designed that way.

Hence I always and I mean ALWAYS manually backup all my photos/videos and do not trust any cloud thing. Best is to even carry a microsd if at all the phone has such almighty facility! As microsd have always been a lifesaver esp. for rooted phones and such data loss situations.. I used to automate via Tasker..whenever anything gets captures, tasker automation used to copy the data to microsd while keeping on the phone storage as well.

To add, someone I know relied heavily on cloud and he had some 1tb space, cannot recall Onedrive or Google but in a low internet zone his data did got backed up only to be found that most of the files/images were corrupted and choppy and videos unplayable with 1kb sizes.
That dude had almost lost most of his relatives wedding images in this way but glad he didn't delete offline files so his ass got saved and gave up on cloud completely! dude now carries a laptop and external drive wherever he goes..an added weight but headache free journeys!

Rooted phones help perform deeper searches is the advantage and dive deep inside the system where may be google photos files reside as a temp before getting uploaded on the cloud.

@honest1 This incidence is an unfortunate lesson dude is all I could say.
 
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