Android Photo Recovery: How to Restore Deleted Photos?

In this read, you will see common reasons why you lose Android photos and how to recover them within minutes.

Like any other storage device, photos on Android are prone to deletion or corruption. Though you can capture beautiful memories from a family event or clicks from an unforgettable trip in images, losing them can feel devastating. It all can happen in a matter of a few seconds.

Imagine you are back home from a memorable gathering or a corporate conference and want to extract photos from your Android to share with your family and friends. But you find that most of them are lost. It would definitely be frustrating. Don’t you know what to do in such a case? Worried about losing them forever?

Well, don’t be concerned, as you can now recover permanently deleted photos on Android using different methods, as explained in detail in this article. It also shares the popular reasons behind losing your photos and tips to protect them in the future.

Part 1. Photos Disappeared from Your Android? These Might Be the Culprits!

Before discussing how to recover deleted photos from Android, it is important to understand why this happens. Once you understand the common reasons, you will be able to deal with this situation better.

1. File System Error: These errors may appear during crashes or Android updates, making your photos inaccessible.

2. Corrupted Storage: If your phone's SD card or internal storage is corrupted, you won’t be able to access your photos on Android.

3. Sync Issues: If Dropbox or Google Photos are disabled or not correctly synced, photos will disappear from your phone once deleted from the cloud.

4. Accidental Deletion is the most common reason for losing photos on Android and falls under the human error category.

5. Factory Reset: If you factory reset your phone without creating a full device backup, you will be left with nothing.

6. Malware Attacks: Though rare, it may happen with untrusted applications. Virus attacks or malware infections can delete or corrupt your data including photos.

7. System Bugs: The system bugs in early releases may cause photo loss.

Part 2. How to Recover Deleted Photos from Android Using Cloud Backup?

Accessing your lost photos from cloud backups is one of the easiest ways to access your inaccessible data on Android phones. However, they only work if you enable them before losing your data. Below are four efficient approaches to recover deleted photos on Android with the cloud backup.

1. Google Drive

It is one of the frequently used Google products that lets you store your important photos and other data types. Anything you store on Google Drive will always remain accessible to you.

If you have enabled Google Drive’s backup feature to store your photos, you don’t need to worry about the pictures being deleted from your Android, as you can easily download them online. Here is how you can recover deleted photos from Google Drive on Android.

Step 1: Open Google Drive and click the three-line icon in the top-left corner.

Step 2: Scroll down and click Backups

Step 3: Choose the pictures you want to restore.

Step 4: Click the three-dot icon and hit Download.

2. Google Photos

It is another useful application that manages your photos and helps you recover them in the event of data loss. If you have attached your Google account to your Android phone, Google Photos will automatically create regular data backups. If some photos are deleted from your mobile’s gallery, you can still recover them from Google Photos.

Moreover, deleted photos or other items go to the Trash folder in Google Photos, where they stay for 30 days before permanent deletion. Let’s look at how you can recover deleted photos on Android using Google Photos.

• Step 1: Open the Google Photos application on your Android phone.
• Step 2: Search for the deleted photos you want to recover.
• Step 3: Open the desired photo, hit the three-dot icon in the upper-right corner, and tap on the Download option.

3. OneDrive

Microsoft developed this cloud storage service that enables you to organize and recover your photos on your Android phone. If your photos are deleted from your Android’s gallery but are backed up on OneDrive, you can easily recover them by following the steps below.

• Step 1: Launch the OneDrive application on your phone.
• Step 2: Click Me in the bottom-right corner.
• Step 3: Choose the Recycle Bin and select the photos you want to restore.
• Step 4: Tap on the Restore option.

4. Dropbox

This is another credible cloud storage service that creates automatic backups of your photos and other data types. If you have synced your photos to Dropbox before they are deleted, you can recover them following the steps below.

• Step 1: Launch a web browser on your Android, e.g., Chrome.
• Step 2: Visit dropbox.com.
• Step 3: Request a desktop site and sign in to your Dropbox account.
• Step 4: Click Files and choose Deleted files.
• Step 5: Select the photos you want to retrieve and click Restore.

Part 3. How to Recover Deleted Photos from Internal Memory on Android?

It can be another potential solution to restoring your deleted photos on Android. Don’t you know how to recover photos from the internal memory? Well, you can try various third-party applications, such as:

1. File Recovery

2. DiskDigger

3. Dr.Fone.

Each of the mentioned applications has millions of positive reviews on Google Play, making them an ideal iPhone photo recovery choice for many people. Download any of these apps on your mobile, choose the images you wish to recover, and restore them within minutes. If this method does not work, move to the next section for more advanced recovery.

Part 4. How to Restore Permanently Deleted Photos from an Android SD Card?

Are your photos permanently deleted, lost due to formatting, or corrupted SD cards? Is no backup available on OneDrive, Google Drive, or Google Photos? You can recover the lost or deleted pictures instantly with Wondershare Recoverit.

Regardless of how you lost your photos from an Android phone, Recoverit helps you get them back within minutes. This award-winning data recovery tool supports all major photo formats and thousands of storage devices, including SD cards. With 35+ patents, it is currently serving more than 100 million users worldwide.

Why Recoverit?

The wow features that make this tool the number-one data recovery choice for millions of users are as follows.

• It offers support for all major photo formats, including but not limited to WebP, JPG, PNG, TIFF, GIF, BMP, NEF, DNG, and CR2.

• Recoverit is available in 13 different languages, including English, Chinese, Korean, Portuguese, Arabic, and more.

• The support for 2,000+ storage devices (including SD cards), 1,000+ file types, and 500+ recovery scenarios distinguishes it from other competitors.

• This tool comes with the highest successful recovery rate (99.5%).

Steps to Recover Permanently Deleted Photos on Android with Recoverit

Visit the official Recoverit website. Download the software and install it on your computer. It is compatible with both Windows and Mac. It is time to follow the steps below.

Step 1: Connect your Android to your computer, open Recoverit, and select your mobile under External Devices.

Step 2: Let the tool scan your Android SD card.

Step 3: Once the scan is completed, tap Preview to preview your photos. If they are the correct ones, click Recover and save them to your system.

Part 5. Never Lose an Android Photo Again | Smart Tips!

Keeping your Android photos from being lost is far better than restoring them once they are lost. Do you want to protect your photos for the future? If so, don’t miss the actionable tips given below.

1. Enable Automatic Cloud Backup: Keep your Android photos safe by enabling a reliable cloud backup like OneDrive, Dropbox, and Google Photos.

2. Create Regular Backups on a Computer: Transfer your photos from Android to your computer to create a separate backup on another device. You can use AirDroid or other similar apps for wireless data transfer.

3. Enable Trash: Don’t empty the Trash folder immediately, and let it keep your photos for 30 days.

4. Update Apps/Android Regularly: Always keep your phone and photo-related applications up to date.

5. Use SD Card: Store your photos on an SD card instead of storing them in the internal memory only. Then, transfer the data regularly from the card to your computer.

Final Words

Losing photos from an Android phone is common, but it can be devastating at times. If you have lost some important pictures from your Android, try recovering them from cloud storage. If it doesn’t work, try restoring them from the internal memory.

If you still can’t recover your photos and you don’t even have a backup, Recoverit will help you retrieve your lost or deleted photos like a pro.