Everyone has gone through this: when cleaning the smartphone and the memory card, the user confuses and deletes files and photos that should not. Worse, there were no copies of them anywhere else. Although the situation seems desperate, it is possible to recover photos and videos from the memory card with the right tools (and a bit of luck).
Here are tips on programs that can recover photos and deleted files from the memory card, available for Windows, MacOS and Android platforms.
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Recover photos and files from memory card (PC and Mac)
There are a number of programs compatible with Windows and macOS for the recovery of deleted files, but are only two the best, most reliable and totally free, one of them compatible with both operating systems. Let’s go to them:
1. Disk Drill (Windows, MacOS)
When it comes to recovering deleted files, Disk Drill is a very powerful and easy to use tool. It recognizes any drive connected to your PC or Mac and offers quick or deep analysis options, which offers better results, but takes longer.
Once installed, select the drive you want to scan, choose the scan form, and wait for the process to complete. At the end, select the files (you can browse the folders) and click the Recover button; Disk Drill will prompt you to enter a second folder where the files will be saved (preferably on your hard drive).
2. Recuva (Windows)
The Recuva is a product of the same company responsible for CCleaner, and it is also very versatile. It even has a very intuitive wizard, which asks the user where he should look and what types of files he should recover.
When you open the software, you can select the “On my media card or iPod” option, for Recuva to scan all installed removable drives, or manually enter the drive letter on which the card was mounted, when inserted into the computer. Once the search is done, you can select the files manually or filter them by type to mark the ones you want. Once this is done, click Retrieve .
Recover photos and files from memory card (Android)
If your computer has not been able to recognize your memory card, the output is to recover files by the smartphone itself. In the case of Android, one of the most powerful and practical tools is DiskDigger; in the free version it only recovers photos, and the paid is able to rescue videos and other types of files.
In addition, the deep scan option is only possible on Android devices with root. But in any case, the basic search is able to meet the majority of users.
Once scanning begins (which may take some time, depending on the internal space of your smartphone and memory card), you can view the files that have already been recovered. Once the analysis is complete, the user can manually select the files and save them locally, in a cloud service (such as Google Drive or Dropbox ) or even upload to an FTP server, and deletes them permanently from the card.
Remember if:
No data recovery tool, however specialized it is able to recover all deleted data every time. In some cases, you need to root on Android (as in the case of DiskDigger) or use professional tools, which usually cost a lot. Thus, there is no guarantee that the solutions presented here will rescue all your deleted photos and files.
That’s why it’s always good to back up your smartphone data to external drives or the cloud to avoid losing important photos, videos, and files.