Recover Deleted Photos on Android: 7 Best Methods

In our digital age, images form a precious part of our electronic keepsakes. The photos from your wedding or the first pictures of your newborn are treasures you’ll want to keep forever. Yet, they can be surprisingly easy to lose.

If you find yourself looking for missing photos on your Android device, you’ve come to the right place. This comprehensive guide is made to help you navigate the recovery process with ease.

We’re going to walk you through some straightforward strategies to retrieve lost or deleted photos from your Android device. But first, let’s look at the various ways your photos can disappear from your Android.

Why Do You Lose Photos on Your Android Device?

Apart from self-deletion, you can easily lose your precious photos from the internal storage of Android device due to various other reasons. Some of these include:

• Photos or images can mistakenly get deleted while browsing through the device’s Gallery app.
• Malware infection or software malfunctions may also lead to the loss of photos.
• Damages leading to hardware or system failures can also result in the loss of stored photos.
• Unauthorized access to the device album can also result in deletion of photo files.

Understanding the aforementioned causes can help you take proactive steps towards safeguarding your valuable photos.

How to Recover Deleted Photos on Android?

Like most Android users, you’re probably syncing your photos with Google Photos or using a cloud storage service to back up your photos. If that’s the case, use these backups to recover deleted pictures on your Android phone.

However, if you permanently lost photos stored on the phone’s internal memory or SD card, recover them using a reliable Android data recovery software like Stellar Data Recovery for Android.

Method 1: Restore Deleted Photos on Android From the Recently Deleted Folder

The first place to look for lost or deleted photos on your Android device is the ‘Recently Deleted’ folder inside the Gallery app.  The purpose of this folder is to temporarily store deleted photos for 30 days before they are permanently deleted from the device.

• Open the ‘Gallery’ app on your Android device.
• Look for the folder “Recently Deleted” or “Trash” in the Gallery app. 
• Browse through the contents of the ‘Recently Deleted’ folder and select the photos you need to recover. 
• Use the “Restore” or “Recover” option to move the selected photos back to their original location in the Gallery app.

By checking the ‘Recently Deleted’ folder in the Gallery app, you can recover recently deleted photos without the need of a software.

Method 2: Recover Deleted Photos on Android Using Google Photos

Google Photos is the best photo-sharing and storage app that safely backs up all the images stored on your Android smartphone. You can restore deleted photos from your Android phone using Google Photos. However, this method will only work if you have already set up and synced your phone with Google Photos.

Here’s how to recover images on Android using the Trash folder in Google Photos:

• Open the Google Photos app on your phone and go to the Library menu.
• Select Trash/Bin in the top-right corner.
• Long tap on the photos you want to recover.
• Tap Restore to retrieve deleted photos on your Android phone.

Note: The Trash folder of Google Photos stores offline photos for 30 days and backed-up images for 60 days.

Method 3: Recover Deleted Photos on Android Using Microsoft OneDrive

If you use Microsoft’s OneDrive cloud storage service to automatically back up your smartphone photos, it would be easy to recover erased photos from your Android phone. Here’s how to recover deleted photos on Android via OneDrive:

• Open the OneDrive app on your Android phone and click the Photos tab.
• Select the photos you wish to restore.
• Tap the three dots at the top-right corner and select Save to return the photos to Gallery.

Method 4: Recover Deleted Photos on Android Using Dropbox

Dropbox is a popular cloud storage service that sync files between devices and back them up, making it accessible from anywhere. If you use Dropbox photo backup feature, before you lost photos from your Android phone, you can easily recover them with just few taps. This method will work if you have uploaded your Android photos in the Dropbox.

Here’s how to recover lost photos on Android using Dropbox:

• Open the Dropbox app on your Android phone.
• Go to Files folder.
• Select the photos you want to recover.
• Tap on the three dots at the top-right corner and click on Save to Device option.

Method 5: Restore Deleted Photos on Android From Google Drive

Google Drive is the default cloud storage app on all Android smartphones. It offers 15 GB of free space and is the preferred storage platforms for Android users to store documents and media files. Like Google Photos, Google Drive has a trash folder that stores your deleted item for 30 days, after which, it is permanently deleted. This method will work if you have already synced your Android phone with Google Drive account.

Here’s how to retrieve old pictures from Android using Google Drive:

• Open Google Drive on your Android phone.
• Tap the hamburger menu on the top-left corner.
• Select Bin.
• Long tap on photos you want to recover. Tap on the three dots at the top and select the Restore option.

Method 6: Restore Deleted Photos on Android Using Built-in Backup Services

These days, Android phone manufacturers provide their own built-in backup functions in the devices. You can back up your phone’s app data to the phone’s cloud backup, local backup, Google backup, or external storage. The options vary with the mobile phone brands. Some mobile phones like Huawei even have a built-in backup app.

The location path of the backup function may differ with Android phones. Generally, you can find it in the Settings of your phone.

On Xiaomi Redmi phones: Settings > Additional Settings > Backup & reset

On Samsung phones: Settings > Cloud & Accounts > Backup & restore

On LG phones:Settings > Backup & Reset > LG Backup Service

If you have turned on the device backup service, restore the deleted Gallery pictures from these backup files.

Method 7: Recover Deleted Photos on Android Using Professional Software

If you aren’t using any Cloud backup storage service, there is no manual way to recover deleted pictures on Android. In such a situation, use professional Android data recovery software, such as Stellar Data Recovery for Android, to restore your lost pictures. This tool can easily recover lost or deleted photos from your Android smartphone’s internal memory or SD card.

The software supports recovery in almost all data loss scenarios like accidental deletion, virus or malware-affected devices, etc. It can even recover deleted photos, videos, audio files, contacts, documents, messages, and call history from any Android phone.

Here are some key features of Stellar Data Recovery for Android:

• Recovers a wide range of deleted Android data like photos, videos, audio, contacts, call logs, etc.
• Supports all Android smartphones like Samsung, Google Pixel, Asus, Xiaomi, OPPO, Vivo, OnePlus, etc.
• Supports the latest Android version 14 and below version up to 6.0.
• Preview the recovered files before saving them.

Steps to recover deleted photos on Android using Stellar Data Recovery for Android:

Step 1: Download, install and launch Stellar Data Recovery for Android on your PC.

Step 2: On the home screen, choose Photos and click Next.

Step 3: Connect your Android phone to the computer via a USB cable.

Step 4: A USB connection notification ‘Use USB for’ appears on your Android; select the File Transfer/Android Auto option.

Step 5: Next, on your Android phone, go to Settings and enable USB debugging. Follow the steps in the screenshots below to enable USB debugging.

Step 6: However, the steps to enable the Developer option and then USB Debugging vary according to the Android smartphone brand and model.

Step 7: Next, your Android phone is displayed as connected in the software interface. Select the device and click Scan.

Step 8: Click Install when a pop-up Install via USB appears on your Android phone.

Step 9: When an authorization pop-up appears, click Allow to provide access to call logs, contacts, SMS messages, photos, media, and files from the selected Android phone.

Step 10: Once done, the software will start scanning your Android device. The process will take some time to complete.

Step 11: Click OK once the Scan Complete pop-up appears.

Step 12: Double-click on the Photos folders in the left pane to see a thumbnail preview of the recovered photos.

Step 13: Now, select the pictures you wish to recover and click Save.

Step 14: Browse the location on the local disk where you want to save the recovered photos. Click OK.

Step 15: Once the save process is completed, a pop-up saying ‘Selected data saved successfully’ appears, and click OK to close it.

Watch this video for the step-by-step process to recover Gallery pictures from an Android SD card with the help of Stellar Photo Recovery:

Tip: Do NOT save the recovered Gallery photos on the same Android SD card. Save them either on your computer or in another storage drive.

Mostly Android photos are saved in the internal storage of the Android device. You can recover permanently deleted Android photos with the help of recovery software. However, make sure your Android device is rooted and has USB debugging enabled.

Caution: Rooting makes your Android phone’s warranty null and void.

Conclusion

Using the simple methods detailed above, you can easily recover your lost or deleted photos on your Android device. If you have not backed up your data, including photos, on Android; use trusted Android data recovery software and get your cherished memories back in a matter of a few clicks.

FAQs

1. I have deleted photos from Google Photos and now don’t know how to recover Gallery pictures from Google Photos.

You can recover deleted Gallery pictures from the Google Photos app’s Trash or Bin. Photos deleted from both Android Gallery and Google Photos on your Android phone stay for 60 days in the Trash or Bin of the Google Photos app. Here are the steps to recover deleted photos from Google Photos on Android:

• Open Google Photos and tap on the Menu icon (three dots) on the top left.
• Click Trash or Bin.
• Touch and hold the photo you want to restore and tap Restore.

2. What to do if I can’t find my Gallery photos in Google Photos and Google Drive?

If the photos are permanently deleted from Google Drive and Google Photos, you may take the help of the Google Drive support team. Another quick solution is to use photo recovery software to retrieve lost pictures from Android internal storage and SD card by using the steps given in this post.

3. How to recover deleted photos from the Android Gallery of Samsung phones?

You can recover Gallery pictures from Google Photos, Google Drive, or Samsung Cloud. Also, try to recover missing photos with the help of ES File Explorer on a Samsung smartphone. For details click on how to restore photos from Samsung Galaxy.

4. How to recover photos when my Android SD card asks to format before I can open it?

You can perform a chkdsk scan on your PC followed by photo recovery. If this doesn’t help, you are left with no choice except to format the mobile SD card. However, before that retrieve the lost photos, videos, and audio from the SD card with Stellar Photo Recovery.

Steps to perform Chkdsk scan:

• Go to the Windows Start option and type cmd in the Search box.
• Right-click cmd and select the Run as Administrator.
• A command prompt opens, type chkdsk < SDXC card drive letter>:/f (e.g., chkdsk E: /f).
• Hit Enter.

4. How to retrieve deleted Photos on Android Tablet?

You can follow the methods shared in this post to recover photos from an Android tablet.

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About The Author

Sumona Chatterjee

Sumona is a tech blogger, avid photographer, & technogeek with vast experience in writing about media file recovery tips and tutorials. She has over 10 years of experience in media file recovery/media file repair technology. She is passionate about Photography, Creative Designing, Music, and Exploring lesser-known destinations.