How to Recover Deleted Photos from SD Card

SD cards are commonly used in Android phones, DSLRs, digital cameras, and other devices to save photos. But often, you tend to delete SD card photos in haste, realizing the blunder later. Sometimes, the photos get deleted due to formatting or virus attacks when you connect them to a compromised system. Whatever the reason, losing your precious photos due to deletion can be quite frustrating. This blog will help you understand how to recover deleted photos from SD Card without a hassle.

However, before we move on to the SD card recovery process to restore lost photos, let us have a sneak peek at the most common reasons why SD card photos get deleted in the first place.

Common situations that lead to deletion of photos from SD Card

• Accidental deletion of image files from SD card
• Formatting of SD card in a digital camera, Android phone, or computer
• Virus intrusion in SD card or memory card
• Continuously clicking photos when the SD card is running out of storage space
• Corrupted SD Card due to overuse in multiple devices, such as mobile phones, digital cameras, memory sticks, and other storage devices

How to recover photos deleted from an SD Card?

A simple Google search for the phrase – how to recover deleted photos from SD card – gives thousands of results. It means it is not a rare scenario.

We all have faced such a data loss situation at least once in our lifetime. While losing the best memories you have captured with your friends and family may be intimidating, the good part is that SD card photos are not lost permanently after deletion.

You can still recover deleted photos from SD cards with the help of efficient SD Card recovery software.

What Happens to SD Card Photos when they’re Deleted?

Deleted images from SD cards, SDXC, SDHC, memory cards, digital cameras, and other storage devices continue to exist as long as no read/write actions are performed.

Overwriting of SD card permanently wipes off the lost photos and makes them unrecoverable even by the best photo recovery software. Thus, it is advisable to stop using the SD card immediately after realizing that you have lost photos stored on the SD card.

How to Recover Photos from SD Card?

Backup comes as a rescue when you want to recover lost photos from SD cards. If you do not have one, it is recommended that you use powerful SD card recovery software. A professional SD card photo recovery tool comes with powerful capabilities and algorithms to trace lost data and recover deleted pictures from SD cards. Such data recovery software can also detect failures or corrupted SD cards that are no longer visible under ‘My Computer‘ or appear as a RAW drive under Disk Management.

While there is a landslide of data recovery software on the web, each claiming to be the best in business, choosing the best SD card recovery software to recover deleted pictures can be a challenge.

Therefore, in this blog, we have covered some of the most important points to consider while choosing the best SD card recovery software to recover deleted photos from SD cards or Memory cards.

Best Photo Recovery Software to Recover Deleted Photos from SD Card

Stellar Photo Recovery is a great photo recovery software that effectively scans the SD card of any capacity and recovers deleted photos with their actual names and date timestamps. Lost photos of almost any file size and file format can be effortlessly recovered with Stellar Photo Recovery, provided the data has not been overwritten.

 

It can recover deleted photos from SD cards of digital cameras, camcorders, Android phones, iPhones, action cameras, drones, etc.

You can restore photos of virtually any format with 3 simple steps — ‘Select’, ‘Scan’, and ‘Recover’. If your deleted image file type is not in the supported formats list, the software has a provision to add it by using the Add Header feature. You can recover widely used JPEG as well as uncompressed RAW files from Sony, Canon, Nikon, Fuji, etc.

Why use Stellar Photo Recovery Software to Recover Photos from SD card

• Recover lost photos from formatted, inaccessible & corrupt SD cards
• Recover deleted photos from BitLocker encrypted SD card on Windows PC
• Run a customized scan to get quick and exact results for your deleted files
• Save SD card scan for deleted photos and resume later at any convenient time.
• Recover accidentally deleted audio and video files across all major file types
• Enjoy seamless photo recovery across all file formats, including RAW, GIF, PNG, and JPEG
• Undelete motion formats such as MKV, WMV, MOV, and MP4
• Restore all leading audio file formats, including OGG, RPS, WAV, and MP3
• Recover pictures from Android phone, HDD, 4K Hard Drives, SSD, internal storage, USB Drives, and SD Cards
• Works on Windows 11, 10, 8 & 7

Pre-requisites to use SD Card Data Recovery Software to Retrieve Lost Photos

• A Windows or Mac system to install the photo recovery software
• USB card reader to connect SD card to computer
• A spare drive, media, or location on your hard disk to save the recovered files

Steps to Recover Deleted Photos from SD Card

• Connect the SD card to the computer via a card reader
• Download Stellar Photo Recovery Software on your PC / Mac.
• On the home screen of the data recovery software, select SD card.

• Click ‘Scan’ to start searching for deleted images. Once the scanning is completed, you’ll be able to see all the existing as well as deleted photos of the drive. You can preview recoverable files on the right side of the window.

• Click ‘Recover’
• In the dialog box, click ‘Browse‘ to select a location to save the recovered photos.

At present, the Stellar SD card photo recovery tool supports up to 18TB of devices. As your SD cards are of a relatively smaller size, it’ll take a minimum turnaround time to scan and restore new data.

Along with recovering photos from SD cards used in digital cameras, Android phones, formatted SD cards, and almost all other storage devices, the Stellar Photo Recovery Premium also helps repair corrupt Photos & videos across all file formats.

The free version does provide the feature to restore SD card photos.

Video Tutorial: How to recover photos deleted from an SD Card

How to recover photos from Backup

In case you have a backup on the Cloud or hard drive, it is much easier to recover data from there. An SD card is used for storing your digital photos. However, whenever you take new photos, it is always advisable to create a backup of the new data.

You can use Google Drive, iTunes, iCloud, external or internal hard drives, USB flash drives, or any other suitable backup option for your SD card.

Whatever way you choose to use, keeping backups is essential to secure your data in Android devices, desktops, laptops, other digital cameras, and mobile devices.

Tips to Prevent Data Loss From SD Card

• Don’t remove SD cards from devices while in use.
• Don’t use the same SD card on multiple devices.
• Store the SD card in a dry and cool space at room temperature.
• Stop clicking more photos with your Android phone or digital camera when the SD card storage is nearly full.
• Install antivirus on your computer.
• Keep multiple backups of your photos.
• Use a compatible card reader and USB cable to transfer files from your SD card.

Conclusion

Deletion is the most common reason for the loss of photos from storage media, including SD cards, Android phones, internal storage, etc. But with Stellar Photo Recovery, you can effortlessly recover photos from SD card like a pro.

Stellar Photo Recovery is one of the world’s best data recovery apps that helps you restore SD card photos with no hassle whatsoever, whether they were lost due to accidental deletion, formatting, or corruption.

 

FAQ

1. How to recover photos from an SD card infected by a virus?

Your SD cards can get infected if you connect them to a virus-infected system or transfer files that may contain viruses. However, you can easily recover photos from virus-infected SD cards without formatting. Refer to this blog to recover virus-infected SD card photos.

2. How to recover locked SD card photos?

A locked SD card won’t let you open, copy, view, and edit files saved on it. To recover photos from a locked SD card, you must first unlock them by removing password protection or write protection. For more information on how to unlock an SD card.

3. How to recover photos from a corrupt SD card?

A corrupted SD card won’t let you access files stored in it. Sometimes, your files may disappear from your card, or the card won’t open or isn’t recognized by your computer. In such a situation, use Stellar Photo Repair software to recover the data from a corrupted SD card.

4. Can you recover photos from a formatted SD card?

Yes, you can recover the data from a formatted SD card until you have not overwritten the data stored in it. Go through this blog to learn how to recover your photos.

5. How to recover deleted photos from an SD card without software?

Unfortunately, recovering deleted photos from an SD card without SD card photo recovery software is impossible. But, if you have a backup folder of your SD card available, look through it to find your deleted photos.

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About The Author

Oliver Powell

Oliver Powell is a Data Recovery Expert at Stellar®. He is a passionate technology blogger & content creator, He explores new applications and has deep understanding of data recovery. He has experience in Windows & Mac data recovery domain.