Yes, it is often possible to recover deleted photos from your phone’s gallery, even if you emptied the trash. When you delete photos from your phone, they are not immediately erased from the storage. Instead, they are marked as deleted and the space they occupied is made available to be overwritten. Until that space is reused, forensic data recovery software can scan the phone’s storage and find copies of the deleted files. However, the longer you wait, the higher the risk that the deleted photos will be permanently overwritten.
Quick answers
Here are quick answers to common questions about recovering deleted photos from your phone’s gallery:
- Deleted photos remain recoverable until the storage space they occupied is overwritten by new data. This makes fast recovery action important.
- Specialist data recovery software can find and restore deleted photos by scanning a phone’s storage.
- The more you use your phone after deletion, the higher the risk of permanent data loss.
- Recovering data from internal phone storage is usually easier than from SD cards.
- You’ll have the best chance of recovery using forensic-grade data recovery software and hardware.
Can you recover permanently deleted photos?
Photos deleted from the gallery are rarely permanently deleted instantly. When you send a photo to the trash in your gallery app, all that happens immediately is that the file is marked as deleted. The actual content remains intact in the phone’s storage.
This gives you a window of opportunity to use data recovery software to find and restore the deleted files. However, that window closes once the storage space is reused and overwritten by new data. So for the best chance of recovery, you need to act quickly and avoid using the phone in ways that could overwrite the deleted data.
Why deleted files can be recovered
When a file is deleted from a phone’s storage, the link to access it is removed from the file table that keeps track of what is stored where. But the actual data itself remains intact at first. This allows data recovery software to scan the raw storage and rebuild parts of the file table to reconnect the deleted files.
However, the space a deleted file occupies is now considered free and available for new data to overwrite it. Using the phone normally will eventually reuse this space, permanently destroying the deleted data. The more new data is written, the less recoverable the old deleted data becomes.
Overwrite causes permanent data loss
As long as the storage sectors containing a deleted photo remain undisturbed, the photo data can be recovered. But if those sectors get overwritten, even partially, the original data is destroyed. Just a few bytes of new data written to the sectors used by a deleted photo could damage it beyond recovery.
That’s why it’s crucial to avoid anything that writes new data to the phone’s storage after deleting photos you want to recover. Once space is overwritten, no data recovery software can bring back the deleted files.
How to recover deleted photos from the gallery
To give yourself the best chance of successfully recovering deleted photos:
- Don’t use the phone more than absolutely necessary after deletion.
- Connect the phone to a computer and create an image backup of the storage.
- Scan the phone/backup with data recovery software.
- Save the recovered photos to another device.
Avoiding further phone use protects against accidental overwrite. Imaging the storage preserves it byte-for-byte for deeper scanning by recovery software with minimal risk. This structured approach gives you the highest odds of getting those photos back.
Step 1: Avoid further phone use
It might be tempting to keep on using your phone normally after deleting some photos from the gallery. But this is high risk. Making calls, using apps, saving new photos and other everyday phone use could overwrite your deleted pictures.
Power down the phone and don’t turn it back on until you have completed the photo recovery process. Just one phone call could destroy a deleted photo.
Step 2: Create a byte-for-byte image backup
Creating an image backup is a vital step, as it preserves the deleted photo data without risk of alteration or corruption. Connect the phone to a computer and use imaging software to make a complete sector-by-sector backup.
Commercial tools like Oxygen Forensic® Detective can easily create phone image backups for data recovery and forensic analysis. Freeware options like FTK Imager can also be used to create image backups.
Step 3: Scan the image with data recovery software
With the storage safely imaged, you can now scan for deleted files. Specialist tools like Disk Drill have sophisticated algorithms that can find and rebuild deleted photos. Search the image backup thoroughly to recover as much data as possible.
Scanning the image avoids any risk of altering the phone’s storage during recovery attempts. Photos recovered from the image can be saved elsewhere before returning the phone to use.
Step 4: Save recovered photos elsewhere
Once recovered from the image backup, your photos should be saved to another device right away before returning the phone to normal use. This protects the photos from accidental re-deletion or permanent loss through storage overwrite.
External hard drives and cloud storage services offer secure options for storing recovered photos separately from your phone’s internal storage.
What kind of software can recover deleted photos?
Specialized data recovery software is designed to salvage deleted, corrupted and lost files from digital storage. Three main types are used to recover deleted photos from phones:
- File recovery software – Scans storage for recoverable file data.
- Disk image software – Safely backs up the storage byte-for-byte for scanning.
- Forensic analysis software – Advanced scanning/recovery tools for investigations.
File recovery software
Deleted file recovery tools can restore photos removed from your phone’s internal storage or memory card. They scan the raw storage, analyzing the filesystem metadata to rebuild links to deleted files.
Popular recovery software includes:
- Recuva – Free deleted file recovery tool for Windows.
- TestDisk – Open source, supported on Windows, Mac and Linux.
- Disk Drill – Cross-platform recovery app, free and paid versions.
Forensic disk imaging tools
Forensic imagers create an exact byte-level copy of digital storage like a phone’s memory chip. This image backup can then be scanned for recoverable data without risking the original evidence.
Top forensic imaging software includes:
- FTK Imager – Free tool from AccessData for imagers and investigators.
- Oxygen Forensic® Detective – Forensic analysis suite with imaging.
Forensic data recovery software
Advanced forensic recovery tools use complex algorithms to extract maximum data from images of damaged and deleted storage. This can increase the retrieval of deleted photos.
Leading forensic recovery software:
- GetDataBack – Designed to recover from severely damaged media.
- DiskDigger – Forensic photo recovery focused on Android devices.
Does phone brand affect recoverability?
The make and model of your Android phone influences several factors that can impact the recoverability of deleted photos:
- Storage type – Internal or SD card storage have different deletion behaviours.
- Encryption – Encrypted storage is much harder to recover deleted data from.
- Firmware – Differences in OS handling of deleted files affect recovery chances.
Understanding these factors helps match recovery methods to your specific phone and storage type for optimal results.
Internal storage vs SD card differences
Phones store photos either internally or on a removable memory card. The type of storage affects how deletion and data recovery work:
- Internal storage – Data tends to remain recoverable for longer with high chance of recovery.
- SD card – Overwrite and corruption make SD card recovery harder than internal storage.
Specific recovery software tuning is beneficial when attempting to recover deleted photos from SD cards and other external storage types.
Recovering data from encrypted storage
Newer phones often use full-disk encryption to protect data. This converts data into unreadable cipher text that requires a key to decipher.
Encrypted storage makes recovery much harder after deletion. Cipher text lacks the readable structure that file recovery tools need to locate and rebuild deleted files and photos.
Access to the phone and optionally the encryption key may allow decryption of an image backup. But direct recovery from encrypted storage is challenging.
OS and firmware impact on files after deletion
How phone operating systems handle deleted files can impact recovery capabilities. For example:
- Android may retain thumbnail images after deleting originals from the gallery.
- iPhone has Secure Erase to rapidly scrub deleted file data.
Understanding a phone’s firmware behaviour helps match the recovery technique for maximum results.
Can you recover photos after factory reset?
Performing a factory reset or master clear on an Android phone wipes user data from internal storage. While not an absolute guarantee of permanent destruction, a factory reset does make recovery of deleted photos much harder.
A factory reset aims to:
- Delete high-level storage allocation markers linking to user files.
- Scramble the indexes used to organize and locate data.
- Overwrite some areas of storage with reset data.
Together these make forensic-grade recovery attempts necessary. Advanced scanning of an imaging backup of the phone’s storage before reset has some chance of recovering photos.
Challenges recovering data after factory reset
Several factors make photo recovery after a factory reset extremely difficult:
- File indexes crucial for undeletion are corrupted and damaged.
- Some storage areas are directly overwritten during wiping.
- Without resetting phone is reused normally, growing risk of overwrite.
These issues mean recovery requires immediate imaging of the storage before any further phone use overwrites more data.
Importance of imaging before resetting
To retain any chance of recovery after reset, a full forensic image backup must be made prior to the reset process. This preserves the storage contents for scanning.
Trying to recover deleted photos without an image backup is unlikely to extract much usable data. Too many file link structures and data locations will have been purged by the reset.
Should I use data recovery services?
For the best chance of recovering deleted photos, especially challenging cases, using a professional recovery service may increase success. However, costs can quickly run into hundreds of dollars.
Advantages of professional photo recovery services:
- Clean room facilities isolated from electrical interference.
- Specialized equipment like forensics tools and microsoldering.
- Experienced technicians highly skilled in data recovery.
Weigh these benefits against the high fees charged by recovery companies. $500+ bills are common for smartphone data recovery.
When are recovery services most useful?
DIY recovery attempts are often the best initial approach for recently deleted photos. But a professional may be able to salvage photos if:
- All DIY attempts have failed.
- The phone is old/damaged.
- Encrypted storage is involved.
- Photos were lost some time ago.
Companies invest heavily in advanced tools and clean room setups ideal for challenging, low-chance jobs.
Finding a reputable recovery company
Unfortunately, many substandard data recovery firms exist alongside reputable specialists. Seek companies that:
- Are transparent about pricing.
- Provide free diagnostics.
- Have specialist photographic recovery experience.
- Use state-of-the-art tools and techniques.
Research reviews thoroughly and compare multiple firms before committing to using their services.
Can I recover photos without software?
Relying solely on manual methods of deleted photo recovery limits what deleted data you can recover compared to software solutions. But manually accessing your phone’s storage may recover some deleted pictures.
Accessing storage via a computer
By connecting your phone to a PC as USB storage, you can directly access deleted photos remaining intact in the raw storage. Navigate to the /DCIM folder.
While simple, this method risks altering the storage. Specialist software is safer and recovers far more.
Using Android Debug Bridge
ADB provides extensive access to a connected Android device via command line tools. Using ADB pull, you can copy specific file folders from your phone to a computer.
This requires ADB setup but avoids storage alteration risks of manual browsing. Recoverable data depends on OS and app image caching.
Extraction risks
While offering some recovery capabilities, both manual methods risk:
- Altering storage before imaging, reducing recoverability.
- Partial and inconsistent recovery compared to forensic tools.
Use manual methods only as a last resort after specialist software has failed. The risks often outweigh the rewards.
Key takeaways
Here are the core points to remember about recovering deleted photos from your Android phone’s gallery:
- Avoid phone use after deletion to prevent permanent data loss.
- Create an image backup of storage before attempting recovery.
- Specialized software gives the best and safest photo recovery results.
- Manual methods have limited success and risk making recovery harder.
- Encrypted, reset and overwritten storage is extremely challenging to recover from.
- Professional recovery services may salvage photos when DIY options fail.
Acting fast, understanding your phone model’s behaviour, and using the right software helps maximize your chances of recovering deleted gallery photos.