How to Recover Accidentally Deleted Photos and Videos on your Samsung Phone

Losing precious photos and videos is an all too common issue in the digital age. Perhaps you were tidying up your Samsung phone storage and deleted some old photos, not realizing they held sentimental value. Or maybe an app glitch caused your photos to mysteriously vanish.

Whatever the cause, accidentally losing photos can feel devastating. The good news is that with some effort, there are ways to try and recover deleted photos and videos on your Samsung device. This article will walk you through some troubleshooting steps to help rescue your lost media files.

Use a File Recovery App

One of the easiest ways to recover deleted photos and videos is by using a file recovery app. Apps like DiskDigger Photo Recovery are designed to scour your phone’s storage for deleted media files that may still be accessible.

To use a file recovery app like DiskDigger:

1. Download and install the app from the Google Play store on your Samsung device. DiskDigger has both a free and paid version.
2. Open the app and grant it the requested permissions. This allows it to access your phone’s storage.
3. Select the file types you want to scan for – in this case, choose images and videos.
4. Tap “Start Basic Photo Scan.” This will scan your phone for recoverable image and video files.
5. Preview and select the photos/videos you want to recover.
6. Save the recovered files to your phone’s storage or cloud services.

File recovery apps like DiskDigger can resurrect deleted media files that are still present on your device’s storage. However, effectiveness depends on if the files have been fully overwritten. So recover promptly after accidental deletion for best results.

Restore From Backups

Relying solely on your phone’s storage is risky. The best way to protect irreplaceable photos and videos is by maintaining backups.

If you previously backed up your Samsung photos, restoring from a backup is the quickest way to get your files back. Samsung phones support both local and cloud backups:

Local backups: Connect your phone to a computer and use Samsung Smart Switch to restore a previous backup from your PC. This will retrieve media files and other data from a saved local backup.

Cloud backups: If you had your photos auto-syncing to cloud storage like Google Photos or Dropbox, simply re-download the files to your device from the internet.

Maintaining both local and cloud photo backups provides an extra level of protection against data loss.

Recover Deleted Files from App Storage

Sometimes photos or videos are stored within app storage, separate from your main gallery. A Reddit user recently discovered this when accidentally deleting the app CamScanner:

“My wife scanned a lot of pictures of her grandparents and other pictures that are dear to her using CamScanner. Now one thing that I did not know is that CamScanner does not save items on your own Gallery or anything. It has its own storage area…She says that these pictures were kind of in a limbo, accessible on CamScanner but not able to be saved anywhere.”

If you deleted an app that contained photos not saved to the main gallery, try reinstalling the app and seeing if the data is still present within the app’s storage. For example, reinstalling CamScanner allowed the Redditor to recover the deleted scans.

Also, enabling cloud sync in apps provides an backup if local app data is lost. So always use cloud storage features within apps containing important media.

Scan Storage for Raw Data

As a last resort, you can scan your phone’s raw storage for traces of deleted data. This advanced technique has a lower chance of success, but may recover truly deleted files.

First, connect your Samsung phone to a Windows PC. Then use free data recovery software like Recuva to perform a deep scan of your phone’s storage. This searches for raw file signatures related to images and video.

With luck, the software may be able to reconstruct portions of lost media files. Though fragmented, some precious photos could be partially recovered.

Just be cautious not to overwrite your phone’s storage in the process, as this can make file recovery impossible. So recover data before attempting to use the phone normally.

Learn From the Experience

Accidentally deleting valued photos or videos can be a gut-wrenching feeling. But there are ways to recover lost phone media with some effort.

Use the steps in this guide to rescue your deleted files. And going forward, be sure to maintain both local and cloud-based backups of irreplaceable photos. With proper backups, you’ll have peace of mind knowing your precious memories are protected from digital disaster.