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Hi guys,
Somehow I have lost all my files from Internal Storage. It's weird - they disappeared after unplugging the USB cable from my laptop the last time my phone was connected. Now only the default folders are there.
I want to use data recovery software to retrieve as many photos as I can salvage, but ofcourse the phone doesn't mount as a drive on a computer so I cannot do that. There are some other methods online like this one but they require root. As you all know, root isn't easy on the Z3 compact, and the only working method which doesn't require you to unlock your bootloader needs you to flash the firmware again so then I will lose all chance of recovering any data.
Right now I have stopped using this phone and have only received 5-6 emails and messages after losing all my data so hopefully its not overwritten yet.
Any suggestions are welcome. Thank you!
Impossible without root.
Found a way. Used WebDAV to make it a network location, mapped it as a drive on my pc, used regular data recovery software...
No way, did it actually work?
GlebunV2 said:
No way, did it actually work?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope
Turns out only my SD card was being scanned by the software and internal memory ignored...I found one software in the end that could scan the internal memory mapped as a network drive, however the reported success rate was lower than recovering data from a local drive and I had to buy it for some $500 so I just gave up in the end...I think it was called Active something...
Is there any way to recover photos after factory reset?
Phone is not rooted and no backup was taken before the factory reset.
Thanks.
Sorry to not be helpful, but I hope not!
Tough luck if that's an accident though....
Maybe someone can help you better lol.
Write a nice thank you note to Scamsung for removing the SD card, one would normally save the pics and data that shouldn't be wiped out on external storage.
I personally have not come across a user friendly solution to recover the data after a partition format...there are forensic methods to do it, but... $$$
Ipse_Tase said:
Write a nice thank you note to Scamsung for removing the SD card, one would normally save the pics and data that shouldn't be wiped out on external storage.
I personally have not come across a user friendly solution to recover the data after a partition format...there are forensic methods to do it, but... $$$
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What a BS, if you do a factory reset you should backup your important stuff. That's not Samsungs fault. (childish to say Scamsung for that). Use google photes, a USB stick, a NAS, copy to PC , Use DEX etc etc..
gohan040 said:
What a BS, if you do a factory reset you should backup your important stuff. That's not Samsungs fault. (childish to say Scamsung for that). Use google photes, a USB stick, a NAS, copy to PC , Use DEX etc etc..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Correct, it's not Samsung's fault however if the user had the MicroSD it's much more likely the problem didn't arise. Not having MicroSD on a huge, expensive device is a sin, they're getting blow back everywhere you look.
gohan040 said:
What a BS, if you do a factory reset you should backup your important stuff. That's not Samsungs fault. (childish to say Scamsung for that). Use google photes, a USB stick, a NAS, copy to PC , Use DEX etc etc..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I mean, I sorta agree with the OP here because Samsung has had their game backwards at one point with this issue. Or, perhaps it's just my particular phone? Anyway, I literally made the same "mistake" a few months ago (as I knew that Google Photos was still backing up my photos - so I'd be all good anyway). But after the full wipe and re-flash, somehow all of my photo files were still there... So at the time (I doubt this is still happening now), the S21U's factory reset along with the choice to delete files didn't touch the phone's DCIM-->Camera folder, lol.
So if anything, perhaps the OP was using Odin...? But if that was the case, I suppose they would've known to backup their photo files first...
As I know, we can recover photos after fatory reset before they are overwritten by pro data recovery software without backup. So first we need to stop using your Samsung phone. About the data recovery software, you can search online. Good luck to you.
After some time without an SD card, today I put one (Sandisk 32GB Ultra Plus I think) in the phone, formatted it as internal storage and opted to move data to the card.
The card got filled up to 17 GB; it seems the system has copied all the images and my files but no apps or other internal things.
Copied, not moved - because the internal storage remains to be filled up. The data however is inaccessible. I.e. when I eject or remove the card, there are no files visible on the phone, in fact it's as if there's no storage. E.g. the download folder doesn't exist, file managers can't see anything etc. So the files remain on the phone, but I can't access them.
Of course I can't move the data back from the card to the phone because... There's no space, so that process errors out.
Another problem this causes is when I update apps. The app gets moved to the card and all the app data gets reset/wiped.
What can I do about this? The phone isn't rooted or anything of the sort, it's all stock. However I also don't use Google's services, so I'm not exactly eager to do a factory reset and set everything from scratch. I have my files backed up, but I'd lose the app data, which would be a major hassle.
Thanks for any tips.
Try clearing the system cache.
You mean from the boot recovery menu? I did, it didn't help.
More notes:
- The "Free up space" button in storage doesn't work.
- Now I'm thinking, I have a lot of Google and Moto apps disabled, so maybe that's the problem (it's really been ages since I've messed with this, so I've forgotten about it). Any clue which app controls these things?
- I also just realized that every single file on the card has its date/time set to the time when I did the migration, and not when the files were originally created. Is this normal? (Cause it's pretty effed up.)
Anyway I'm not liking this. What can happen when I tell the system to "forget" the SD card? Any guesses?
The time stamp is normal.
There's hidden files, something...
Problem is, I can't get into the file system of the internal storage at all.
E.g. in Total Commander I can navigate the root folder and certain subfollders, but in terms of my files I can only get to the ones on the card; which is easy to distinguish due to the timestamp. And when the card us ejected or not present, there's nothing at all.
Factory reset if you get tired of playing with it... could be malware.
Any ideas, anyone? :/
What dis you mean be "formatted as internal storage"?
Well when you insert a new memory card, you can format is either as internal storage or external. Internal will act as just more phone storage, i.e. apps can be installed to it, and it's encrypted. Downside is there's no way to distinguish where anything gets saved.
External is just for files and in case of G6, it's not encrypted.
I think you better start from the beginning...
You always should use the SD card as a data drive.
Running apps should never go on it!
You never encrypt a data drive... unless you enjoy losing data!!!
Get the data off the SD card into the PC via data transfer from the phone.
Then factory reset the phone and reload.
Then add the SD card data drive, do not encrypt it! All critical data and backups go here.
Internal memory is for apps, the temporary download folder and the DCIM folder*.
*create a folder on the data drive to transfer photos from the DCIM folder on a regular basis.
Do Not name this folder DCIM! Name it Photo Master or such.
Excuse me, but you don't know what formatting as internal storage means, but you gonna give me a complete rundown how to use my phone in a completely different manner than I want to. I didn't ask any of this.
If I can't encrypt the SD card, then it might as well not be there at all. Motorola ****ed up by not supporting this.
Anyway, I sorta fixed it. Uninstalled some apps to clear up about 2.5GB of space, deleted all my files, "migrated" everything from card to phone, which was about 700 megs of nothing. Yep all my files were still there in the phone. And those 700 megs stayed on the card too. Whatever process is controlling this, is apparently unable to delete data.
Whatevs. Guess it's extra motivation to mess around with custom ROMs and stuff, I'm tired of OEM nonsense.
If you OS crashes/burns which is rare in Androids but certainly happens, your encrypted SD card data will not be accessible after a factory reset.
Lost forever... end of story.
That's why you never encrypt data drives; sooner or latter you will lose critical data, maybe your whole data base.
People are constantly posting here asking how to break 256 bit encryption. It's sadly halarious because it's not happening in their lifetime.
Meh, do what you will...
Same sheet here. I did the following and it worked:
1, while still in the phone, I backed up the content of the SD card. (Turned out I didn't need it, but better be safe)
2, switched off the phone
3, removed the SD card
4, Turned on the phone. Some apps, which didn't rely much on internal storage just worked without any issue. Others were missing the SD card.
5, From the drop-down menu I selected the SD-card related item and clicked on "Forget". This gave me some warnings, but I didn't have much to loose.
6, Magic happened: My phone recovered the previously hidden files and it worked just before I started the migration to SD card!
tohotom said:
Same sheet here. I did the following and it worked:
1, while still in the phone, I backed up the content of the SD card. (Turned out I didn't need it, but better be safe)
2, switched off the phone
3, removed the SD card
4, Turned on the phone. Some apps, which didn't rely much on internal storage just worked without any issue. Others were missing the SD card.
5, From the drop-down menu I selected the SD-card related item and clicked on "Forget". This gave me some warnings, but I didn't have much to loose.
6, Magic happened: My phone recovered the previously hidden files and it worked just before I started the migration to SD card!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Welcome to XDA
Apps, DCIM and download folders go on internal memory.
All critical data including regular backups for the dcim folder go on the SD card ie data drive.
Any apps that allow backups can be backed up on the data drive but never running from it.
Once you add a SD card leave it in the device and access it through the device only to avoid issues.
If you're dealing with under 128gb internal memory... life will be hard*. That's what I consider a bare bones minimum, 256gb or larger is better.
*Adjust the amount of apps loaded accordingly and leave a couple gb of headroom. If you only got 16gb of memory it's going to be a light load.
Hi All, long time user of XDA forums but havent had to root a phone in a while.
I deleted some pictures in error from my phone yesterday and am desperately trying to figure out a way to get them back. They dont appear in the recycle bin and they dont appear with a standard file search app, thousands of pictures do but not the ones I deleted.
Apparantly I need to root the phone to get better access rights to do this, but am I right in believing that rooting the phone will delete everything anyway?
Any way to do this please? I really need some help with these important images.
Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra (UK) 5G SM-G998B/DS
Regards Tony
Don't try to use trashware like DrFone.
The internal memory is encrypted by default so if you lose that encryption key for any reason you are boned.
If you can use adb to access the unused portion of the drive, that may work.
Using ADB in recovery mode - recovering files from a locked phone
Hello, here's my problem: I accidentally put a schematic as a code on my phone that I immediately forgot. Now that I only have access to the lock screen, I can't put my phone in file transfer mode because I'd like to retrieve it before resetting...
forum.xda-developers.com
If you are successful know that the folder structure has been lost. The jpegs will be disassociated from their exif data, time stamps, image numbers, etc have been lost forever.
Using that phone at all may overwrite the data as it's now free space for the system to use; power down the device until ready to attempt recover.
Backup all data before you begin whatever you attempt!
Personally at this point I would have written them off. If you do recover data, you'll understand why. In the future use a gallery that has a trash bin if possible.
Redundantly backup critical data to at least 2 hdds that are physically and electronically isolated from each other and the PC. A OTG flashstick can be used for quick "dirty" backups. Don't use as a primary backup.
If you can mount your phone on a PC using a USB cable, you could try a PC based file recovery program. (I honestly don't know if it would work over a USB cable, but no harm if it doesn't.)
Be careful where you get the recovery software. There are lots of people willing to promise the world, take your money, and blame the file recovery ghods when they can't recover squat.
The one I'd try first has the worst user interface, but it's free and has saved my butt more than once. It's called PhotoRec. (It's packaged in with a drive recovery program called TestDisk.) PhotoRec supports a bunch of Linux/Android disk formats (many only handle FAT and NTFS variants, which won't help you). Just be sure you read the instructions and be sure to direct the output to a dedicated folder on a drive different than your phone.
TestDisk Download
Download TestDisk & PhotoRec. TestDisk is a free and open source data recovery software tool designed to recover lost partition and unerase deleted files. PhotoRec is a file carver data recovery software tool.
www.cgsecurity.org
I just noticed that PhotoRec finally has a Windows based GUI implementation called QPhotoRec. Same download location as I mentioned in the previous message. But should be a fair bit easier to use.
Note: If QPhotoRec can't see your phone on the USB cable, you might still want to give PhotoRec a try.
One last note... As long as you continue to use your phone, it is still writing things to the drive that holds the pictures you want to recover. If the phone happens to overwrite the place the photos sat on, they're gone forever. So it's best if that you power off your phone until you can make an attempt to recover the photos and you move quickly to make the attempt... Good luck.
After the recent dumping of Samsung Cloud and the forced migration to a Microsoft cloud drive,I lost a bunch of photos from my alternative device (I had 2 phones and 2 Samsung Cloud accounts- but the changeover couldn't handle the 2 account bit, both phones ended up with the exact same data) and I tried several methods to recover the lost data and eventually had to give up. Good luck.
Relying on cloud to backup files is crazy. Keep a couple hard drives/usb drives for that.
rafaelinux said:
Relying on cloud to backup files is crazy. Keep a couple hard drives/usb drives for that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cloud backup is safer than keeping a couple of hard drives and usb drives. By design cloud storage is replicated a minimum of 3 times across 3 regional data centres, each having multiple copies on distributed storage with multiple backup services and UPS.
Your data is not safer on two USB drives vs a Google data centre. Do you keep them in fireproof and electronic magnetic proof safe? If not then your backups are not protected at the first step, physical protection. Do you cycle the hard you use, change the drives regularly so that there is no chance of hardware failure, do you consider MTBF rates of the devices you use? USB drives have a limited number of writes so using them too much may risk the data on them. Do you use multiple off-site safes? If both are in one place and there is some disaster (building collapse, or fire for example) then you've lost your backups. Each site needs a fireproof/EM proof safe which adds a huge extra cost.
did you check the trash folders?? usually deleted files stay on for 30 days unless physical deleted from the trash like windows
ScalesOnline said:
Hi All, long time user of XDA forums but havent had to root a phone in a while.
I deleted some pictures in error from my phone yesterday and am desperately trying to figure out a way to get them back. They dont appear in the recycle bin and they dont appear with a standard file search app, thousands of pictures do but not the ones I deleted.
Apparantly I need to root the phone to get better access rights to do this, but am I right in believing that rooting the phone will delete everything anyway?
Any way to do this please? I really need some help with these important images.
Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra (UK) 5G SM-G998B/DS
Regards Tony
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What app did you delete the photos in?
Each app will have its own "delete/recycle" solution. For example, if you delete photos in Google Photos they are kept in the "Bin" for 30 days. If you used a file manager it may have a recycle bin or may have permanently deleted using write over to provide a true delete function.
Rooting like years agao
I am cool with what i have now
Yes you do for acces to internal memory
I recently connected a USB flash drive (the SanDisk ultra dual drive with both A and C plugs that slide out of each end). It was having issues, as it would appear in FX file manager initially but then suddenly disappear. My phone told me via the notification area that the device had been removed improperly (which it hadn't) and that I should restart the phone. After a while, I did so, and as the phone was shutting down I removed the USB flash drive. Not sure if I should have left it in during the reboot tbh but what's done is done.
Anyways, after the phone started back up, I noticed that one of the folders in the root of my internal storage (a temporary folder to which I had been transferring files to from the USB drive) had disappeared. Odd, I thought, so I checked others, and found my Downloads, Music and Movies folders all empty, and my Documents, Pictures and Videos folders empty except only one subfolder or file. All of these folders had been full of files previously. Thankfully the photos in DCIM don't seem to have been affected (though I can't be sure of this as I don't know exactly what was in there in the first place).
If the external USB device has somehow been able to cause something like this, it'll be the first time I've seen anything like it in the whole time I've been using computers (more than 30 years). I would understand if the files on the external device had gone missing, as that's the device the phone reported the issue with. But for my completely unrelated files to disappear from internal storage? I have no idea how it happened.
If anyone has any advice on how I might get these files back and find out how they disappeared, I would be extremely grateful. I feel I can't trust my phone now...
Specifically, if anyone knows a file recovery app that works and can be trusted and won't put malware on my phone, that would be great
I haven't found one for the phone directly, but for the USB you could Recuva on Windows, which I have used with some success. This assumes that the deletes were not followed by wipes.
I would guess there is malware at play here, because this doesn't usually just happen. Or a mistake with copy vs move, and a bad USB stick as well... though with the 30 years of experience you have I would think these are VERY unlikely.
I realize it's too late to mention this, but I STRONGLY recommend backups, so you're not trying to recover deleted data like this. Of course, that doesn't help you today... but in the future, please setup a backup system to protect such files. For photos, for example, Google Photos is a great simple way to keep those backed up....
Thanks for the reply. Given the seemingly systematic deletion of files, I also suspect malware, though I haven't installed any new apps recently that weren't from reputable sources. Maybe an older malware app somehow triggered yesterday - who knows?
I've been hesitant to install a file recovery app on my phone, as I suspect most of them are clones/don't work/contain malware/only exist to prey on the vulnerable and make ad revenue.
Thankfully my photos are triple-backed up to various cloud services, including Google Photos (for sharing) and OneDrive (which retains the original filenames so that I can separate WhatsApp etc photos from my camera photos). The other files were backed up to iDrive until January, when I switched to a new iDrive account and forgot to transfer the backups. Losing those is more an inconvenience, nothing serious - for example I noticed this morning that my alarm sound had reverted to the (unpleasant) default and it is annoying to have to search and hand-pick a new bunch of alarm tones again.
I used to back up my entire internal storage regularly with FolderSync to a microSD card but nowadays I use dual sim cards so the microSD has been removed. I also used to have auto backups set up with SyncMe over wifi, but this seemed to stop working when I installed android 12.
I had become somewhat complacent about my safeguarding my files recently, and this is a stark reminder of how important regular backups are.
If anyone has advice on trustworthy file recovery apps, I'd love to hear from you.
Glad to hear you have backups... phew!
Sorry I don't have any leads on phone-apps for data recovery. But I am interested in seeing what others say as well...