Database Develop

Help? How do you retrieve erased information from SD Card?

Does anyone know how to retrieve items accidentally deleted from a SD Card because of a hard reset? I had so many photos and I would like to see if I can get them back.

You'll hav to get a 3rd party application to do it and you're not promised to get them back. It scans the whole card and just takes forever.

Dreashines said:
Does anyone know how to retrieve items accidentally deleted from a SD Card because of a hard reset? I had so many photos and I would like to see if I can get them back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
a Hard reset would not delete files on your SD card. You must have had the photos saved to your phone memory.

AllTheWay said:
a Hard reset would not delete files on your SD card. You must have had the photos saved to your phone memory.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought that it wouldn't erase them either. I have done hard resets before and my items were never erased before. I made sure everything I wanted to keep was on the memory card for this reason. But for some reason this time it erased everything. I guess this was one of those freak accidents. This is why I am asking for help.
I appreciate any help on this issue.

You did something wrong then because there's no logical way they could've erased that way. On the other side, you should have followed flashing procedures by removing the memory card and sim

Your so right, kareem9nba. I should have known better. Thank you for your help.

This is why every week, I copy all the contents of my SD card (where I keep everything) To my Desktop PC in a folder I call "SDBackup" I've working with Computer long enough to know, if you don't have a backup, you are asking for trouble.
People call this Murphy's Law.

I had an issue similar to this that scared the crap out of me.
I took my SD card out of my phone, powered off beforehand, and then loaded it into my speedy microSD adapter so I could copy lots of data from my computer to it. Upon inserting the card into my monitor's SD reader, Vista gave me to "You must format this card before it can be used" message.
It took 3 removals and reinsertions to get my PC and my Tilt to see the files again. I promptly backed up my files and did a full format on my storage card. Everything's been fine since.

Im a little more paranoid and do it at least once every couple of days, just because Im on the forum alot and frequently see horror stories where people end up losing alot of their stuff.

Active File Recovery 7.3 Build 101
Very Interesting Question that made me perform a new expirement
to answer your question directly best thing is to use a 3rd party application called Active File Recovery 7.3 Build 101 it will recover data even after format or delete by mistake.
but in your case its not necessary - hard reset only delete internal storge (sd card data is intact)
i did an expirement ( i stored photos and documents in my phone) and i performed a hard reset... i used Active File Recovery 7.3 Build 101 and guess what i managed to retrieve the TOC of my INTERNAL STOREAGE but not the files... but i guess if i looked for a more powerful application i could retrieve the files themselves
i flashed new rom and used Active File Recovery 7.3 Build 101 (resulting 0 files or 0 TOC to retrieve)
conclusion of my experiment that may not relate 100% with your question is if you hard rest (some of your data can be retireved) if you flash new rom or reflash a rom (0 data can be accessed) using commercial softwares
best luck and look for our experts comments
Dreashines said:
Does anyone know how to retrieve items accidentally deleted from a SD Card because of a hard reset? I had so many photos and I would like to see if I can get them back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

all undelete programs which works on pc's harddisks works just the same on a sdcard in a sdcard reader connected to a pc
there are plenty and many free
google is the answer

any way to recover deleted photos???

is there any way to recover deleted photos or any other item

welshyboii said:
is there any way to recover deleted photos or any other item
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It seems it is possible on flash memory, see here.

Depends where the photo were saved.....main memory or memory card? there are many programs available that can recover *deleted* files from memory cards. I can recommend tis one: "Zero Assumption Recovery" which allows you to recover only 4 files per run in the trial version but completely recover all files for the full version. If you have more than 4 files to recover then u have to re run the program everytime after recovering the last 4 files but it still works. I have used this program to recover a complete 8GB memorycard after it crashed.

Deleted Photo Recovery
Recovery of deleted photos depends on few factors such as the storage media that is in use, and the time that has passed after the photo loss has occurred. If overwriting has not taken place, then is definitely possible, as there are innumerable number of photo recovery utilities available online.
You can download the software using the link given below,
recoverdeletedphoto.net

i don't get it

Try Kernel for FAT and NTFS data recovery software which can efficiently and instantly recovers all your pics on a single mouse click.
welshyboii said:
is there any way to recover deleted photos or any other item
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

i have a SGS II and i have accidentaly deleted pictures from my trip... i know how to recover files froom memory card, but in this case, the files were deleted from the phone memory, annd the software doesn't reconigze SGS II. Is there solution for this?
thhanks1

Well, it's a general idea but i would backup the phone rom to a file on your hard disk and then would try a program called photorec on that file.

A FreeWare Recovery Program
freedatarecoverysoftware.net
Free Data Recovery Software can get your lost data back and recover files and folders that previously deleted.
Features:
Securely recovers deleted content from NTFS, FAT or FAT32 partitions.
Retains folder structure where possible in an organized matter.
Uses a familiar explorer like interface for easy overview and retrieval of lost data.
Fast. Recovery information's are retrieved per user action.
High data recovery success rate. Compare the data retrieval success with most commercial programs - in most cases the percentage of data recovered is actually higher with FDRS. Why pay then?
Very easy to use. Click to scan drive, find lost file, click to recover them.
Free Data Recovery Software is portable. That means it does not require installation, there is only one stand alone executable (.exe) that can be run from removable drives, CD or DVD drives, memory cards, flash memory etc.
FDRC cost nothing, it is free and it will remain free.
Success,
Senax

Oliniusz said:
Well, it's a general idea but i would backup the phone rom to a file on your hard disk and then would try a program called photorec on that file.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hey thanks!
can you tell me if to back up the phone rom, is root necessary? thx

Nice software, ill use for my memory cards!
but for SGS II didn't work, the software didnt recognize the phone, only shows drive C: and D:
Well thanks anyway bro.. ill keep searching.
Senax said:
freedatarecoverysoftware.net
Free Data Recovery Software can get your lost data back and recover files and folders that previously deleted.
Features:
Securely recovers deleted content from NTFS, FAT or FAT32 partitions.
Retains folder structure where possible in an organized matter.
Uses a familiar explorer like interface for easy overview and retrieval of lost data.
Fast. Recovery information's are retrieved per user action.
High data recovery success rate. Compare the data retrieval success with most commercial programs - in most cases the percentage of data recovered is actually higher with FDRS. Why pay then?
Very easy to use. Click to scan drive, find lost file, click to recover them.
Free Data Recovery Software is portable. That means it does not require installation, there is only one stand alone executable (.exe) that can be run from removable drives, CD or DVD drives, memory cards, flash memory etc.
FDRC cost nothing, it is free and it will remain free.
Success,
Senax
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

dyl666 said:
Unplug the cable, Menu > Settings > Applications > Development > Tick "Enable USB Debugging"
Plug the cable back in, pull down the notification tray and click on USB storage. Then you'll have it normal USB mode.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it worked! i was able to recover the files after this!
Unfortunately, i could not open the files recovered, the jpg are listed, but they dont open. I tried at least 3 softwares. Windows say the file format isnt supported... tried to sent the recovered files to the phone, but impossible to visualize too.. well.. at least i tried.

recover and backup
i can recommend data recover wizard to recover the deleted photos. it can recover photos, files, videos...
backing up your photo is the safest way to protect them. some tool can be backup them to a image file. when disaster comes you can recover it from image file.
there are so many backup tool on the market. i used free one todo backup to backup them.

I have used best digital media recovery tool to recover lost digital data from my memory card.This tool recovers data from hard disks, iPods, external USB drives efficiently. You can estimate recovery chances of the tool when you download demo version that allows to preview recovered data before saving it.

Well most of the times i have recovered my lost images with the help of a photo recovery application, no matter what digital device it was stored into. With the help of a effective and easy to use UI it have become simple for the user to recover their images and other files as well.

Hi...
You can recover deleted photos by using "Remo Recover (Windows) - Media" Edition software. I have done photo file recovery from memory card when I deleted JPEG files accidentally and this software works excellently. This software supports to recover all types of photos. So you can download this software from internet and start to recover deleted photos.

The data in the memory card can get corrupted or damaged due to accidental deletion, frequent disk formats, software virus and many others. When memory card corrupts, data stored inside it becomes completely inaccessible and users cannot search the required result. For this, memory card recovery algorithms should be used.

Deleted Photo recovery is not a very big task. Recovery is possible but for the same you have to take help of third party photo recovery (Recupero Foto) software. There are several software available in the market, you can choose anyone of them. However before making any choice it is highly advisable to check the demo version of that particular software. This will give idea about it.

How to recover photos if deleted or lost
Hi There,
The Lost photos or files can be recovered easily as you have lost your photo its nothing to worry about. The deleted photos are seems to be deleted but they are still there in the memory and you can retrieve them. So to recover deleted photo is not a big task but only the condition is that you should not save anything on you storage media after you deleted you photos. If its attempted then the files will be overwritten and cannot be recovered.
this link helped me a lot:
please exceed www before recoverdeletedphoto.net/
regards
Linda

You need to download HTC data recovery software to retrieve back deleted photos and other items, take a look at this guide:
how to recover data from HTC phone
hope this helps.

[Q] Why do my images and videos keep getting deleted when i change firmware?

OK so, everytime i update my firmware, my images disappear.
by this i mean, they were in the gallery before i updated but now gone after the update.
this has happened numerous times, going from any firmware to any other, i think the only time it didnt happen was from jm6 to jm8.
also its pictures and videos from both the internal sd and the external sd. the music remains along with all other data however, can someone please explain this to me?
and it is not limited to pictures/videos taken with the camera, its ones i have transferred over also.
Thanks.

That's way you should take a backup before you flash a firmware.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

Thats really odd, I've NEVER lost any data on my internal sd since I first got my SGS back in July and i've flashed atleast 10 times. Honestly I have no idea and I think you are the only one with that problem. But yeh. Always make a backup. Get a 3rd party app

Yes I already have backups, so I'm not really losing them, it's just annoying that it's only photos and videos that disappear. And it's only after a new flash. I've tried rescanning them and nothing shows up, I take out the memory card and they are not there, the folders are there but nothing else. Like I said all other data is there. Downloads etc.
Any idea why this could be happening?

make sure you configure the camera to record/save to the EXTERNAL SD card, by default it saves to the internal SD card

Again I already have but, as I said before, it's both the external and internal sd. They both lose only images and videos. All other data is there. It's very confusing.

coldlazymo said:
Again I already have but, as I said before, it's both the external and internal sd. They both lose only images and videos. All other data is there. It's very confusing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Never heard about this.
I have flashed my phone alot of times and noting on my external card is touched.
I done this on my girlfriends phone to. All is untouched.
It also wise to remove all card when flashing.
So the question is what i do you do when you are flashing.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

I do what I have been told, load up odin, put in the code modem and csc files, then press flash, no repartition. And the appropriate put file. I follow the instructions as put on this website for flashing the firmware. And I use titanium backup to backup everything. As far as I know, I am doing everything I should.

coldlazymo said:
Again I already have but, as I said before, it's both the external and internal sd. They both lose only images and videos. All other data is there. It's very confusing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
very very strange indeed
i don't lose what is on my External SD, only what is in my Internal SD (which is expected)
no idea why it would also format your External SD
solution is simple regardless
just take out your External SD before you flash

Storage issue

I was tinkering round this morning and looked into my devices storage and saw that 27gb of 32gb were being used.
Did some math on my own:
Apps: 2.82gb
Music: 3.23gb
Photos: 1.12gb
Other: 19.85gb:
-Nandroids: 9gb
-Titanium Back up 1gb
2 roms: 1.5gb
Somewhere in the "Other" category something is eating up 9gb of space. I used my file explorer and couldn't pin anything that big down. I am going to offload my nandroids but I shouldn't have to.
Anyone else run into this or know what this 9gb "other" hog could be
Is there an app or system setting I am missing to ID this?
Sprint HTC One
Running: D3rpONE

Found My Screenie...

tdubbs27 said:
Found My Screenie...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your 'other' is really suspicious. Mine is ~7GB. I'd do a factory reset, easiest way IMO.

If you're flashing roms or doing backups with any other apps (CWM or something). I'm guessing they would go there. Check your download folder as well if you do a lot of downloading.
You may also try installing airdroid and using the desktop filemanager to whittle down your list as well.

Download Disk Usage. It shows you visually whats taking up space. It's amazing.

Thanks for advice using disk usage. I don't know why I didn't reinstall that sooner.
I did some digging and searching around the interwebs and found out this is a known issue. Other people have noticed it in droves. From my early intel: when you delete files you lose data blocks and they are marked as bad. If you ran dsk chk they would come up as corrupt. People are losing more storage space than I did.
2 solutions came up:
1. Reformat your SD: Copy everything to PC>reformat>copy everything back....time consuming but worked from what I could tell
2. There is an update that has been released overseas(asia, india, etc) that seems to fix this issue. It's a known HTC ONE issue so maybe someday I will see an update that will fix it.
If you are experiencing the same thing you can do some light reading:
Here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1630914
or
Here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1632999
Thanks for your help...

tdubbs27 said:
Thanks for advice using disk usage. I don't know why I didn't reinstall that sooner.
I did some digging and searching around the interwebs and found out this is a known issue. Other people have noticed it in droves. From my early intel: when you delete files you lose data blocks and they are marked as bad. If you ran dsk chk they would come up as corrupt. People are losing more storage space than I did.
2 solutions came up:
1. Reformat your SD: Copy everything to PC>reformat>copy everything back....time consuming but worked from what I could tell
2. There is an update that has been released overseas(asia, india, etc) that seems to fix this issue. It's a known HTC ONE issue so maybe someday I will see an update that will fix it.
If you are experiencing the same thing you can do some light reading:
Here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1630914
or
Here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1632999
Thanks for your help...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm definitely going to check on this
Sent from my HTCONE using xda premium

Also check if you are using Google play music and have a lot of playlists pinned. I believe that and movies actually show there in other.
Sent from my HTC One

I couldn't just let this rest. I like to flash roms and knew I would need strorage space for some nandroids in the future. Here are somethings I tried and had issues with.
Formatting the SD card: I could not for the life of me get this done.
-Nothing in TWRP
-Couldn't do it in windows
-Couldn't mount the sd in TWRP or regularly and get it to show up in windows file explorer as a drive to format
Eventual solution:
I formated the data in TWRP using the format data option. I copied everything over before I did it. When I came back I flashed a new rom and was still missing 7 gb. No apps, no music, nothing. SD card was empty still only showed 25 gb available.
Conclusion: I think I have some bad sectors in their somewhere. I read that I could go back completely to stock and try to star this whole process over.
One question: Can I unlock using HTCdev as many times as I want or is it a one time thing?
Anyone else in the same boat?
help...

tdubbs27 said:
I couldn't just let this rest. I like to flash roms and knew I would need strorage space for some nandroids in the future. Here are somethings I tried and had issues with.
Formatting the SD card: I could not for the life of me get this done.
-Nothing in TWRP
-Couldn't do it in windows
-Couldn't mount the sd in TWRP or regularly and get it to show up in windows file explorer as a drive to format
Eventual solution:
I formated the data in TWRP using the format data option. I copied everything over before I did it. When I came back I flashed a new rom and was still missing 7 gb. No apps, no music, nothing. SD card was empty still only showed 25 gb available.
Conclusion: I think I have some bad sectors in their somewhere. I read that I could go back completely to stock and try to star this whole process over.
One question: Can I unlock using HTCdev as many times as I want or is it a one time thing?
Anyone else in the same boat?
help...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you go back completely to stock, your bootloader will probably still be unlocked (unless you relock and use an RUU). The code you got to disable your bootloader the first time around will work however many times you want. To be honest though, I wouldn't be surprised if that 7GB were used by the system ROM/frameworks and I'd be even less surprised if you still found files on your SD card in a .Trashes folder or something from earlier. Formatting data tends to leave weird remnants all over the place.
Also, +1 to the Google Music thing. Definitely shows up in other for me.

Rirere said:
If you go back completely to stock, your bootloader will probably still be unlocked (unless you relock and use an RUU). The code you got to disable your bootloader the first time around will work however many times you want. To be honest though, I wouldn't be surprised if that 7GB were used by the system ROM/frameworks and I'd be even less surprised if you still found files on your SD card in a .Trashes folder or something from earlier. Formatting data tends to leave weird remnants all over the place.
Also, +1 to the Google Music thing. Definitely shows up in other for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you. It gives me more options and more to think about.
-Can't find anything substantial in a .trashes folder
-Dont use any Google Music services
Really wish I could truly reformat/check for bad sectors to find out if it's corrupt or just buggy...

tdubbs27 said:
Thank you. It gives me more options and more to think about.
-Can't find anything substantial in a .trashes folder
-Dont use any Google Music services
Really wish I could truly reformat/check for bad sectors to find out if it's corrupt or just buggy...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you have a custom recovery? If so, try running Fix permissions. It'll tell you for one if it hits any errors (because it finds files it can't change perms for), and may help with the issue (or use the Fix permissions tool in ROM Manager if you'd rather not use recovery).

Rirere said:
Do you have a custom recovery? If so, try running Fix permissions. It'll tell you for one if it hits any errors (because it finds files it can't change perms for), and may help with the issue (or use the Fix permissions tool in ROM Manager if you'd rather not use recovery).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
-Ran fix permissions in recovery: no errors everything went as it should
-Ran fix persmissions in viper rom: terminal settings: no errors everything ran as it should
Is there a way to reformat the SD card/partition? I don't think the TWRP method really reformatted it. Just erased everything.
Clockwork gives you the ability to set a swap partition but not a true reformat

tdubbs27 said:
-Ran fix permissions in recovery: no errors everything went as it should
-Ran fix persmissions in viper rom: terminal settings: no errors everything ran as it should
Is there a way to reformat the SD card/partition? I don't think the TWRP method really reformatted it. Just erased everything.
Clockwork gives you the ability to set a swap partition but not a true reformat
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried TWRP's advanced wipe? If you haven't, it's worth a shot, but I cannot stress enough that you should be careful. This is exactly the kind of problem that you can bork your phone trying to fix for no good reason.

Rirere said:
Have you tried TWRP's advanced wipe? If you haven't, it's worth a shot, but I cannot stress enough that you should be careful. This is exactly the kind of problem that you can bork your phone trying to fix for no good reason.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your exactly correct on the last point. I am going to keep listening and looking. I think/hope/pray the update the internationals got can be applied some way in the future and may help out a bit. Just going to have to utilize some cloud storage a little better.
it's not totally/technically broke and I am not going to do more harm.
Thanks for all your help and suggestions

I've been having the same problem, but notice something interesting. My phone said I had almost 20GB in the other category, and I didn't know why.
I downloaded disk usage to get a detail view of what's going on in my storage and I was able to clear 12GB with just deleting old downloads, TWRP backups, Titanium Backups. Still cleaning house.
Also after doing some research, the data that's stored by your apps (ext. PS3 Trophies is a 8mb download, buts it's total size is 31mb on the phone) is counted in the Other section and not part of the app data. So the more apps u have like this installed, the more likely the Other section will balloon in size.
Remember, when u remove and app, it's stored data is still in the phone storage.
Sent from my HTCONE using xda premium

mprunty said:
I've been having the same problem, but notice something interesting. My phone said I had almost 20GB in the other category, and I didn't know why.
I downloaded disk usage to get a detail view of what's going on in my storage and I was able to clear 12GB with just deleting old downloads, TWRP backups, Titanium Backups. Still cleaning house.
Also after doing some research, the data that's stored by your apps (ext. PS3 Trophies is a 8mb download, buts it's total size is 31mb on the phone) is counted in the Other section and not part of the app data. So the more apps u have like this installed, the more likely the Other section will balloon in size.
Remember, when u remove and app, it's stored data is still in the phone storage.
Sent from my HTCONE using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use disk useage but it doesn't even show my max storage space as 32gb. It shows 26gb. See Screenshot: So I have 6gb that aren't even registering as available storage. I was trying to clean out some old app storage but the space they use is so small. Would they be worth it? I think the fact I am missing 6 gb is more troubling.

I could be wrong, but doesn't the phone only have 27GB of formatted space?
Sent from My Only "One"

any device with internal memory will lose some. this is the exact reason i havent gotten one yet bc im praying that sprint will get the 64gb version. i will say that if they are going to advertise a device at xyz gb then they should build in the extra needed for system so we actually get what we pay for. cloud storage and otg are there but still a slight pain in the butt.
guess ill be holding on to my evo lte for another yr or so.

xanmanz31 said:
cloud storage and otg are there but still a slight pain in the butt.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is OTG standard in Android? Does the One need to be rooted?

Photos problem

I'm hoping someone can help me.
My wife has a Note 8 (N950U) and she accidentally deleted her entire camera folder. I thought she was backing up to GPhotos but she wasn't. She had no cloud back up, and the photos were saved to internal memory not an SD. She has some photos that she is desperate to try to recover (including the last photos of her mother before she passed away). I'm fairly technically savvy, but I haven't messed under the hood of Android before. From what I've read, the only way to try to recover deleted files in this scenario is to be able to run a utility like DiskDigger as root (and I'm aware that there is only a small chance that the photos can be recovered).
So I think I need to root the phone and I don't plan to leave it rooted, just need to root it long enough to run the recovery utility and then put it back.
I see there is the SamFAIL method to root but... do I understand correctly that it will only work on Android 7? (her phone is on Oreo firmware version N950USQS5CRID)
So I read that if you are on Oreo and want to use SamFAIL, you could downgrade to Nougat first and then follow the SamFAIL process. But I have had zero success with getting a downgrade to work. Is this a possible path or does the firmware loaded on this phone completely prevent any process to get to root?
Any help would be appreciated!
Thanks

No root for Snapdragon Oreo and you can't downgrade. And do check this Q&A section, threads like this already exist.

Once you upgrade to any firmware version that has a higher bootloader version, you can never go back to anything with a lower bootloader, even if it is the same (nougatt,, oreo) so,, any oreo firmware will always have higher bootloader versions than a nougatt one, besides,, once you root, samsung pay and secure folder will be gone forever,, there is no way to get them back, no workaround, no trick,, nothing will do

Try running Data Recovery software on it. If she has written over the sectors, which contain the photo's data then you won't be able to recover it.

iceepyon said:
Try running Data Recovery software on it. If she has written over the sectors, which contain the photo's data then you won't be able to recover it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Would that be possible even without root? I thought root would be required for recovery to work.

rjdmail said:
Would that be possible even without root? I thought root would be required for recovery to work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You don't need root access. If you connect the device to a computer and run the recovery software via that. You should be able to recover all the deleted data from your device that way. Using a data recovery app on your device requires root access.

iceepyon said:
You don't need root access. If you connect the device to a computer and run the recovery software via that. You should be able to recover all the deleted data from your device that way. Using a data recovery app on your device requires root access.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are a lot of scammy looking software out there when I search for this. Is there a recommended program for Windows that works for this type of recovery?

rjdmail said:
I'm hoping someone can help me.
My wife has a Note 8 (N950U) and she accidentally deleted her entire camera folder. I thought she was backing up to GPhotos but she wasn't. She had no cloud back up, and the photos were saved to internal memory not an SD.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its not possible to recover photos from android internal storage by using any kind of methods. There are various reasons for this.
The internal storage is encrypted and no third party software knows about the process. Even TWRP cant mount the storage with encryption.
The MTP protocol prohibits windows recovery tools to access the internal storage directly.
By now, the physical area might have been overwritten and data would have been lost already.
Sorry, but still, i suggest you to go to files, turn on show hidden files, navigate to dcim/.thumbnail. there might be some photos available either in internal or sdcard.
Good luck.

rjdmail said:
I'm hoping someone can help me.
My wife has a Note 8 (N950U) and she accidentally deleted her entire camera folder. I thought she was backing up to GPhotos but she wasn't. She had no cloud back up, and the photos were saved to internal memory not an SD. She has some photos that she is desperate to try to recover (including the last photos of her mother before she passed away). I'm fairly technically savvy, but I haven't messed under the hood of Android before. From what I've read, the only way to try to recover deleted files in this scenario is to be able to run a utility like DiskDigger as root (and I'm aware that there is only a small chance that the photos can be recovered).
... snip ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Firstly, rooting the device you will need to format the internal storage, anyway, to get rid of the encryption, so doing that your wife will lose everything on her device, anyway. This includes apps, music, videos, and anything else she might have on it. It's like doing a factory reset. So that wouldn't have helped your cause.
Second, apps like DiskDigger doesn't actually recover anything, either. I tried it before when I lost some photos. All it does is scour your device for thumbnails of images. Some apps save low resolution thumbnails, some save slightly higher resolution, but even if it finds thumbnails of the images you want to recover, it'll never be the same quality as the original ones. This is from my own experience of using this app and one or two others like it.
Thirdly, flash memory works a little different to hard drives and Android also works different to Windows. When you delete something off flash memory, it doesn't necessarily just mark the file as deleted or keep remnants or something, like Windows does. You can test this yourself by copying something onto an SD card, then deleting it and sticking the SD card in a computer or laptop and running data recovery software on that. Chances are high it won't pick up the deleted content.
Sadly, like sandeepkumar0153 said, your best and likely only bet is to look in the thumbnails directory to see if there's thumbnails of the images, but be prepared that those images will be very low resolution. It might really be worth it.
My advice is to make peace with what happened and start getting into the habit up backing up important files like that. I've lost many, many photos and other stuff due to the same issues or situations where I couldn't boot the device and had to do factory resets. It's sad and painful, but it happens.