Database Develop

Recovery

Hi, all. Ok, so since my november I have been waiting for Z3 compact root and great news of recent.
Since november, I have only used my phone just to make calls, after a major balls up when I flashed a firmware via flashtool without backing up. And even though technically, it should not have not wiped my data, it did.
I had some very precious and sentimental wedding images and 3 4k videos on the internal memory. (didn't have a sd card at that time) So, did not want to overwrite any new data.
Today, after rooting, I could use undelete type software with root access to recover my images. After all the waiting non of the *Top* apps worked!! wth. So, disappointed, some of u may laugh.
Anybody got any suggestions please. Any quality pro style apps, like used for PC recovery. Recovery on a low level perhaps (if possible)
I tried diskdigger, undeleter, recuva, hexamob, wondershare.
Please, anybody
Thanks for reading

davestuarts said:
after a major balls up when I flashed a firmware via flashtool without backing up. And even though technically, it should not have not wiped my data, it did.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, but you won't get them back...
That's why I try to get pictures saved to my laptop as soon as I'm home, regardless of all this automatic cloud saving.
Edit:
And: saving to ext sd or finding an option in an app to do so first place.

Howlbeck said:
Sorry, but you won't get them back...
That's why I try to get pictures saved to my laptop as soon as I'm home, regardless of all this automatic cloud saving.
Edit:
And: saving to ext sd or finding an option in an app to do so first place.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have used them apps before to recover a few photos in the past. Can't see why it doesn't work know tbh . Thanks for the, save to the sd card advice.
Btw. You said you back asap. How do you keep track?

davestuarts said:
Btw. You said you back asap. How do you keep track?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Habit ?
Was in a similar situation when I had to put one of our dogs to final sleep. Very nice and emotional pictures, I lost them due to flashing the next or other days. The wife saved them with her own, real camera. That's what always reminds me to save important pictures.

Anybody else. I waited a long while to not use my phone after my mess up. There has got to be a way to retrieve data off my phone even if I have flashed it.
I'm sure forensic experts could find such images etc.
PC data can be recovered even after so many wipes, there must me someone here with some expertise?
Please can someone help?

i lost my data 2 days ago after using flashtool to flash a ROM,so now i put my data into sdcard
if you have no backup before,it is hardly find back your data
Sent from my D5833 using XDA Free mobile app

moetoby said:
i lost my data 2 days ago after using flashtool to flash a ROM,so now i put my data into sdcard
if you have no backup before,it is hardly find back your data
Sent from my D5833 using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats too bad . But I see on TV shows all the time, using sophisticated software to recover data all the time. I'm sure this is possible somehow. My photo's are very very important to get back.
I always hear that PC HDD and phones people sell are very easy to find the data from.
People do not know that they are not always fully wiped.

Hook your phone up to your PC and try the several programs for the PC available for android internal storage restoration, just google a bit you will find tutorials and what not.
If you have not overwritten the files they might still be there. If you overwrote them i fear they are lost.

davestuarts said:
Thats too bad . But I see on TV shows all the time, using sophisticated software to recover data all the time. I'm sure this is possible somehow. My photo's are very very important to get back.
I always hear that PC HDD and phones people sell are very easy to find the data from.
People do not know that they are not always fully wiped.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well,yes,PC data can find back easily,but if the data was covered by new data,it is hard to find back either on PC or phones
if your phone haven't cover new data,then i could say good luck to you and wish you find someway

I don't know if you can recover those files at home, but maybe guys like http://www.krollontrack.co.uk can do it.
It probably won't be cheap though.

[Q] Help! Hard reset done and gallery hasn't restored.

So after encountering the annoying 505 error I did a full back up via the Backup app as sync manager on the laptop wasn't playing ball.
Did the hard factory reset and then restored from the back up file I had made 10 minutes beforehand.
Most things have restored but I went to check a picture and ALL GONE!
Things like whatsapp messages and contacts didn't restore either.
What can do to recover the lost images?
and typically none of it worked to solve the 505 error.

I know this isn't the usual standard of question on this forum but is anyone able to shed some light on my problem?
Does the HTC Backup program, back up images or is that an oversight on my part?

ok so it seems that i'm an idiot and htc doesn't back up images on an htc account back up.
I'm now trying to run my phone through recovery software (MagicCute Recovery) but the program won't recognize the phone, I guess because it's not a mass storage device and connects via MTP?
I read a guild to turn on developer mode and then turn on USB debugging but that hasn't made any difference.
If there a way to plug my phone in and the computer to recognize it as a mass storage device?

Paul_TDi said:
ok so it seems that i'm an idiot and htc doesn't back up images on an htc account back up.
I'm now trying to run my phone through recovery software (MagicCute Recovery) but the program won't recognize the phone, I guess because it's not a mass storage device and connects via MTP?
I read a guild to turn on developer mode and then turn on USB debugging but that hasn't made any difference.
If there a way to plug my phone in and the computer to recognize it as a mass storage device?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
check google playstore for undelete software, plenty on there, be careful about how much you install or uninstall.
Dont know if your aware of this, but nothing is ever really deleted, its flagged as safe to be overwritten and hidden from the user, too much installing or un-installing apps will overwite the flagged images.

Paul_TDi said:
ok so it seems that i'm an idiot and htc doesn't back up images on an htc account back up.
I'm now trying to run my phone through recovery software (MagicCute Recovery) but the program won't recognize the phone, I guess because it's not a mass storage device and connects via MTP?
I read a guild to turn on developer mode and then turn on USB debugging but that hasn't made any difference.
If there a way to plug my phone in and the computer to recognize it as a mass storage device?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am sure that when connected to a Linux machine it shows as an external drive...not sure if that helps at all ?
If what i suggest is true then you can run Linux within windows from a USB drive,but clearly your recovery software has to be a linux compatible version.
Just a suggestion rather than fact!

Seanie280672 said:
check google playstore for undelete software, plenty on there, be careful about how much you install or uninstall.
Dont know if your aware of this, but nothing is ever really deleted, its flagged as safe to be overwritten and hidden from the user, too much installing or un-installing apps will overwite the flagged images.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Currently browsing play store now, is there any you can recommend?
I wasn't fully aware of how it works but I knew I could recovery most with some nifty software. MagicCute has worked wonders in the past for me.
At least all my music is stored in music play store.
I found a PC based program to scan the phone but the phone requires to me rooted for that, although that was my main reason for joining this forum to root I'm a little apprehensive to do anything like that until I have saved my pics!
Cheers.

Paul_TDi said:
Currently browsing play store now, is there any you can recommend?
I wasn't fully aware of how it works but I knew I could recovery most with some nifty software. MagicCute has worked wonders in the past for me.
At least all my music is stored in music play store.
I found a PC based program to scan the phone but the phone requires to me rooted for that, although that was my main reason for joining this forum to root I'm a little apprehensive to do anything like that until I have saved my pics!
Cheers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Someone else said they had great luck with DiskDigger Pro
Good luck!

Sorry sheppster, completely missed your reply somehow yesterday. Thanks for the suggestion.
Thanks clsa I'll give that a go once rooted.
I'm currently reading, reading watching and rewatching content on the rooting process. Very confusing for a complete and utter noob. A lot of content is spoken as if I have a clue, haha.
But I'm now registered on HTC DEV, all videos and content say to select all other supported devices due to the HTC One not being listed, but it is. I'm guessing HTC Dev has been updated since the guides were posted. Shall I click HTC One or still use other devices?
I installed Android Studio and also JDK which it asked for, but when continuing to install Android Studio I got the following message...
Is this detrimental to the use of the program or can I just continue?
Sorry this thread is going to turn into more of a rooting Q&A.
I now have sync manager working correctly and have made a back up on my laptop which I'm happier with than having something floating about in my HTC Account. So I think I'll go ahead and try unlocking my bootloader.

Well I have unlooked the bootloader now. Successfully? Not sure!
After confirming to unlock it then restarted and kept going round in circles, it's now saying "Android is upgrading" running through 253 apps. Nothing like the XDA video where it just restarts as a fresh phone.
I used the HTC One instructions from the drop down menu in the end.
Fingers crossed at the end of that it's working and I can continue to root.

Well considering I have an early start I've stayed up far too long messing around.
BUT! My phone is now rooted, I did attempt putting a venom rom on but it didn't install properly although I seem to have a large ammount of it's features here and there like being able to boot directly to bootloader or recovery from the power button.
But any way the lapcop software I had appeared to be useless, it found 603 images from various emails and programs files none on my actual pictures. I'm not running disk digger which again has found background images but still 85% left to scan.
I'm not holding out too much hope now as there's been a few files added and deleted to root and also reset again to root.
I'll update tomorrow how it went.

I didn't realise how cheap Disk Digger Pro was, so bought and ran that last night. I think it found touch under 4000 images but again mostly PNG program images.
It did manager to find 41 useful images though. It seemed to mainly pick up pictures which I had recently used on facebook, so annoyingly mainly recoverable images through facebook.
It picked up a lot of signatures from various emails and made a lot of duplicates. Not a bad effort for under 2 quid though.

Advice on how to recover media files on locked and one rooted stock OnePlus 3T

Hello,
I'm a bit of desperate and I come here to XDA with the hope to find some useful advide. :crying:
I know you probably have read many posts like these, but if you will read mine I hope you will find it different because there are some technical things to be explained (interesting at least for me).
I've lost 99% of my photos and videos taken in July on my phone (64 GB Memory model).
I know I know I should have implemented some sort of backups whatsoever in the cloud or with a home NAS, but unfortunately for me I'm not that kind of guy. The Android built-in backup is also disabled.
What has really happened here I think that probably somehow my daughter has grabbed my phone and has played with it and has deleted about hundreds of photos and videos taken in July. Of her mainly! Never underestimate the damage capabilities of a toddler.
In the meanwhile I've taken lots of photos in August and used a phone a lot and also got the OTA update to Oxygen 4.1.7 / Android 7.1.1
Now I have found that most of July media files are missing!!!!
At the moment there are 25 GB used out of the whole 54 in the Internal Archive Memory as it seen on the Phone Setup.
I have bought DiskDigger Pro for Android but somehow it cannot find the right files all it finds are Whatsapp Images and other files. Does not really find the missing files which I suspect have been somehow deleted.
I think it needs root privileged to dig deeper but I don't understand why, in theory the files should be recoverable on the same partition as the DCIM folder. To my understanding the files should be marked as "deleted" in the same partition as where the DCIM folder is. But there is also this TRIM mechanism on the newer phones flash memories that confuses me.
Q1) Can you please clarify why this and all other media files recovery programs which seem to be a bit serious need root to recover missing media files?
So given as assumption that I need to root, I've read here and there and it seems that sometime ago for OP One that was the possibility to root without unlocking the boot loader. But if I unlock somehow all the data will be wiped. And I fear this will make any further software base recovery method like diskdigger or photorec hopeless even with elevated root privileges.
Q2) Can you confirm that I cannot root without unlocking the bootloader and therefore without wiping the device?
For your information I have also bought tonight a 100 USD root + files recovery package one oneclickroot but the agent promised to refund me after I told her the model of my phone (scary!).
Q3) I know a couple of things in Linux, do you think is it possible without root to create a raw image of the internal phone memory or the proper partitions with a tool such as "dd" ? Then I would process those raw images on a Windows or linux PC with file recovery software.
Q4) Do you think that the wiping caused by the bootloader unlocking will render any possible further diskdigger like solution without hope? Or should I go that way because the wiping is not so deep after all?
I don't know what to think, the fact that the phone is also encrypted makes me fear the worst. Maybe after the wiping it will get re-encrypted over.
Q5) Any advice in general before contacting kroll on track and pay thousands of dollar with the hope to recover?
Thanks a lot for any useful reply! I hope this topic will bring a definitive guide on how to recover files on unrooted oneplus 3t!

I can't answer all your questions here, however I can say with 100% confidence that you cannot root without unlocking bootloader. Some people claim of other methods, but keep away from them.
And there is nothing to be scared of when rooting OnePlus 3T if you follow the correct steps.
Are you sure that your daughter deleted those photos? How can she specifically delete photos taken in July? Do you have Google photos installed?

Aneejian said:
I can't answer all your questions here, however I can say with 100% confidence that you cannot root without unlocking bootloader. Some people claim of other methods, but keep away from them.
And there is nothing to be scared of when rooting OnePlus 3T if you follow the correct steps.
Are you sure that your daughter deleted those photos? How can she specifically delete photos taken in July? Do you have Google photos installed?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your answer.
I'm not scared of rooting, as I have rooted other phones in the past. I'm ready to spend 1000USD and maybe even more to recover these media files and therefore I'm not really scared of rooting or bricking the device. What really scares me is that by
unlocking bootloader -> wiping -> rooting -> (new encryption of the filesystem ?)
I will render the deleted missing files completely unrecoverable.
I don't have google photos and I'm not 100% sure that my daughter has deleted the files. Maybe I've done a cut & paste which has not worked correctly on the phone as I've only 1 or 2 days of the beginning of July in my external hard drive. But it's more likely that my daughter has played with the gallery application on the phone.
I don't have a lock gesture or pin and my screen can be unlocked just by sliding, however it seems my phone is encrypted.
This encryption I don't know how it works and how it relates with the bootloader unlocking, if someone have more information I would be glad to hear.
And also I've done some more research and it seems impossible to perform a "dd" command of the partitions without first being superuser / root. ;-(
Regards,
Claudio

Did you try connecting your phone to the pc and use the programm recuva?
I managed to restore my files with it once

I can feel your pain of loosing those valuable moments of your daughter. I feel sorry that I can help you much with this.
In future, I suggest you to use Google photos which can automatically backup all your photos for free.

StarShoot97 said:
Did you try connecting your phone to the pc and use the programm recuva?
I managed to restore my files with it once
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think that recuva can do anything here. I am not allowed to past links here but as explained here
ht*ps://forums.androidcentral.com/ambassador-guides-tips-how-tos/500142-guide-recovering-deleted-files.html
and here
ht*ps://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-nexus/general/guide-internal-memory-data-recovery-yes-t1994705
Recuva can't do anything for internal memory.
But thanks for the hint!

Aneejian said:
I can feel your pain of loosing those valuable moments of your daughter. I feel sorry that I can help you much with this.
In future, I suggest you to use Google photos which can automatically backup all your photos for free.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
One of the most affordable options I'm considering is this:
1) get another oneplus 3t
2) take some pictures and videos on it
3) delete those pictures and videos
4) root it
5) Install diskdigger to check if he can find anything after the wipe
I feel huge pain, my wife is also kindly pushing me. ^^

The problem ought to be that since this phone is force encrypted per default, unlocking the bootloader will destroy the encryption key for the previous installation won't it? Isn't that they point as to avoid anyone accessing your data by simply doing a factory restore and still keep the data in the internal storage. At least that's what I though, else where's the security of someone steals your phone.
Without that, any recovery software will just see rubbish when trying to recovery anything since it's encrypted.

pitrus- said:
The problem ought to be that since this phone is force encrypted per default, unlocking the bootloader will destroy the encryption key for the previous installation won't it? Isn't that they point as to avoid anyone accessing your data by simply doing a factory restore and still keep the data in the internal storage. At least that's what I though, else where's the security of someone steals your phone.
Without that, any recovery software will just see rubbish when trying to recovery anything since it's encrypted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks a lot, eventually some technical info on xda
If I lose my phone someone can use it and read everything because there is no lock, no pin, no gesture nothing. I would try a remote wipe via google android devices or something like that. Life is too short to unlock your phone every time you look at it even if it is via finger print!
This being said I've read year
ht*ps://source.android.com/security/encryption/full-disk
this paragraph among the others is not clear to me
Upon first boot, the device creates a randomly generated 128-bit master key and then hashes it with a default password and stored salt. The default password is: "default_password" However, the resultant hash is also signed through a TEE (such as TrustZone), which uses a hash of the signature to encrypt the master key.
You can find the default password defined in the Android Open Source Project cryptfs.c file.
When the user sets the PIN/pass or password on the device, only the 128-bit key is re-encrypted and stored. (ie. user PIN/pass/pattern changes do NOT cause re-encryption of userdata.) Note that managed device may be subject to PIN, pattern, or password restrictions.
Does this paragraph give me hope or not?
Thanks a lot for your interest! Sleepless nights go on here.

lallissimo said:
I know I know I should have implemented some sort of backups whatsoever in the cloud or with a home NAS, but unfortunately for me I'm not that kind of guy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is a really weak excuse. If the photos were that valuable to you, you should have been backing them up. There really is no excuse. Backup options are available that are effective, free, and require hardly any action on your part (aside form the initial setup - you've done more by disabling the default backup options).
Recovering deleted data is always a hit-or-miss proposition, at best. The longer you have the phone on, the higher the chance those memory sectors will be over-written. May have already happened.
---------- Post added at 10:53 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:46 AM ----------
lallissimo said:
I'm not really scared of rooting or bricking the device. What really scares me is that by
unlocking bootloader -> wiping -> rooting -> (new encryption of the filesystem ?)
I will render the deleted missing files completely unrecoverable.
I don't have a lock gesture or pin and my screen can be unlocked just by sliding, however it seems my phone is encrypted.
This encryption I don't know how it works and how it relates with the bootloader unlocking, if someone have more information I would be glad to hear.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It doesn't matter. Unlocking the bootloader wipes all data on the phone by definition, regardless of whether it is encrypted or not. At least that is how it worked on previous Android devices I've owned, that did not have encryption by default. So I'd be willing to bet the same is try on the 3T.
lallissimo said:
I'm not 100% sure that my daughter has deleted the files. Maybe I've done a cut & paste which has not worked correctly on the phone as I've only 1 or 2 days of the beginning of July in my external hard drive. But it's more likely that my daughter has played with the gallery application on the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I find it a little unlikely your daughter deleted all the photos. I don't see an easy way she could have done that to hundreds of photos, without an improbable number of screen taps. I'd use a good file explorer, and just keep digging. They might just be moved somewhere odd.

redpoint73 said:
This is a really weak excuse. If the photos were that valuable to you, you should have been backing them up. There really is no excuse. Backup options are available that are effective, free, and require hardly any action on your part (aside form the initial setup - you've done more by disabling the default backup options).
Recovering deleted data is always a hit-or-miss proposition, at best. The longer you have the phone on, the higher the chance those memory sectors will be over-written. May have already happened.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for the interest in my thread I really appreciate it.
I know a things or two about backups and I see your point. There is an ancient Chinese proverb saying something like this: Backup is that thing that should have done before.
However, being on xda I'd like to keep the discussion on a technical level if possible.
If you have any information or links on the way the internal memory is managed at physical level I'd like to discuss about it. As far as I know in order to extend the duration of this solid state memories the system makes his best to write on the blocks the least possible. I don't think I have already overwritten all the blocks of the internal memory. We'll see.
It doesn't matter. Unlocking the bootloader wipes all data on the phone by definition, regardless of whether it is encrypted or not. At least that is how it worked on previous Android devices I've owned, that did not have encryption by default. So I'd be willing to bet the same is try on the 3T.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm almost sure that the wiping does not scrape the memory with all 0 and 1. That would take really a lot of time and also that would reduce the duration of the memory.
Take a look here for example
h*tps://www.krollontrack.co.uk/blog//top-tips/what-you-need-to-know-about-androids-factory-reset-function/
so my real enemy here is encryption.
I find it a little unlikely your daughter deleted all the photos. I don't see an easy way she could have done that to hundreds of photos, without an improbable number of screen taps. I'd use a good file explorer, and just keep digging. They might just be moved somewhere odd.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You could be right, still I need to be root to dig deeper.

lallissimo said:
I'm almost sure that the wiping does not scrape the memory with all 0 and 1. That would take really a lot of time and also that would reduce the duration of the memory.
Take a look here for example
h*tps://www.krollontrack.co.uk/blog//top-tips/what-you-need-to-know-about-androids-factory-reset-function/
so my real enemy here is encryption.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is just wishful thinking. That article sounds really paranoid to me. Whatever method the system is using to "scramble" the data is going to put it out of the realm of the cheap, consumer data retrieval tools (as you've pretty much already experienced). The article states:
A recovery is possible by looking at the data structures from a low-level and using specialist tools to recreate the data into a useable format
We aren't talking about free or $5 Android apps here. We're probably talking about specialist software that costs thousands of dollars. Yes, technically data is almost always retrievable. Law enforcement has tools that can retrieve "ghost" data images even after being overwritten multiple times. But such tools are feasible for consumers from a cost/benefit standpoint.

redpoint73 said:
This is a really weak excuse. If the photos were that valuable to you, you should have been backing them up. There really is no excuse. Backup options are available that are effective, free, and require hardly any action on your part (aside form the initial setup - you've done more by disabling the default backup options).
Recovering deleted data is always a hit-or-miss proposition, at best. The longer you have the phone on, the higher the chance those memory sectors will be over-written. May have already happened.
---------- Post added at 10:53 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:46 AM ----------
It doesn't matter. Unlocking the bootloader wipes all data on the phone by definition, regardless of whether it is encrypted or not. At least that is how it worked on previous Android devices I've owned, that did not have encryption by default. So I'd be willing to bet the same is try on the 3T.
I find it a little unlikely your daughter deleted all the photos. I don't see an easy way she could have done that to hundreds of photos, without an improbable number of screen taps. I'd use a good file explorer, and just keep digging. They might just be moved somewhere odd.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
redpoint73 said:
This is just wishful thinking. That article sounds really paranoid to me. Whatever method the system is using to "scramble" the data is going to put it out of the realm of the cheap, consumer data retrieval tools (as you've pretty much already experienced). The article states:
A recovery is possible by looking at the data structures from a low-level and using specialist tools to recreate the data into a useable format
We aren't talking about free or $5 Android apps here. We're probably talking about specialist software that costs thousands of dollars. Yes, technically data is almost always retrievable. Law enforcement has tools that can retrieve "ghost" data images even after being overwritten multiple times. But such tools are feasible for consumers from a cost/benefit standpoint.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If someone has more technical information about the encryption part I'll gladly look at it.
As far as wiping is concerned I have given a quick look at the source code, so for example here:
https://www.pentestpartners.com/sec...ta-from-wiped-android-devices-a-how-to-guide/
and if this is still what's inside my android phone I'm sure that mkfs.ext4 is nothing to fear when you need to recover data.
Problem for me is encryption, but yest I'm considering expensive solutions too. Just for the sake of the technical satisfaction, of course.

How To Recover deleted holiday photos & Videos on my Samsung Galaxy Note 8.

I've somehow just deleted all my holiday photos on my Samsung Galaxy Note 8.
They were all stored in the phone memory.
I've read the only way to recover most of them is to use some sort of external software like EaseUS mobile software for android.
But for it to work my phone has to be rooted.
Looking at various root methods it gets confusing as they say it wipes your phones internal memory which will wipe all the photos if they are still there?
My Galaxy Note 8 is a SM-N950F build number NMF26X.N950FXXU3BRA9.
Most internet recovery software for purchase like DR Fone and Fonelab appear to be scams and I'm sceptical they will work.
Ay advice on recovery solutions would be most welcome.
Thanks in Advance.:crying:

walkerxp said:
I've somehow just deleted all my holiday photos on my Samsung Galaxy Note 8.
They were all stored in the phone memory.
I've read the only way to recover most of them is to use some sort of external software like EaseUS mobile software for android.
But for it to work my phone has to be rooted.
Looking at various root methods it gets confusing as they say it wipes your phones internal memory which will wipe all the photos if they are still there?
My Galaxy Note 8 is a SM-N950F build number NMF26X.N950FXXU3BRA9.
Most internet recovery software for purchase like DR Fone and Fonelab appear to be scams and I'm sceptical they will work.
Ay advice on recovery solutions would be most welcome.
Thanks in Advance.:crying:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just wanted to mention.....I'm pretty sure by default the gallery app backs up pics to the cloud (when connected to wifi) if you never disabled this setting (i do) its possible your pics are backed up to your samsung account....
Sent from my God Mode 8

+1 for automatic backup from gallery or Google photos if you have that installed.
I'm not certain about file recovery on Android, however I do know you should refrain from using the storage if you plan on recovering data from it.

M curious how you deleted them in the first place? Try connecting phone to laptop and run recuva on the dcim/ camera folder. May work?

myechophone said:
M curious how you deleted them in the first place?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If he was rooted and Odin flashed a stock ROM, especially with CSC (as opposed to Home-CSC), it could wipe the internal storage.
I flashed home-CSC but kept getting bootlops so I had to do a factory reset from stock recovery, losing all my data.
The pain for me was realising Samsung Restore isn't on the same level as Titanium backup restore. I had to sign jinto ALL my apps again.

Try an app called diskdigger

Sort of fixed.
Thanks every body for your replies.
Not sure how I deleted them thought I was deleting one photo but it was a stinking hot day in Singapore 34 C (feels like 39 C) I was choked up with a bad head cold I picked up in Thailand via Vietnam, just not thinking properly. Things were bound to go wrong as the SD card died at the start of the trip that's why the photos ended up in the phone memory.
While I couldn't recover the full photos and videos without root, I did run disk digger and it recovered the thumbnails of the photos while they are at a smaller resolution of 960 x467 compared the original resolution of 5000 odd x 2000 odd its better than nothing.
I have resized them up a little bit they look Ok but not as great as the original definition would have been.
My wife no longer wants to kill me so all is well. Videos are lost but I can live with that.
One would think samsung would have a failsafe program where you could recover from the phone memory but that's obviously too hard for them to do these days as they push everyone to the cloud for more potential revenue.
Thanks everyone again.

U can download diskdigger or undeleter from the play store if your rooted

harukara said:
After you deleted
Click to expand...
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pbedard said:
U can download diskdigger or undeleter from the play store if your rooted
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You're just 8 months too late. No big deal.

Question How to recover accidentally erased Camera folder from Samsung S21 Ultra - Data Recovery Android 12 / Root?

Problem:
My mum has an Android-based Samsung phone and unfortunately, when the main folder with photos ("Camera") was moved from the Phone to PC via USB cable, it was made using Cut and Paste. By accident the files were pasted into Recycle Bin and we received warning "Files will be permanently deleted. Do you wish to proceed?". We pressed "No" to abandon this process and undo the mistake. Nevertheless, the entire folder "Camera" has already disappeared from the window of DCIM folder on the phone (as viewed from PC). Similarly, the folder appears to have been deleted when viewed from within the phone. (also the phone now has 150 Gb free, while before the process it had 110 Gb free, so it appears 40 Gb of photos have been deleted....
Attempts to fix:
Standard photo / data recovery services failed to bring results (searching hidden folders using Windows Explorer, Total Commander and Ultdata Android).
We then tried two professional software solutions (Cellebrite UFED and Oxygen Forensic Device Extractor -- Android Agent), which also did not manage to locate photos on the device.
It appears as if they were completely deleted.
The same person who used the two prof software solutions above has access to PC-3000, but he claims it's not suitable for Android data recovery (?)
We have already spent 2 days and hundreds of dollars on consultations, which unfortunately still have not brought any results, while the emotional weight of deleted memories is haunting us. Thus, we appeal to help of this forum.
Current thoughts:
#1 All other methods suggested require rooting the phone, which apparently will wipe the whole and make recovery of that specific folder even less likely (correct me if I'm wrong).
#2 All suggestions to make back-up of the phone / clone the entire memory are not relevant, as the only files that are of importance here are the files in the deleted folder, and those files are not hidden and therefore will not copy into this back-up anyway (correct me if I'm wrong).
#3 One person told us to ask Samsung customer service, but their response was that they don't do data recovery and that they only can restore if there was Samsung cloud backup activated.
Questions:
Q1: What is our best course of action? It seems, rooting is one way or another, inevitable. What rooting method would be best to use here, given the situation and my phone specifications? I understand that there is no 100% guarantee to recover the erased photos, but we would like to at least give it a try with maximum chances of success.
Q2: Given that the files we want to back-up are already deleted and not visible, is it even worth it to try to make any back-ups? or will it be in vain, and should we just proceed to rooting and further recovery attempts?
Q3: IF, we successfully root, what is the best way to access the hidden data? Do we need help of this expert who has PC-3000 and specialized software, or is it going to be accessible using our own PC+USB cable + extra downloaded software?
Phone:
Samsung S21 Ultra (G998B). Android 12. No cloud, no backup. Phone not used for now. New data is not copied onto the phone. Phone not rooted.
Thank you for all your help. I do hope to find some solution. We are down hundreds of dollars, many hours of talking to consultants, many of whom appear to just google potential solutions and offer us some basic things, while the pain of cherished memories potentially lost forever is the worst, much worse than money lost. Any help or constructive feedback would be appreciated!

BTW if someone offers a working solution, I can offer consultancy fee for time and success fee in case of recovery.

Root probably won't be possible without unlocking the bootloader, and unlocking the bootloader factory resets the phone, which formats the internal storage and permanently deletes everything. I've used root apps to recover deleted photos and videos before but that only works if the phone was already rooted, or if there's a way to do it without wiping the phone. When I joined XDA almost a decade ago it was relatively common to see root methods that used exploits, and didn't require you to wipe the phone but that's not really a thing today. All this is to say that root is almost certainly not a viable option.

Have you checked for professional forensics services that can disassemble the phone and connect wires directly to the storage chips?
I've seen Youtube videos like this, where they get into the guts of the electronics and use solder and wiring. Sorry I don't know more specifics, but perhaps you can find them online and mail your phone for professional forensics recovery.

Maybe you can download a folder files of camera for the S21 Ultra :U

KingFatty said:
Have you checked for professional forensics services that can disassemble the phone and connect wires directly to the storage chips?
I've seen Youtube videos like this, where they get into the guts of the electronics and use solder and wiring. Sorry I don't know more specifics, but perhaps you can find them online and mail your phone for professional forensics recovery.
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^this^ Your best shot. With this you may only get one shot especially if you cause more damage by misadventure...
Others here have gone this route and gotten good results. $400-800 for non rush service is in the ballpark.

KingFatty said:
Have you checked for professional forensics services that can disassemble the phone and connect wires directly to the storage chips?
I've seen Youtube videos like this, where they get into the guts of the electronics and use solder and wiring. Sorry I don't know more specifics, but perhaps you can find them online and mail your phone for professional forensics recovery.
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blackhawk said:
^this^ Your best shot. With this you may only get one shot especially if you cause more damage by misadventure...
Others here have gone this route and gotten good results. $400-800 for non rush service is in the ballpark.
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Thank you. I have come across some websites mentioning this, but could not find any agency of repute in my region offering such a solution. And especially if I can only get one shot with this, I definitely want to pick the best agency to try it out. The photos inside are worth it for me to shell out hundreds of dollars if necessary...
I wonder also, if we can reasonably expect technical progress to be able to solve this situation. I don't mean some stuff like quantum computing, but for instance I'm aware that PS3 has recently been cracked , a few years after it came out. Can I reasonably expect something similar to happen to Android 12 that what's not breakable/crackable today, may become so in 1-2 or maybe 3-4 years? While I'd hate to have to wait for 2-3 years, there's nothing time-sensitive in those photos; just family moments that I would like to be able to revisit 10 years later, so if I only will be able to access them later on, that's fine, I can just put my phone in a drawer for a few years and wait. As long as this wait is not in vain. Definitely don't need false hope.
Thanks for your feedback!

samsungs21 said:
Thank you. I have come across some websites mentioning this, but could not find any agency of repute in my region offering such a solution. And especially if I can only get one shot with this, I definitely want to pick the best agency to try it out. The photos inside are worth it for me to shell out hundreds of dollars if necessary...
I wonder also, if we can reasonably expect technical progress to be able to solve this situation. I don't mean some stuff like quantum computing, but for instance I'm aware that PS3 has recently been cracked , a few years after it came out. Can I reasonably expect something similar to happen to Android 12 that what's not breakable/crackable today, may become so in 1-2 or maybe 3-4 years? While I'd hate to have to wait for 2-3 years, there's nothing time-sensitive in those photos; just family moments that I would like to be able to revisit 10 years later, so if I only will be able to access them later on, that's fine, I can just put my phone in a drawer for a few years and wait. As long as this wait is not in vain. Definitely don't need false hope.
Thanks for your feedback!
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There's a thread here I posted on going 4-8 months. He had hid data recovered from a Samsung for $1200 rush job vs the usual $800 charge). I've tried to find it, but you see my post count. Usually that works in my favor but not always He shipped it to them if I recall correctly.
Try these guys. That may be the company he used. Been too long and it was of passing interest to me. If you do recover the data please report back. Many posters here have asked for this.
Due to the way those files were lost they may not be recoverable. Personally I would've written them off. However only a recovery specialist can say for sure.

blackhawk said:
There's a thread here I posted on going 4-8 months. He had hid data recovered from a Samsung for $1200 rush job vs the usual $800 charge). I've tried to find it, but you see my post count. Usually that works in my favor but not always He shipped it to them if I recall correctly.
Try these guys. That may be the company he used. Been too long and it was of passing interest to me. If you do recover the data please report back. Many posters here have asked for this.
Due to the way those files were lost they may not be recoverable. Personally I would've written them off. However only a recovery specialist can say for sure.
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reached out to the guys you recommended, though their website / social media have not been updated since 2020... Will report back on the progress.

samsungs21 said:
reached out to the guys you recommended, though their website / social media have not been updated since 2020... Will report back on the progress.
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I'm not sure that's who he used and I know only what I read on their site. Just saying...

Can't you just plug the phone to a PC and use a recovery tool like DiskDrill, or something?

Flash the original firmware

Samarimama said:
Flash the original firmware
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That would do nothing except complicate the issue.

RSGI said:
Can't you just plug the phone to a PC and use a recovery tool like DiskDrill, or something?
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tried that. The phone is not considered a hard drive, hence neither appears on the list of hard drives on Disk Drill, nor can be selected as folder/destination to run it on...

samsungs21 said:
tried that. The phone is not considered a hard drive, hence neither appears on the list of hard drives on Disk Drill, nor can be selected as folder/destination to run it on...
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I should mention that even if the jpegs can be recovered their exif data is not able to be associated with the jpeg. The folder structure is lost as well. A sea of jpegs with no time stamp or original image name. A daunting task in itself to sort these out.

Make a factory reset

Samarimama said:
Make a factory reset
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That would overwrite the lost data potentially making it impossible to recover as if it's not already bad enough.
It was a simple data transfer that went bad (this can happen), nothing indicates the user partition or rom are corrupted... throwing rocks at it doesn't help.

samsungs21 said:
tried that. The phone is not considered a hard drive, hence neither appears on the list of hard drives on Disk Drill, nor can be selected as folder/destination to run it on...
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Try an app called "Disk Digger". Its on the playstore. It might belp.

RSGI said:
Try an app called "Disk Digger". Its on the playstore. It might belp.
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If you're not going to use a professional recovery service, go for it.
Otherwise using the device risks overwriting the now unallocated data... once overwritten recovery is completely impossible on a flash drive.

blackhawk said:
That would overwrite the lost data potentially making it impossible to recover as if it's not already bad enough.
It was a simple data transfer that went bad (this can happen), nothing indicates the user partition or rom are corrupted... throwing rocks at it doesn't he
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Samarimama said:
Make a factory reset
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That would definitely ruin his chances of any recovery... just avoid making any writing on the storage, cause if the data you want to recover is overwrite, it's definitely gone... at least intact...