Deleted photos by mistake

[Kerry125]

While transferring/deleting stuff from my LG V30 Android phone to PC, I have deleted loads of pictures by mistake.
Alas, this seems not to be simple to rectify, but hopefully someone can help.

On my PC in file explorer I went to the folder on the LGV30 called DCIM/Camera - 'Camera' is where all the images are.
Somehow I deleted the folder 'Camera', no warning came up and everything was deleted.

On the phone I have checked the Trash folder in the Gallery, they are not there.
Google photos was not enabled sadly.
I turned my phone on and off and it has created a new folder 'Camera' which is empty, (probably shouldnt have done this but was a bit shocked I guess)

Is there a way of recovering the pictures?

I saw an App 'Disk Digger Photo recovery' - but it seems it only recovers thumbnails, unless you Root the device, which does not sound like a good idea.
Is there another way?

 

[lunatic59]

Youch!

Sadly, there's not much you can do to retrieve them. And, any of those "recovery" apps that say they can, even with root, are lying.

Sorry.

 

[bcrichster]

Youch!

Sadly, there's not much you can do to retrieve them. And, any of those 'recovery' apps that say they can, even with root, are lying.

Sorry.

Yeah, the biggest trick with them is: you can't reboot your phone between accidental erasure and pic-recovery.apk use

 

[svim]

I tend to agree, those photos are probably lost. Yes, you could root your phone but do note that while rooting gives you the ability to do a lot of otherwise restricted things on your phone, it does not necessarily give the knowledge to do so. Also if this is the first time you're rooting your phone, it's not the best situation to do it as a forced exercise in an emergency situation. And, keep in mind that any recovery solution is in no way a 100% matter. If there were a lot of photos involved and you've continued to use your phone regularly, the odds are some or a lot of those deleted photos are no longer recoverable anyway.
At this point, you might want to just accept your loss and move on. Set up a backup solution now. I'd recommend using the backup & sync functionality built into the Google Photos app. It will automatically backup your entire photo library into your online Google account. Be sure to check the settings menu of the app to set things up to your liking (i.e. you can have it auto-scale photos down to save storage space, or leave them as full, high res as is; or link your Google Photos service with your Google Drive service, allowing you to access your photos either through the Google Photos interface or directly as files through Google Drive.)

 

[Velenoso]

Does it have cloud and was it activated, if so you should be able to restore data, I say should because android doesn't always work the way it should.

 

[svim]

Does it have cloud and was it activated, if so you should be able to restore data, I say should because android doesn't always work the way it should.

If you're referring to the Backup & reset option in the Android Settings menu, it's not a matter of '... because Android doesn't always work the way it should', it's just that Google's backup feature only covers the settings, configuration files, and some data that are Google services related. It's a common misconception it actually backs up all your saved data (like photos). Unfortunately a lot of people discover this fallacy the hard way.

 

[Velenoso]

Well I have a S9+ and in setting > Google > Google accounts?
https://photos.app.goo.gl/N5cifm6H4Xu8bHDR9

Fallacy?

I guess you're new to smartphones Android expert. I can store here or Samsung cloud, I don't because I don't trust cloud.

 

[Dannydet]

@Velenoso, svim is talking about Google settings, which has nothing to do with Google photos.... Read before you get snarky.

 

[Velenoso]

@Velenoso, svim is talking about Google settings, which has nothing to do with Google photos.... Read before you get snarky.

Dude who are you, the OP asked a question and I answered it correctly, you should be able to get those photos from the cloud if you have cloud activated, then Mr android expert didn't know what I was talking about, so if you don't mind.

Why don't you not only read but learn something, I see you're an expert too?

 

[lunatic59]

Gentlemen, please keep it civil.

For the record @Velenoso both @Dannydet and @svim are correct. Enabling backup and restore in your Google settings does not automagically enable media backup. It really depends on the phone, android version and the carrier. Samsung specifically would prefer to push users to their cloud services rather than using Google's so on most Samsung devices, cloud backup to your Google account is disabled by default and the Photos app is not installed. And, if you don't log in with a Samsung account, the Samsung cloud won't work either. Hence, no backup.

Besides, the OP said himself "Google photos was not enabled sadly."

 

[dontpanicbobby]

That clears that up. It's gone.

 

[Velenoso]

Well I did ask if they had cloud activated and google in the pass has put my photos in the cloud on a windows PC which never had google photo, so how did they get there?

waiting?

The reason why I don't have google cloud activated is because it stores photo you don't want stored if you get the picture!

In fact if he goes to chrome and hits the extension menue and then photo extension they might be there, thank you for asking.

Are they still correct for the record?

 

[lunatic59]

Well I did ask if they had cloud activated and google in the pass has put my photos in the cloud on a windows PC which never had google photo, so how did they get there?

waiting?

First, are you sure they are there? That link you posted show 0% of your storage used, which indicates it's empty.

Like I said, it depends on what's on or off by default when you first set up the phone. Unless you specifically verify that photos (or anything else) is being backed up, it could go either way.

I do believe that if you upload images to Google Drive they automatically get listed under Google Photos, too. So you could have synced images to Google without having Photos installed.

 

[Velenoso]

Dude don't get mad but didn't you read where I stated that I don't have google cloud activated?
I turn the stupid thing off, as long as you have a google account like Gmail which you must have if you own a phone and have chrome installed on your device it will pretty much stores to cloud, well that's what has happened to me in the past.

 

[lunatic59]

Dude don't get mad but didn't you read where I stated that I don't have google cloud activated?

Actually, all you said was that you didn't have Photos installed.

I turn the stupid thing off, as long as you have a google account like Gmail which you must have if you own a phone and have chrome installed on your device it will pretty much stores to cloud, well that's what has happened to me in the past.

I do believe that's what you think has happened, but you have to at least agree to the terms of service before anything gets synced, so somewhere along the line you clicked a button or checked a box that permitted backups to the cloud. And, for the record, you don't need a gmail account to use an Android phone, but it really limits a lot of functionality, like access tot he Play store, and obviously gmail.

The "Google Cloud" is several components and you have to make sure they are all turned off for sync NOT to happen. If your phone (in the past) came enabled by default, i can see something easily being overlooked.

As this applies to the OP, since he said he knew that Photo sync wasn't enabled, I assumed he'd already checked his account from a PC. Silly us, no one ever actually asked that specific question. So ... @Kerry125 , did you log into your Google account from a PC and see if the photos were there?

 

[Velenoso]

Actually, all you said was that you didn't have Photos installed.



I do believe that's what you think has happened, but you have to at least agree to the terms of service before anything gets synced, so somewhere along the line you clicked a button or checked a box that permitted backups to the cloud. And, for the record, you don't need a gmail account to use an Android phone, but it really limits a lot of functionality, like access tot he Play store, and obviously gmail.

The "Google Cloud" is several components and you have to make sure they are all turned off for sync NOT to happen. If your phone (in the past) came enabled by default, i can see something easily being overlooked.

As this applies to the OP, since he said he knew that Photo sync wasn't enabled, I assumed he'd already checked his account from a PC. Silly us, no one ever actually asked that specific question. So ... @Kerry125 , did you log into your Google account from a PC and see if the photos were there?

I don't believe I agreed to anything of the sort, I noticed this long before there were smartphones I may of synced my email but that's about it, I've been using PC's for over 20 years.

 

[Velenoso]

In any case my answer to the OP's question was a good one even if he does or doesn't have the cloud working on his device, IMO.

In addtion: It might be in the terms of use, who knows I never read the fine print!

 

[svim]

Dude don't get mad but didn't you read where I stated that I don't have google cloud activated?...

So you're making all kinds of arguments that there actually is a setting that will back up everything on someone's Android device, with a screenshot as proof it exists, yet for all the other millions of Android users there's no universal backup solution that can do what you claim. Above all, how does this actually help the OP?

 

[Velenoso]

So you're making all kinds of arguments that there actually is a setting that will back up everything on someone's Android device, with a screenshot as proof it exists, yet for all the other millions of Android users there's no universal backup solution that can do what you claim. Above all, how does this actually help the OP?

Google has stored my photos unbeknown to be in the past on PC's, when I started using smartphones I noticed it did the same, if it does the same on his phone, his photo will be there, enough ok, if you don't know that's on you bubby!

That screenshot is from my phone PROOF that google indeed stores photos which you said it doesn't.

 

[lunatic59]

That screenshot is from my phone PROOF that google indeed stores photos which you said it doesn't.

All that screenshot shows is that you have a Google account and have used 0% of your allotted 15GB storage. That tells me you haven't backed anything up.

In any case, can we please wait to hear back from the OP if his photos are there or not?

 

[Velenoso]

All that screenshot show is that you have a Google account and have used 0% of your allotted 15GB storage. That tells me you haven't backed anything up.

In any case, can we please wait to hear back from the OP if his photos are there or not?

How many times do need to post that I have deactivated the cloud.

 

[lunatic59]

How many times do need to post that I have deactivated the cloud.

And yet you claim it is proof of backup where none exists. Maybe you're confused.

For the record, when you create a gmail account Google also extends that to all it's services including Drive and Photos, so even if you've never sent an email, taken a photo or uploaded a file, those thing will still show under your account.

Since you've deactivated cloud services, how is that image proof that Google syncs anything without your permission? You revoked permission and nothing is synced. To me that proves the exact opposite.

 

[Velenoso]

And yet you claim it is proof of backup where none exists. Maybe you're confused.

For the record, when you create a gmail account Google also extends that to all it's services including Drive and Photos, so even if you've never sent an email, taken a photo or uploaded a file, those thing will still show under your account.

Since you've deactivated cloud services, how is that image proof that Google syncs anything without your permission? You revoked permission and nothing is synced. To me that proves the exact opposite.

Can you read?

Did I not say I don't use either Samsung or Google cloud because I don't trust them?

You probably have a Google field in your setting why not check?

 

[svim]

How many times do need to post that I have deactivated the cloud.

OK, you've repeatedly made it very clear you're averse to using cloud-based services but again, how does your personal viewpoint contribute to this thread and the query that was originally posted?

 

[KBU2]

One word oops