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recover photos from LOST.DIR easiest way

android889

android889

Newbie
Recently I've been loosing a lot of pictures from my external sd card on S3 and they are moved to a folder called : LOST.DIR (it contained over 300 unknown files)
I googled for solution but all required recovery software and a pc etc...
by accident I found the easiest and most guaranteed recovery method.

1. install ES file explorer from play store
it's the best file manager on the market you can find the link below:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.estrongs.android.pop

2. Open ES file explorer go to extsdcard

3. Open LOST.DIR

4. Select all: you can do that by long pressing on any file then click select all.

5. click Rename in the bottom of the screen
you'll get: Batch Rename
Input a new name: choose any name e.g: Image
Start number: write 1 or 01
Rename extension name: write jpg
Click ok
(check the attached image)
and you'll get all your images back!
if some didn't open they could be video files so rename extension to mp4.

hope I helped :)
 

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This did help me recover my docs, but only after I copied the files to my onboard memory first (using my PC)

I want to know:
1) Why did they go in here?
2) is there a way to recover them with their original names i.e. I have 1000 songs now named song 1, song 2 etc, surely there is a way to restore the data like it was.
3) How can I prevent files in the SD card from auto deleting/going into the lost folder?
4) what is rooting and will it help with any of the issues above?
 
WOOOOOW!! i just made an account for give you a really big THANK YOU SO MUCH, this solution is the best, none of those programs that are around the web for solving this works!

again, thanks a lot :)!

(i did this for my motorola razr d3)
 
ZainyH said:
This did help me recover my docs, but only after I copied the files to my onboard memory first (using my PC)

I want to know:
1) Why did they go in here?
2) is there a way to recover them with their original names i.e. I have 1000 songs now named song 1, song 2 etc, surely there is a way to restore the data like it was.
3) How can I prevent files in the SD card from auto deleting/going into the lost folder?
4) what is rooting and will it help with any of the issues above?
Click to expand...
I don't know if this will work but if you copy the files to your PC and then open them with Windows Media Player perhaps the meta data is still attached to the files and you will then be able to restore the original file names using the tag editor in WMP.

Might work; worth a try.
 
Thank you so much! My partner and I are so thankful that you put this online. We were both at wits end and had just about given up. This is such an easy and quick solution to such a horrible problem. I'm so glad that we stumbled upon this. Moved to tears due to some precious pictures being recovered.

Thanks again!
From two very happy people.

Edit: This was carried out on a Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini
 
I'm using the app but I get the task failed message. My phone is a galaxy s5. I need to recover at least 385 photos and so far no luck.:( I have tried multiple apps even boght the lost.dir app from the play store and nothing. Please help those are the pictures of my daughter birthday :(
 
android889 said:
to those who got "task failed" make sure ur renaming them correctly and writing the extension right (check the attached pic. )
hope it works out for u
Click to expand...

Im doing the same as in the attached picture but it still says "task failed". Im missing over 500 pictures of my trip to Japan and I would really love to get them back :(
Can anyone help any further? Im using a SonyXperia Z btw.
 
android889 said:
to those who got "task failed" make sure ur renaming them correctly and writing the extension right (check the attached pic. )
hope it works out for u
Click to expand...

I select all but when I go to rename all checks leave and I'm still getting task failed
I'm renaming image. Putting 1 in and jpg and still getting task failed
 
I'm super grateful to android889, although I got the "Task Failed" notice also. But I HAVE managed to recover my photos (not in my phone but on my computer).

After screwing around with various tweaks to android889's instructions, I managed (and this step might be unnecessary) to copy my pictures from the LOST.DIR folder on my phone (Samsung Galaxy 4) into the "DCIM," then "Camera" folder on my phone.

They wouldn't behave in my Samsung, but I connected my phone to my MacBook Pro as a "Media Device (MTP)" rather than the "Camera (PTP)" option. That brings up a separate window for my phone. Up at the top, there's a "Phone" option or a "Card" option. I went to "Phone," then "DCIM," then "Camera," and there were my pictures (again not in the right format). I copied all of those files to my Macintosh, and am now adding .jpg to the end of each (which is a drag), but they are getting recovered as photos!

This is not a very elegant process, but at least I've got my photos back in a place where they're not going to randomly disappear.

For the record, I'm pretty sure you don't need to go through the step of copying the pics in your phone from the LOST.DIR folder to the DCIM, Camera folder in your phone. I think you can just connect your phone to your computer and copy the pictures to your computer directly from the LOST.DIR folder, which is under "Card" as opposed to "Phone," and then rename each with .jpg at the end (i.e. instead of "2461", "2461.jpg").

I hope this helps others! This is the first time I've posted, and I'm not good with technology. I don't know how to recover these photos on my phone still, but at least they're on my computer!

Also, does anyone know how to prevent the Samsung Galaxy 4 from moving photos to the LOST.DIR folder in the first place? I have no idea why this happened!
 
BTW if anyone still has issues and gets task failed i might have the solution. I did transfer the pics from lost.dir to dcim camera folder and tried again. This might help those who still are having trouble doing this. GL and thx :)
 
Hi,

I just wanted to thank you so much for posting this. I had lost over 400 pics of my baby from July till October (including his baptism and first holiday) I looked at various different ways (which were very expensive -particularly when on maternity leave before coming across your post) before locating this thread. thank you so much for giving me a way to retrieve such precious memories

Sarah
 
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