Samsung update deleted photos and vids

[Leigh Clambakes]

I did a Samsung software update on my MetroPCS Galaxy A21 phone at 0534 on the 25th of November.
For some reason that update deleted a couple gigs of videos and photos I transferred off the phone onto my SD card.
I think I have 30 days before the phone empties the recycle bin, or whatever they call it on a Galaxy phone.
Can anyone tell me how to access the trash bin, so I can transfer the data to my laptop?
At about day 25 I'll yard the card out, and store it until I can resolve this issue.
Why would any manufacturer include such a wonderful feature as that on an update?
Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[Hadron]

If the photos were actually on the microSD card the first thing I'd do is remove the card from the phone (to prevent any more data being overwritten), stick it in a card reader, attach that to a computer and use whatever file recovery software you favour to recover the photos.

I don't have a Samsung so don't know about any "recycle bin". Such things are not a standard part of the android OS, but Samsung change things so much that I could believe that they have one. But if there is one it's likely to be a feature of a particular app (e.g. a file manager) rather than the base OS, so if the files were deleted by something else they may not be in any recycle bin. That's why I'd be tempted to try file recovery anyway, and certainly would remove the card now so that data can't be overwritten while you are trying to figure this out.

But seriously, have you ever seen any sign of a recycle/trash bin on your phone? If so, where? Because whatever app you have seen it in is where you'll find the way of restoring, if there is one.

I've no idea why an update would delete anything (in fact they are generally designed not to, even though that itself sometimes causes problems). Even less idea why it would do anything to a microSD card, which isn't even part of the device storage. You are certain they were on the microSD card, as opposed to "/sdcard" (which is actually part of the internal storage of the phone - stupid name for historical reasons, but I've given up on Google growing a pair and getting rid of that silliness).

 

[Leigh Clambakes]

I transferred all the photos and vids from the phone to the microsd card in the phone.
I say it hasn't deleted, or overwritten, anything because the available space on my card didn't change...the folders I used to catagorize/index the files are not accessable.
In one instance, the folder says there are 53 items in it, those are the various sub folders I've divided things in to. Open that folder up, and there are exactly 3, one of which I have to enable system files to see.