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Question

How to recover lost photos after cut-paste

May 18, 2017 9:30PM PDT

I was in the process of moving photos from my mother's internal storage on her Samsung Galaxy J7 to a new (formatted) SD card. I cut the files from her internal DCIM folder and pasted them into the SD card storage. At first, not all of the items transferred, so I returned to the DCIM internal and cut/pasted them again. During the second try, it told me that some items could not be transferred and I was given the option to skip the files or to stop the copy. I believe I selected to stop the transfer. Upon my selection, all of the photos disappeared. All 825 of them...
They are no longer in either location. The data amounts in both places changed to reflect that the photos are gone. They are not in my computer's recycle bin. I tried searching by typing in a fragment of the photos' name (a YYYYMMDD format) but was unable to find them. I'm freaking out because I know that those photos are irreplaceable to my mother, and was only trying to help her organize her storage system given that she was running out of space.
How can I recover the photos lost during cut/paste transfer? While I used my computer to manage the switch, I never put the files on my computer; I performed the transfer in the phone's folders. I tried to use Pandora Disk Drill after reading a bit online, but it recovered over 44,000 photos and I don't know that any of those are the ones I lost, given that the deep scan was searching my computer. I'm not sure how to access "cut" function history to view if the files are somehow stuck in my clipboard. The paste option is not available.

Discussion is locked

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Answer
Sadly a common way for folk to learn about backups.
May 18, 2017 9:45PM PDT

Just like PCs, the smart phone needs backups of what we can't lose. I've see spammers share recovery apps but yet to see those work.

Take what can save and backup to your PC or what have you. What you have now is still unsafe. Where are the backup copies?

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Not sure about backups
May 19, 2017 8:03PM PDT

I don't know where back up copies would be found in the phone. The sync settings hasn't been active since the end of 2016 so copies of the photos hadn't been saved to her Google or Samsung accounts.

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I can share where they are.
May 20, 2017 7:50AM PDT

There are no backup copies. The Android system is very different and does not have a trash bin so there is no safety net for accidents like this EXCEPT for those we create ourselves.

So here you are, learning first hand and a little burnt.

Loss was bound to happen since phones are just a few feet from total loss. All it takes is a drop to pavement or water and what's there is gone forever.

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problem is easy
May 20, 2017 9:21AM PDT

if your photo saved in your memory card, this problem is very easy . U need get databack soft, icare soft...... on PC, it will recovery lost data for u. goodluck

Link removed by moderator.

Post was last edited on May 20, 2017 9:34 AM PDT

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ICARE spammed so much
May 20, 2017 10:18AM PDT

That you know they may be untrustworthy.

If they are on the card, I use RECUVA today for that work. Plus it's free.

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Answer
Try Both Android Recovery Program and Photo Recovery Tool
Jun 8, 2017 1:09AM PDT

Since the transfer was between phone internal memory and SD card, if there is any hope, you might try some tools to scan the phone and SD card. Android phone internal memory recovery requires root access, which is somewhat complicated.
You could use photo/file recovery software to scan the SD card first. Good photo/file recovery tool should provide preview if they found photos. For example, Jihosoft photo recovery displays photos in list and icon and allows users to filter images according to formats (before scanning) as well as size (after scanning).
In case the photos were not deleted from the SD card, you may have to root the phone and try Android data recovery apps. iReparo Android recovery is recommended.

Anyway, don't add new data to the phone and SD card in order to prevent data overwriting, until you find the deleted data or give up.

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Answer
Try in this way
Aug 10, 2017 10:05AM PDT

I would strongly suggest you set up to sync on Samsung Galaxy, which can do a favor for you in some special cases. BTW, it would be better to operate the transformation on your PC rather than on your phone.

Besides, I think this problem is caused by some bugs inside the phone, maybe you can try to restart the phone. But if it is useless for you, try some third-party data recovery tools for help. FORecovery Android Data Recovery is recommended. It allows you to selectively recover those lost data and all the deleted photos are sorted in deleted time. Maybe you can take a try and see if it is useful for you. And take action to recover them asap.

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Answer
The same problem and solve
Jan 25, 2018 5:45PM PST

Maybe it is too late to answer your question, I just meet your problem at this time, and I have searched many ways to get back my lost photos on my phone, I delete the photos by mistake,and my phone is a Samsung phone,too.

I find that there are two ways can restore deleted or lost photos on a phone.
If you have synced the data like photos on your Google account or computer,Dropbox, you just need to sync the data to your phone again,and the lost photos will be on.

If you don't make a backup before, you need to find the powerful data recovery software to solve this problem, I use MobiKin Doctor for Android software, and I quickly recover the photos as I like, and it is easy to use, you can have a try.