How to recover deleted pictures on your Android smartphone

Face it, it’s always upsetting to lose photos from your phone gallery, whether you deleted them unintentionally, or perhaps even in anger as an impulse. However, we’re here to tell you that contrary to what most people believe, deleting images from one’s gallery doesn’t render them irretrievably lost. Here are a few quick and easy ways to recover them quickly and easily.

Recover deleted photos from Google Photos

Here’s how to recover deleted photos from Google Photos.

1. Go to your Android device’s Google Photos app and open it.

2. At the bottom of the screen, click on the “Library” tab.

3. Press the “Trash” folder icon.

4. You may view all the pictures and movies you’ve deleted during the previous 60 days in this section.

5. Tap and choose the pictures you want to recover.

6. To restore the chosen photographs to your Google Photos collection, tap the “Restore” button at the bottom of the screen.

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Deleted pictures are kept in the trash section in Google Photos for 60 days before being permanently removed, so keep that in mind. You may not be able to retrieve photographs deleted more than 60 days ago using Google Photos.You can however, use these other recovery techniques for the same.

How to recover deleted photos without a backup

Without a backup, recovering deleted photos from an Android phones gallery might be difficult, but not impossible. Here are a few steps you can take for the same.

1. Check Google Photos at least once

Check Google Photos first, even if you may think you don’t have a backup of your photos. The Google Photos app is installed by default on Android devices, and sometimes, auto-backup is turned on for many folders. These pictures may be present in those folders and therefore be backed up without you ever really realising. 

2. Look in the “Recently Deleted” folder

The Gallery app on some Android smartphones has a “Recently Deleted” folder. Check to see if this feature is available on your device, because deleted photos may be saved there after you accidentally deleted them from your device, for a few days.

3. Use data recovery software

In rare circumstances, you might be able to retrieve deleted images by connecting your Android device to a computer and utilising data recovery software. These programs can search the internal storage of your device for deleted files. Bear in mind though, never add any fresh pictures or data to your device before making a recovery attempt. The space that the deleted photographs once held may be overwritten by new data, rendering them unrecoverable.

Recover deleted images from Google Drive

You can also restore deleted photos from Google Drive if you’ve backed up your images there. This is how you do it.

1. On your Android device, launch the Google Drive application.

2. The Google account that you use to back up your images must be used to log in.

3. Tap the “Menu” icon (the three horizontal lines) in the top-left corner of the screen in Google Drive to reveal the sidebar. Click “Trash” after swiping down.

4. Find the images in the trash folder that you want to recover. To restore a photo or photos, tap and hold on them.

5. Tap the “Restore” icon that resembles an arrow pointing up in the top-right corner of the screen. The selected images will be recovered to their original location in your Google Drive account.

6. Check your Android gallery app once you’ve recovered the images from Google Drive. If Google Photos is set to automatically sync, the images should sync back to your device’s gallery.

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Please be aware that images stored in Google Drive’s trash folder are normally kept there for 30 days before being permanently removed. It’s possible that Google Drive won’t be able to recover your deleted images if you don’t see them in the trash and they were deleted more than 30 days ago. You would need to use other backups in such circumstances.

To improve your chances of recovering deleted photographs from your gallery, it is always important to remember to act quickly, before they are irretrievably lost.