Offline Photo Recovery: What to Do When Cloud Storage Fails?

As someone who mostly relies on cloud-based storage servers for storing photos, I was initially skeptical about this topic. “Cloud can never fail” right? What’s the point of “offline photo recovery” when everything is available on a virtual platform, ready to be downloaded in seconds? Guess what? Like any other physical drive, even cloud storage is susceptible to failure and let me tell you - that happens quite frequently.

While writing this blog, I almost became a detective. Instead of waiting for this to happen in real time, I chose to dig deep and learn everything I needed to know about recovering photos when Cloud storage fails. Let me answer some of your questions as well.

Does Cloud Storage Really Fail? 

YES! Data breaches, accidental deletions, sync errors, server outages, and account issues can lead to cloud storage failure. The impact of a cloud storage failure can be harsh because for many people storing data in cloud is a way of life.

Let’s understand different causes of cloud storage failure.

Why Does Cloud Storage Fail?

Cloud storage can fail for the following reasons:

1. Data Breaches - In 2023, 82% of data breaches involved data stored in the cloud. Data breaches are a major cause of cloud storage failure, exposing your data to theft or deletion by cyber-attackers and making it inaccessible in many cases.

2. Internet Issues - If your internet connection is choppy or slow, you won’t be able to reach your cloud server account. This also affects data sync, file upload, and download. Hence, you won’t be able to access your data.

3. Cloud Service Outages: Sometimes, cloud storage servers encounter technical issues or maintenance downtime, making your data temporarily unavailable or inaccessible.

4. Server Failures: If the server that stores your data crashes or gets physically damaged, your files stored in them will remain inaccessible. In case of server failure, data loss is permanent until the problem is fixed.

5. Permission Issues: If access rights are revoked for the cloud service or there’s a problem with your cloud storage account, such as a password issue or expired subscription, you won’t be able to access your files.

6. Accidental Deletion: Files stored in cloud storage can also get deleted accidentally, either by you, someone else with access to the cloud server, or because of software glitches or bugs.

7. Corrupted Data: Files stored in cloud storage get damaged or corrupted because of cloud storage drive errors, malware attacks, network problems, or cyberattacks, making the data inaccessible.

The above reasons explain why cloud storage can fail and scenarios where cloud data can become inaccessible.

How to Recover Photos if Cloud Storage Fails?

If you are unable to access your photo files stored in cloud storage because of the above reasons, I can help you recover them with offline recovery methods.

1. Recover from Another Device

If you shared your photos with friends or family or saved them to another device like a phone or tablet, those photos might still be there. Sometimes, people forget they copied images to a different gadget or storage drive. Take a look at all your devices and ask your family or friends if they have copies of the photos.

2. Check Other Backups

It’s rare for every single backup to fail at the same time. If you have saved your photos to another cloud service, check there. Maybe you once uploaded your pictures to a Google Drive and Dropbox cloud account, or you copied them to your camera manufacturer’s cloud service. Go through all your backup options. Chances are, your photos are saved in some account.

3. Wait for a While

Cloud services sometimes have temporary issues for a few hours or a day. Maybe the servers are down for maintenance or a temporary glitch. If you can’t get to your photos right now, try waiting for a while and check later when everything returns to normal. This is one of the easiest solutions to get back your cloud stored data.

4. Recover from the Recycle Bin

If you deleted your photos recently after uploading them to the cloud, they might still be in your computer’s Recycle Bin or Trash folder. Recovering deleted photos from trash is easy. Open the Recycle Bin/Trash on your computer or look for the Recently Deleted folder on your phone. If you see your photos there, you can restore them with just a few clicks.

5. Recover Files with Stellar Photo Recovery

If you’ve tried everything but still cannot find your photos, there’s another way. When you delete a photo, it doesn’t disappear right away. Instead, the space it took up is marked as free, but the photo remains there until new data overwrites it. A photo recovery software like Stellar Photo Recovery can help you get back lost or deleted photos offline from your computer, storage drive, or memory card.

The tool scans your storage drive to access deleted photos saved in any file format. It also offers a preview of the recovered photos so you can choose which to save.

How to use Stellar Photo Recovery to recover photos offline:

Step 1: Download and install Stellar Photo Recovery on your computer.
Step 2: Connect your phone, memory card, or hard drive to your computer, and then choose what to recover. It also recovers videos and audio files.

Step 3: Open Stellar Photo Recovery and choose the device or drive you want to scan.

Step 4: Wait for the software to scan for lost photos and list the recoverable files.
Step 5: Select the photos you want to recover, preview them, and save them to a safe place on your computer.

This tool works well if you accidentally deleted your photos, or if your cloud storage failed. Stellar Photo Recovery is easy to use, and you don’t need to be a tech expert to get your memories back.

Conclusion:

While cloud storage is necessary for storage space management in devices and safely storing your files online, it is not immune to failure. Hence, having a multifold backup strategy can help in avoiding such instances. Apart from it, offline photo recovery software like Stellar Photo Recovery allows you to recover your photos from devices even when the cloud fails. So if you ever end up gazing at an empty folder or a corrupt cloud link, give this a try. Remember, the sooner you attempt to recover your photos, the higher the chances of getting them back.