Summary: This post shares the personal experience of one of my friends, who happened to lose her vacation photos from her Samsung S8 smartphone. She’s not a techie but loves to deep dive into her problems…You may find her story interesting (and relevant), as to how to recover deleted photos from samsung phones! ...Read on…
It was a huge mistake deleting photos from my Samsung Galaxy S8 phone Gallery app. I wanted to make some space in my phone but the cleaning spree made me lose several of my precious photos. I didn’t realize the blunder until I began to look for last year’s family vacation in the S8 gallery…they were all gone.
I am sharing my story feeling that it help you come through a similar situation and restore deleted photos back to your smartphone.
What I didn’t know about Samsung phones
I frantically looked over the Internet to find a (any) solution to Samsung Galaxy photo recovery.
What I found was a revelation…Samsung provides Samsung Cloud to save photos and other files, and you can access your Gallery and other data via the website also.
Helluva! I never noticed this in my Samsung Galaxy
So went on to recover deleted photos from Samsung Cloud.
How I restored deleted photos from Samsung Cloud
As a Samsung phone user, I had 15GB free storage on Samsung cloud. So, all my phone photos were apparently saved there. The cloud has a Trash folder that keeps all the deleted image files for 15 days, from where I could restore them.
Here’s what I did next:
- Opened Settings on Samsung phone
- Selected Samsung Cloud
- Clicked Gallery
- Clicked Trash
- Selected the deleted photos, and clicked Restore
Samsung Cloud helped so far to recover photos that were removed within the past 15 days. But, I couldn’t restore many of the deleted photos on Samsung S8 that were beyond this window.
Searching for the alternatives, I came across a tool called Stellar Photo Recovery that claimed to recover deleted photos from Samsung Galaxy note, S9, S8, S7, S6, S5, and Samsung Epic. I decided to give it a shot as there seemed no other way out.
Here’s what I did:
- Downloaded free trial of Stellar photo recovery software.
- Connected my Samsung SD card to my laptop through a card reader
- Launched the software
- Selected the Samsung SD card and clicked Scan
- Clicked Recover
- Previewed the recovered files
I found that these were the photos I needed back
But, the free trial needed an activation key to save the photos, so I purchased one to save the photos on my laptop. It took me roughly 10 minutes to restore about 600 pics from my 16GB SD card. Worked like magic… felt happy.
Lessons learnt: securing photos on Samsung phones
- Backup is important:
When you buy a Samsung phone, turn on the Gallery app’s Auto Sync feature so that all your photos are automatically saved to Samsung Cloud.
Go to Settings > Samsung Cloud > Gallery. Toggle the slider to turn Sync On.
- Use apps like Google Photos and ES File Explorer File Manager:
Google Photos is a photo sharing and storage app. Permanently deleted photos from your Samsung mobile phone remain in the trash of Google Photos for 60 days. You can restore Samsung deleted photos from the app’s Trash on your phone.
ES File Explorer File Manager helps you to manage your Android phone data. All the deleted photos and other files go into its Recycle Bin under Tools. So, if you happen to delete photos from any Samsung phone, you can restore them from the Recycle Bin.
In all, backup along with a good photo recovery software Should be enough for such contingencies. Samsung Cloud is fine but has its limitations. Try using Google Photos or ES File Explorer to get a more reliable backup. A Samsung phone photo recovery tool would help close in on any gaps and unsavoury situations, like it did for me.
You can try the free version of the Photo Recovery Software here
Please help! 3 days ago, I accidentally ERASED everything photos , texts, contacts… on my samsung galaxy A50. I’m trying to restore my pictures. Is deleting the same as erasing? I had to initialize my phone from the beginning and I’m not at all technically inclined. When I bought the phone, i purchased an sd card. Can you recommend how best to get my pictures back? Thank you!
Hi Sharon, I would suggest you to try our free software, Stellar Data Recovery for Android, which easily recovers deleted or lost pictures from your phone’s internal memory storage. For SD card, you need to connect the card through an SD card reader on your computer and try our photo recovery software, which helps to get back all pictures and videos from your SD card. Thanks!
Hi
I have just tried to download the software but it will not open on my computer so I am not able to see if I can retrieve my photos. Is there something else I can do to get it to run? Thanks
Hi Jane, You can first uninstall and then reinstall the software on your computer, using the given link:
If you have Windows PC then copy & paste this link in your browser – https://cloud.stellarinfo.com/StellarPhotoRecovery-A.exe
If you use Mac, then use – https://cloud.stellarinfo.com/in/StellarPhotoRecovery.dmg.zip
For more information, you can contact our support through email support[@]stellarinfo.com or call at: +1-877-778-6087.
Hi Sumona
I accidentally deleted my photos from the Gallery in my Samsung 10+. I tried to retrieve but nothing came back pls kindly advice how to get my picture and other items from my pic Gallery.
Thank you very much.
Hi Riz,
Did you check in Samsung Cloud? You can also try Stellar Photo Recovery software to recover photos from your mobile SD card. Thanks!
I had the same situation deleted some important photos, videos or text messages from Samsung Galaxy S8, Thanks for providing the useful steps to get deleted photos from Samsung Cloud.
Hi Chris, Thanks for reading our blog and sharing your valuable feedback with us!
Hi Sumona, I had an issue with Samsung S8 when I update the phone get error message “couldn’t open connection to server”. How to fix it? Any solution please help
Hi Simon, Please follow the steps to fix this problem,
1. Go to the settings > connections>
2. Click more connection settings > reset network connection
This will solve the problem, but you will have to reenter your Wi-Fi passwords and re-sync all your Bluetooth connections. Thanks!
I had recently purchased note 10+, but unfortunately my albums disappeared of my gallery, i didn’t deleted it. Can I retrieve the photo album? Please help!
Hi Craig, I would like to suggest if the photos deleted from the phone SD card our software help to recover your photos from the SD card. For more information, you can contact our support through email support[@]stellarinfo.com or call at +1-877-778-6087.
Hi Sumona, why my all photos disappeared? When I open my Samsung phone in the morning found gallery is completely empty. I tried to get back photos with the help of Google drive but all photo weren’t backup. Any suggestion would be appreciation!
Hi Amalie, I would suggest you can try our software demo version on your Samsung SD card and see the preview of recovered lost or deleted files. Thanks!
I had the accidently deleted some of vacation photos from my Samsung Evo Plus on my Samsung phone. I didn’t know the recovery is possible after reading your blog I successfully recovered my photos from Samsung SD card. Thank you very much!
Glad to found it helpful name! More is on the way.
I Accidently deleted my pictures about 2 months from my Android Phone. I finding the way to restore my photo and I found your recovery programs on Internet that might work on my phone SD card. Thank you very much!
Hi Marko, Thank you for choosing our software!