Is Stellar Photo Recovery really free?

Yes. Stellar Photo Recovery offers a free tier that lets you recover up to 10 photos, videos, or audio files, with each file up to 100 MB in size. This allows you to scan your storage device, preview recoverable files, and restore a limited number of files at no cost before deciding whether you need a paid edition for unlimited recovery.

If one of my files is greater than 100 MB, what will happen?

The 100 MB ceiling is a per-file limit, not a total. Most JPEGs, PNGs, and short MP4s fall well below it. If a file you want is over 100 MB, you'll still see it in the scan results at full resolution. The limit only prevents saving it, not finding it. Stellar Photo Recovery Standard or a higher edition removes both the file count and the per-file size cap.

Do I have to register my email address or create an account in order to utilize the free version?

No. The installer downloads directly from the product page. No email gate, no account creation, no trial sign-up. You click Free Download, save the installer, run it, and start scanning. Recovery itself runs locally on your machine, with nothing uploaded to the cloud.

Can i reinstall to get 10 more free files?

The 10-file allowance is a one-time cap on that installation, not a per-scan budget. Once you've used your 10 free recoveries, further saves require a paid edition. Scanning and preview remain free indefinitely — you can still see what's on any drive at any time — but the saving step itself is the gated action. If you expect to recover more than 10 files, or any single file over 100 MB, Standard is the natural upgrade path.

Can I perform a scan and decide later if I would like to upgrade?

Yes — that's how the free tier is designed to be used. You run a full scan, preview every recoverable file at full resolution, and only then decide whether the 10-file cap covers what you need. If you decide to upgrade, the scan results carry directly over to the paid edition. You don't lose your progress, and you don't have to scan the drive a second time.

Does the free version have fewer features than the paid versions?

The scan engine is identical across every edition. Deep scan, RAW signature scanning, BitLocker decryption, 4K-sector drive support, and SMART drive health monitoring are all in the free version. The paid editions add unlimited recovery quantity, lift the per-file size cap, and (in Professional and Premium) repair corrupted photos and video.

Where should the free version (if I just recently experienced a loss of data) be installed?

Install to a different drive than the one you're recovering from. Every byte the installer writes is a byte that might have held one of your missing files — and on a drive you've just lost data from, those bytes are still recoverable until something overwrites them. If you only have one internal drive, install to an external USB drive, a coworker's machine, or a portable SSD, then connect the affected drive separately for the scan.

Free Photo Recovery Software for Windows [2026 Tested]

Free Photo Recovery Software

Recover deleted photos, videos, and audio from SD cards, drives, and cameras for free. No signup required, simply scan & recover.

Restore PEG, JPG, MOV, MP4, MP3 files and more

Retrieve files from BitLocker-encrypted drives

Rescue RAW image files (.CR2, NEF) of popular camera brands

* Recover up to 10 Photos for Free.

*Download the free trial version on your Desktop or Laptop to scan & preview your recoverable items.

Your First 10 Files Are On Us. Recover At No Cost.

The photos worth recovering are the ones you can't capture again. Stellar Phoenix Photo Recovery has been making sure for years that you get those images back in one go. Simply install the software and scan and retrieve your first 10 files for free.

File Types and Formats

Photo Formats

Nikon (.NEF, .NRW), Kodak (.KDC, .DCS, DRF, .D25), Panasonic (.RAW, .RW2), Sony (.ARW, .SRF, .SR2), Canon (.CRW), & more.

Video File Format

MP4, 3GP, AVI, MPEG, MKV, AVCHD (MTS), DIVX, MOI, MOV, MQV, M4B, M4V, WMV, VOB, OGM, 3G2, & more.

Audio File Format

RPS, MP3, AU, WAV, MIDI, OGG, AIFF, RM, WMA, RA, M4P, M4A, ACD, AMR, AT3, CAFF, DSS, IFF, M4R, NRA, & more.

All Storage Devices Supported

HDD/ SSD

External Drive

USB

Drones

SD Card

CCTV

Common Data Loss Scenarios & Fixes

Accidentally deleted photos & videos

The feeling of dread when you open a folder and find the photos gone. Clips from a wedding shoot, photos of a grandparent's last visit — the ones that simply can't be recreated. The good news is that emptying Recycle Bin or Trash doesn't actually delete those files. It just marks that space as available for reuse. A photo recovery free tool can read what's still there and restore deleted photos, as long as nothing has overwritten the space yet.

Formatted or accidentally delete SD cards

When you've formatted a card by mistake or delete it from your camera, the photos almost always survive. As long as you stop using the card quickly, recovery rates using our Stellar photo recovery program remain high. The software recovers your photos, videos & audio from every major brand — SanDisk, Samsung, Lexar, Sony, Kingston, and others — across formats from microSD up to CFast and CFexpress.

Inaccessible files due to bitlocker Encryption

Basic recovery tools usually cannot penetrate through a layer of encryption, and therefore are unable to access any lost media stored on the device. Stellar Photo Recovery prompts for the password (at the beginning of the scan), unlocks the drive volume, and then continues to recover your photos in this way. The software works on internal SSDs, external HDDs, USB drives, and encrypted SD cards.

RAW files from a shoot you can't redo

The Stellar Photo Recovery free program can open every major RAW format, such as CR2 or CR3 for Canon, NEF or NRW for Nikon, ARW for Sony, RAF for Fuji, ORF for Olympus, DNG, and many more. It shows a full-sized preview for each before recovering them so that you can check which pictures have really survived.

Built for Rare Formats, Longer Scans & Failing Drives

Add your own file format

Sometimes, you may not find a file format you wish to restore in the supported file types list. Our tool helps you either edit any of the existing file types or add new file headers manually or automatically. This is helpful for formats from new cameras, niche drone footage, industry record equipment or anything else that isn't listed in the standard format list.

Pause/Resume long scans

When a drive has been deep scanned for 20TB of space or similar, the process can take a long time. If the scan looks like it will take more than one sitting, you can simply pause it and leave. The software gives you the option to resume scan from where you left off without having to rescan. This is particularly useful when the scan time is long and required to be done on intervals.

See your drive's health while you recover

During the scan, Stellar Photo Recovery reads the drive's SMART data. This data is an internal log that the hard drives keep on their own wear to help detect impending failure. If you're recovering from a drive that's been flaky, knowing whether it has hours or weeks left changes what you do next. Recover the most important files first, and back up the rest before the drive dies.

4K-sector drives and storage over 18 TB

Most of today's enterprise SSDs and many larger capacity HDDs have swapped 512-byte sectors with a 4K-byte sector, causing many basic file recovery tools to either crash or not recognize those drives. Our free photo recovery program supports file recovery on all major file systems (FAT32, exFAT, NTFS, HFS+, APFS), and all types of NAS, RAID, and enterprise-grade SSDs.

Repair files that recovery alone can't fix

Sometimes, the scan finds your files but they preview as broken thumbnails, or they download fine but won't open afterward. That's not a recovery problem — the files themselves are damaged. The Professional edition adds a repair pass that rebuilds JPEG and RAW headers. Premium does the same for video. This becomes useful when a shoot ended with corrupted MP4s or a card's last MOV is the one you needed most.

Enhanced interface with personalized themes

The photo recovery software now offers three different UI themes – Dark, Light and Vibrant with an all-new user-friendly UI. There are tons of smartly built utilities within the interface - Runtime File Preview, Neat and Sortable Scan Results, Multiple File Saving Options, etc. for you to explore.

Digital Camera World

Stellar Photo Recovery has the potential to rescue you from most data loss scenarios, and with incredible ease.

Rescue deleted images or video from any memory card or hard drive - it's no problem with Stellar Photo Recovery.

See Digital Camera World Review

Digital Photography School

An Easy Way to Reclaim Your Precious Photos

Stellar Photo Recovery is a fantastic option for photographers and videographers looking to recover files.

See Digital Photography School Review

Photo Review

We found the software to be capable of recovering files from an old storage drive that we had previously discarded as unusable.

We found the software to be capable of recovering files from an old CompactFlash card that we had previously discarded as unusable.

See Photo Review Review

Photography Blog

Stellar Photo Recovery does what it promises to do, and pretty quickly too.

Inexpensive and effective way to recover precious photos and files that have seemingly been lost forever.

See Photography Blog Review

See a Real Recovery, Start to Finish

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Version:	12.6.0.0
License:	Single System
Edition:	Standard, Professional, Premium, & Technician
Language Supported:	English, Deutsch, Français, Italiano, Español, 日本語 , 한국어, Português Brasileiro, Dutch, हिंदी, 中国人
Release Date:	May 2026

Processor:	Intel compatible (x64-based processor)
Memory:	4 GB minimum (8 GB recommended)
Hard Disk:	250 MB for installation files
Operating System: (64 Bit only)	Windows 11, 10, 8.1, 8 and Windows Server 2022, 2019, 2016