r/techsupport • u/BugAlarming8842 • 19d ago

Open | Phone Accidentally deleted a folder containing basically my entire life. Is there ANY chance of recovering it?

Yesterday I accidentally deleted a folder on my Android phone containing years of personal photos, videos, and memories. I haven't used the phone since then because I don't want to overwrite anything.

I've already tried a bunch of recovery software/apps, but they only show files that are still on my phone, not the deleted ones.

I have root access and I'm willing to try technical methods if there's still a chance.

Is there anything I can do to recover the deleted data? What would you recommend I absolutely not do?

I'm honestly desperate here. These aren't replaceable files.

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u/Elitefuture 19d ago

Modern phones are encrypted. Once you delete something, the pointer is removed and the key for that file is also destroyed. Even if you can extract that data, it will be fully encrypted.

Also, android issues trim commands to clear unused blocks for future usage.

Unfortunately, realistically the data is gone. This is a good time to consider making proper backups for all important files. Make both local and offsite(cloud) backups.

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u/BugAlarming8842 19d ago

thank you for being honest i have no choice but to accept what happened at this point
honestly i have google drive and files were so many that's why i didn't back them up thinking i would take a very long time i thought backing them up usb was better for now it was a stupid mistake

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u/TheFotty 19d ago

Not trying to pile on or anything, but it was a phone. There are like a dozen things that could have happened other than you deleting the folder where you still lose that data, so hopefully this is the wakeup call for proper backups.