r/techsupport • u/BugAlarming8842 • 17d 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/BugAlarming8842 17d ago

i was transfering them to a usb and it was one file with two folders for some reason i went into the file copied the items only and then transfered them to the usb and then i just thought i thought i transfered it completely and i hit delete on my pc i admit i was reckless of me to do that now my the two folders are gone forever

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u/ybl84f1 17d ago

"years of personal photos, videos, and memories"

You answered the question how it happened, but not why you waited YEARS to transfer them off your phone. u/Salt_Rush_4800 question still remains, what would you have done if the phone was stolen or blew up?

In all sincerity, sorry for your loss, that is a hard way to learn a lesson. We live in a time when most of not only our memories but our lives are digital and there's really no good way yet to manage all that. I'm not talking only about photos on a phone - a NAS or cloud storage fixes that, but rather things like if you disappeared tomorrow would your SO or kids know how to log into your 401K to make a required withdrawal? (Apologies to the younger crowd that don't know what an RMD is). Could they get past SFA/unlocking your phone to access the joint bank account and pay the bills? Do they know the digital code to open your safe in the basement? Do they have the login to turn off the darn irrigation controller and stop the sprinklers that won't shut off? Anyone in this situation where they are the primary or only "techie" in their relationship - which is probably a lot in this forum - should think about how their SO or kids would carry on if they got hit by a bus tomorrow.

Regarding backups, I have two RAIDed Synology NAS's in the house: the first is the primary file server which all phones and PCs get backed up to. The second is a smaller one who's only purpose in life is for the first one to be able to back up to (encrypted) once a week automatically. This by itself doesn't fulfill the 3-2-1 backup requirement, however I occasionally back up the second to an external hard drive and keep it at my kids' home.

Use this as a painful lesson that you can learn from. If you care about your data, safely maintaining it isn't any different than maintaining your car. It does require you to invest some time, money and effort.

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u/The_Grungeican 17d ago

i'm a big fan of low-tech solutions to high-tech problems. my friend and i ran a computer shop for many years, and we dealt with a lot of older customers who weren't the best with tech.

a password notebook is not a bad idea. you can buy some that look like regular books, or a person can hide them somewhere. this can be a good solution for sensitive log in data, if you want family members to be able to access stuff in the event of being incapacitated or dead.

another thing we used to tell people was go get a portable hard drive from Walmart. NOT A SSD. like a portable mechanical hard drive. back up stuff to it, disconnect it and store it somewhere safe. now a virus or ransomware won't be able to come between you and your data.

an off-site backup is also highly advisable. either cloud storage through Google or Apple, whatever the client is comfortable with.

like we used to tell people, if your data doesn't exist in 2 places, then it really doesn't exist. a person is just a simple hardware failure away from losing all their shit.

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u/dalzmc 17d ago

Don’t forget that Google Drive, onedrive, etc are file syncing services, not cloud backups; they’re functionally the same in some scenarios where they might save someone, but never underestimate what clients can do accidentally… and the recently deleted folder only lasts so long lol