Lost all my camera photos! :-(

cadermru

Member
Apr 18, 2013
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Hi Guys!!

I really hope someone can help me out here! a classic case of no back up and silly messing around on my pc...
Basically I connected my phone to my pc via USB and noticed that my phone storage was pretty full so I decided it would be a great idea to transfer the DCIM folder from my phone storage into my card storage.....my camera photos are no where to be seen!!!!
please help me recover them from wherever they have dissapeared to!

Thanks!
 
Use a file manager app like ES File Explorer to look for it. Using that app, look under the directory that's called something like "External SD Card" or "sdcard-ext," and you should be able to find the transferred DCIM folder.

I would also suggest that you change the default location where your Camera app saves pictures. Open the Camera, tap the Menu button, then tap the Settings (usually looks like a gear), and scroll until you find an option for Storage Location. Tap it and select SD Card instead of Internal Storage.
 
Were you able to locate the DCIM folder using a file explorer like B. Diddy mentioned? I can recommend Astro too, very nice file manager

Hi Guys!!

I really hope someone can help me out here! a classic case of no back up and silly messing around on my pc...
Basically I connected my phone to my pc via USB and noticed that my phone storage was pretty full so I decided it would be a great idea to transfer the DCIM folder from my phone storage into my card storage.....my camera photos are no where to be seen!!!!
please help me recover them from wherever they have dissapeared to!

Thanks!
 
I found a DCIM folder but there is nothing in it at all! the file called Camera, has no photos in at all and i have no idea how to locate them!! I definitely did not delete them.
I realise now that while i was transferring the photos over, I had to go out so i cancelled the transfer and maybe this is how the photos were lost!
Is there anyway that i can retrieve them again?
I hope someone can help me!
 
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There might be two DCIM folders, one in internal storage and the other on the external SD card. Where did you find the one you mentioned?

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Android Central Forums
 
The one i found is on my external SD card, there is a folder called Camera in it, but nothing else.
 
Then check for a DCIM folder in your internal storage. The raw directory should be sdcard/dcim/camera (internal storage is called sdcard, while the external card is called sdcard-ext).

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Android Central Forums
 
Sorry, need to correct something. What I mentioned above regarding how the storage is labeled pertains to ICS. In Jellybean, the internal storage is under /storage/sdcard0, while the external SD is under /storage/sdcard1.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Android Central Forums
 
sorry, i dont know what ICS means? and what is jellybean?
I followed the RAW instructions you gave me for both the internal memory and the SD card and there is nothing in either of the camera folders at all :-(
 
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ICS stands for Ice Cream Sandwich, the nickname for Android 4.0, while Jellybean is the nickname for Android 4.1 & 4.2. You can find out what version your phone is running by going to Settings/About Phone.

How are you searching for the files? Are you using ES File Explorer, some other 3rd party app, or the native file manager that came installed on your phone?

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Android Central Forums
 
Judging by the fact that i didnt know what these items were, u can tell i had a very old system, 2.something!!!
i was using the ES File Explorer like you suggested and i also used the native file manager, i even connected my phone to my pc and did a whole search on my pc for the files and then I downloaded some recovery software but the photos are nowhere to be found....i'm resigning to the fact that i have lost them all :-( unless you can think of somewhere else they could be?
do you think i lost them because i cancelled the transfer halfway through? i didn't think that that would completely lose me all my photos!
 
I don't see how you could actually lose your photos if you cancelled the transfer, unless you happened to unplug the phone from the computer before it was finished with the cancellation process. Do you remember if the dialog window disappeared before you unplugged?

Another possibility is that you accidentally started transferring the folder to another drive/folder different than the one that you intended. For example, maybe instead of picking the external SD card folder, you accidentally clicked your computer's C: drive, which would mean your folder got moved to the root directory of your main hard drive. When you say your photos are nowhere to be found, did you search your computer's hard drive as well?
 
I think we missing impotent thing here.... how did you copy to photos to SD card? you saying that you did that, what makes you think you did it?
 
I had a similar experience and was able to recover my pictures by looking in the LOST folder on the SD card. Inside are all of the files that the OS 'dumps' if there is a complication while mounting the SD card. To recover the files:
1)Connect your phone to a PC via USB
2)Open the LOST folder and copy those files to a directory on your hard drive
3)Select the files that you suspect to be picture files (you can force Windows to open them in Picture Viewer) and convert them to *.jpg with the use of a batch conversion program like FastStone Image Viewer.

That fixed my issue - I hope it helps!
 
I have a similar problem, o nly in my case I backed up all the photos. The problem with me is I set the phone to save all photos to the sd card, but now all the photos I took with the phone (Galaxy Trend PLus) have disappeared from the device AND the SD card. The only photos still on the SD card are those that I had one there before changing phone. Could this be to do with the recent software update it recommended? That was last week, but the photos got lost from Sunday to MOnday
 
Hi which software u have used ..just can u help me plz because i have lost the data from my android mobile...Please help me..
 
Hi which software u have used ..just can u help me plz because i have lost the data from my android mobile...Please help me..

Welcome to Android Central! What data did you lose, and how was it lost?
 
I've stupidly done the same thing. I thought I was about to delete just a single photo from the Camera folder which is on my Note 4 SD card (4.4 - non rooted). But it was the folder :( and it went in a second! :(

I've read a few articles this morning about recovery using a pc with various software. Is there a simples way directly on the phone without rooting?

If I need to root, is it then easier to achieve?

thanks
 
Re: Lost EVERY THING PLZ Help

I was trying to go through and remove some garbage folders and move all my movies pics and music to a new sd card and i happened to delete everything apparently.. This is my Situation

I was connected to my PC
I happened to delete a folder called STORAGE from my Internal Storage on my phone by accident
and now everything is Gone..
I do not have a back up ATM that I know of. I believe it went out with everything else when i deleted the folder mentioned above.

I have a Motorola Droid Razr M
Andriod Version 4.4.2
and it is never been ROOT'ed if that matters