HELP! Deleted most all photos and no clue how.

[EODK9Trainer]

I'm sure I had too many pics on my S-23 and I had numerous albums with important ones saved. I use an Apple MBP and last night I was looking at Google Photos after receiving a warning that I was running out of the free storage space and they want me to add more. TBH I forgot this was something I even had and I want to get rid of them. I have unlimited storage for pics on my Amazon Prime account which is fine. But an hour after looking at Google Photos I found almost every single pic is gone from my phone storage as well as all the folders. No freaking clue how I did this as I deleted nothing off Google Photos. I was going to try today and figure out how to shut down Google Photos but I did nothing last night while just looking. My lost pics have many family pics I've taken to include my grandkids. Anyone have any ideas?

 

[methodman89]

Check to make sure you are signed in to the correct Google account.

 

[EODK9Trainer]

Check to make sure you are signed in to the correct Google account.

I'm still in the same account as I've not switched out in some time.

 

[B. Diddy]

So you're saying the photos are gone from your Google Photos in the cloud, as well as the ones locally stored on your phone? Or is it just the locally stored photos that are gone?

 

[EODK9Trainer]

So you're saying the photos are gone from your Google Photos in the cloud, as well as the ones locally stored on your phone? Or is it just the locally stored photos that are gone?

Just the photos on the phone. Oddly maybe 10-15 were left from a few albums.

 

[B. Diddy]

Do you recall if you selected the Free Up Space option in Google Photos? This would delete any locally stored photo or video that Google Photos knows is already backed up to the cloud.

 

[EODK9Trainer]

Do you recall if you selected the Free Up Space option in Google Photos? This would delete any locally stored photo or video that Google Photos knows is already backed up to the cloud.

Not intentionally. I did look at Google Photos which I don't believe I've done before. I had no intention of removing anything before asking how to do this. If I did can they be restored or are they gone for good? I assume they are in Google Photos but was afraid to mess with it. I have many pics of our two grandsons when they were very young I'm hoping to still have.

 

[B. Diddy]

You can always re-download pics from Google Photos to your phone, but it has to be done for each individual photos, not en masse.

Since you were looking at Google Photos before this happened and saw the warnings about running low on Google Drive/Photos storage space, I'm guessing that you accidentally selected that Free Up Space option, but I still could be wrong. There might be other system settings or 3rd party apps that can automatically delete certain files to "clean" the phone, but those shouldn't touch your camera roll folder (/DCIM/Camera). Files that might be cleaned would be in the /Downloads directory.

 

[EODK9Trainer]

You can always re-download pics from Google Photos to your phone, but it has to be done for each individual photos, not en masse.

Since you were looking at Google Photos before this happened and saw the warnings about running low on Google Drive/Photos storage space, I'm guessing that you accidentally selected that Free Up Space option, but I still could be wrong. There might be other system settings or 3rd party apps that can automatically delete certain files to "clean" the phone, but those shouldn't touch your camera roll folder (/DCIM/Camera). Files that might be cleaned would be in the /Downloads directory.

Thanks for the reply. I can live with the pics not going back on my phone although a few albums in there were used once in a while. I just want to be able to save the pics from Google Photos to a Portable Hard Drive as well if this is possible.

 

[John Ocampos]

Hi there,

I just came across your post and wanted to express my sympathy for the situation you're facing with your lost photos. It's something many of us fear, and seeing it happen can be really distressing. However, there might still be a few steps you can take to try and recover your photos.

Firstly, if you haven't already, check your device's 'Recently Deleted' folder. Many devices automatically move deleted photos to a temporary folder where they stay for a certain period before being permanently deleted.

If your photos aren't there, and you've used a cloud service like Google Photos or Samsung Cloud, there's a chance your photos were backed up automatically. Log into your account on a computer or another device to see if you can find them there.

Another option could be to use a data recovery tool. There are several reputable applications available that can help recover deleted files from your phone's internal storage. However, it's important to act quickly because using your phone can overwrite the data, making recovery more difficult.

Lastly, if your photos were stored on an SD card, there are specific tools designed to recover data from these cards. Removing the SD card from your phone and using a card reader on a computer might give you the best chance to recover your photos using these tools.

 

[B. Diddy]

Thanks for the reply. I can live with the pics not going back on my phone although a few albums in there were used once in a while. I just want to be able to save the pics from Google Photos to a Portable Hard Drive as well if this is possible.

You can use Google Takeout to export your photos: https://9to5google.com/2022/03/14/using-takeout-to-export-your-google-photos-what-you-need-to-know/

 

[shelby_alan]

Using Google Takeout can be one option for sure, but the only limitation is they may not come organized into albums or folders as you'd like. Talking about the "free up space" thing, this option only deletes the photos from your device (to free up space) but the full quality photos can be accessed (if they were backed up correctly) through the Google Photos app. And yes, you can opt for few genuine data recovery software's in recovering back your memories. But it will only work if your deleted files are not overwritten because of using your phone