How did my Oneplus 5 instantly delete all media on my device?

[Android Central Question]

Hi there.
I have a Oneplus 5 running Android 8.1.
Today I connected this to my Windows PC via usb cable to copy over my pictures. After I deleted a file which I believed to be called thumbdata. or similar from my pictures folder (on the phone in the android file structure) suddenly and instantly all kinds of media is missing of my phone.
The folder Pictures, Movies, Music, Downloads, DCIM and probably some other have completely disappeared. The folder Whatsapp is still there but all subfolders with Media, Backup, Databases are emtpy.
The phone storage basically only contains the folder android (all app including cache seem to be working, prime video downloads are still in there too)
and the folder WhatsApp with all subfolders there but empty.

Can you please help me to explain what happened there.
All input appreciated.

Kind regards
jim

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! Are you using a file manager app to look for the directories?

 

[jimmyju]

Thanks for having me.
And yes I have used the oneplus file explorer as well as an app called diskusage and the windows explorer connected in file transfer mode.

 

[B. Diddy]

That's really strange -- thumbdata should only be for the thumbnails in the /DCIM/.thumbnails directory. Did you have a lot of photos and videos saved to the phone before this? If so, can you tell if the phone's free storage suddenly dropped a lot, corresponding to deletion of those files? Or is it still about the same?

 

[jimmyju]

As I said I'm not 100% what the file was called. I rather think something like thumbDATA. And I think it was not in DCIM but in the folder Pictures where Oneplus puts Screenshots and Collections.
And yes I had large amounts of photos on there which I moved today to my PC before deleting of the phone. So I also wanted to delete leftover thumbsnails.

Unfortunately I wasn't done copying all my important thing yet.

The missing data is probably corresponding with now 'free' space.


And yes I agree it is strange.
(via Windows explorer) I was basically in Pictures. Opened Screenshots in a new window. Marked and copied everything. Deleted that 'thumb stuff' in a previous window. Wanted to paste the marked Screenshots on the HDD and get an error 'no files'.

Unplugged phone. Gallery was empty. Apart from Recently Deleted which had grey tiles (empty thumbnail?) but clicking on them meant file doesn't exist.
Go in Whatsapp. Seams to be working but no media files to open. Go in settings. says last chat backup 'never'. File explorer. Whatapp file structure is still there but everything empty or .nomedia
All folders in root of storage are gone completely. Movies, Music, GCam, Downloads ect. Downloads contained all kinds of stuff.
The only untouch media seems to be in Android/Apps/PrimeVideo/... I assume the whole Android folder is intact.

Thank you very much for your support.
By the way the phone in not rooted if that's important for recovery.

 

[Scott337]

Have you restarted your phone since deleting that file? I thought Android would recreate during the reboot process?

 

[B. Diddy]

It's hard to say what happened. There's always the possibility that you inadvertently went up one level too high and deleted a parent directory. Or that Windows Explorer glitched and deleted random directories. As Scott337 mentioned, does this persist after a reboot?

 

[jimmyju]

No change after reboot, sadly.

And even if I wanted, I wouldn't know how to clear all media in sub folders just by being in the wrong parent directory.

Sorry that that seem all quiet unbelievable. And without know what happened there unlikely chance for recovery?

And thanks again for the input.

 

[B. Diddy]

Sorry, the only other thing I can think of would be the methods described here: [Guide] Recovering Deleted Files - Android Forums at AndroidCentral.com

 

[jimmyju]

Thanks. Red through all those options but apparently all need root and rooting now will wipe everything anyways... if i understand that correctly.

 

[jimmyju]

UPDATE:
The phone still doesn't show any media apart from a recent screenshot.

But in the folder DCIM (newly created by the gallery or cam app I guess) there is now a 1.7gb sized file
.thumbdata4-- 4374444.

Can anyone make sense out of this or give hope that all files are still somewhere?
Cheers

 

[somepqr]

Hi Jimmy

i am also facing the same issue... did you came out with any solution... please share...

my 9.4 GB data went off and only having those two thumbdata files each 4.7 each.

Dont know what to do..................