Why do many of the photos in my Galaxy s2 gallery show up as black boxes that I cannot open?

[AC Question]

I have several pictures (hundreds) in the gallery of my Galaxy S2 that have changed from normal photos to black boxes. I had been able to open them previously, but now nothing happens. I've cleared all of the caches and done restarts and removing the battery, but nothing seems to help. I've got plenty of memory available also. When I connect to my laptop, it is as if the pictures do not exist. I cannot find them anywhere to try to recover them through a different program or app. How can I recover my pictures and videos I've taken.

 

[KeepItReal]

These pictures have gotten corrupted in some fashion. Are they on an SD Card?

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Tryinagain]

Some of the pictures are on the SD but many are on the phone. These on the phone are the ones I really need to retrieve.

 

[KeepItReal]

Ye-ouch. Copy all your data/pictures at once to your pc. If you are with Verizon, use Verizon Cloud. Or download Samsung Kies to you pc, and use that to backup your files. If your pictures are turning grey, they are getting corrupted and may never be recovered. After you have safely copied all your precious data over, your may be able to connect your phone to a pc, and run a file recovery program (Google it, I have used Recuva successfully) against your files in the internal memory. If you successfully get some to recover, get them to a safe place. You would then perform the alternate version of Factory Reset. Google that too! It will be a series of button combinations to press too get to a menu to Factory Reset. Good luck!

Posted via the Android Central App