Did program for retrieving deleted files try to root my note 5?

[Keegen]

I have a Verizon galaxy note 5. Thinking I was deleting one photo, I accidentally deleted my whole camera folder. I tried using a 3rd party PC program to retrieve the deleted files. When the retrieval process hung up at 90% finished I started looking for information about the program and found that it doesn't work without the phone being rooted. So I figured my photos were lost (gutted about that, lots of grandkid pics there) and restarted my phone. But now when I boot my phone, the start screen has an icon of a unlocked lock with the word custom under it. There are 2 new icons on my notification bar, one says VO))LTE and the other kinda looks like two chat bubbles mashed together. My Verizon data is spotty at best and when I try to open my secure folder it says that it's been locked because of unauthorized software on my phone. I guess my question is, did the file retrieval software root, or try to root, my phone? The software was marketed as file retrieval and did not say anything about rooting. Is there anyway to get the phone to a state where I can get back into the knox secure folder? I don't have a problem rooting the phone, just would have been nice to have a heads up to back up the secure folder. Also, I now get a notification that says "Security notice: Unauthorized actions have been detected. Restart your phone to undo any changes" nothing happens when rebooting.
Thanks in advance for pointing me in the right direction.

PS Anyone have an idea on the new notification icons and how to get rid of them?

 

[ashune]

Sounds like it did try to root your phone/unlock the bootloader or something like that. The VoLTE icon means that you phone and carrier support Voice over LTE, a technology that enables making calls over your LTE network. You can read more about what VoLTE is here.

 

[Keegen]

Anyway to reverse the process? Or at this point should I just go ahead load a good custom rom? Any idea what the other icon on the notification bar is?

 

[Mooncatt]

What specific program did you use to try the file recovery? That may help us hell what happened.

Did the phone reboot at any time while trying to use the program? If so, maybe it was trying to root (no way to know for sure without knowing which program you used), but that is a complicated process that is different for every phone. If it did not reboot, then you shouldn't be rooted because that is needed, often several times.

Not sure what that other swirly icon is, though.

 

[Mooncatt]

I just had another thought. Do you have Google Photos? If so, that has an unlimited backup option for your photos. If you set that up, then your photos could still be in the cloud.

 

[Rukbat]

Since it's not possible to undelete a file unless the phone is rooted, it most likely did try to root the phone - not completely successfully.

As for the ROM, read [Samsung] How to flash Stock ROM via ODIN . You'll find the Marshmallow ROM for the S5 for Verizon at this page.

(Copy everything to the PC first, because flashing a ROM wipes your phone. (Or have a look around at https://forum.xda-developers.com/verizon-galaxy-note5 for a "no-wipe tar".)

 

[Keegen]

The original software was dr.fone, and have since used disk digger. And yes, I believe it did reboot and did root my phone because i'm now able to find deleted photos. unfortunately, most of what was recovered was corrupted or very small thumbnails. I guess at this point there is no reason to do a factory reset and go back to stock. I will check out the links provided by Rukbat for installing a good ROM. Thanks for your help all.