Recover files from Galaxy s21 after reset?

[Android Central Question]

The other day, when I went to use my phone it gave me a page focused on accepting terms and conditions. I was unable, via restart, turn off and start, etc. to clear that page. It also didn’t reference T&C’s for an app. Long story short, it was the terms and conditions for initializing a new phone; in other words, my phone had been reset.

After nearly a year’s use without issues, I don’t have any idea what caused the phone to reset. My best guess is that it was 3-4 days after an OS upgrade, but I would have expected it to fail then immediately after the upgrade.

At any rate, I also discovered that my backups were incomplete. Samsung Notes was not backed up via Google or Samsung and more recent photos were not backed up. So, my question is whether or not either can be recovered with file recovery software or some other means. I tried Recuva; however, I don’t think it sees the phone as a drive. There’s a fair bit of sotware listed on line that claims to be able to recover files if the phone is rooted. I have no idea whether or not they really work and also have never rooted a phone.
Please give me some advice on this. How might I try to recover the Samsung Note files and the photos?

 

[lyingfromyou]

I'm not sure that's possible if the device has been factory reset. If there's no SD card which we know there isn't, then it's probably bad news bears..

I'm no genius but you'd probably need some pretty powerful (not free) tools to do what you're talking about.

If you're successful, please report back! Sorry I wasn't much help.

 

[Annie_M]

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[mustang7757]

Doesn't look in your favor to retrieve those that weren't back up , the only thing I can suggest going forward if you have important stuff back up in multiple places .

 

[lyingfromyou]

Doesn't look in your favor to retrieve those that weren't back up , the only thing I can suggest going forward if you have important stuff back up in multiple places .

Facts! Thankfully I haven't had to utilize it yet, but for $1.99 a month I get 100 GB of cloud storage from Google. As you can tell I'm not hurting for space. Very fair price for peace of mind!

 

[mustang7757]

Facts! Thankfully I haven't had to utilize it yet, but for $1.99 a month I get 100 GB of cloud storage from Google. As you can tell I'm not hurting for space. Very fair price for peace of mind!

Same here i got that plan

 

[Johnnyz2]

Thanks for the tip on the extra storage pricing!

From a different forum, someone suggested that Samsung and/or Android now actively wipe the phone (overwrite files rather than delete file index etc.) which makes the files unrecoverable.

Does anyone know if that's true?

 

[mustang7757]

Thanks for the tip on the extra storage pricing!

From a different forum, someone suggested that Samsung and/or Android now actively wipe the phone (overwrite files rather than delete file index etc.) which makes the files unrecoverable.

Does anyone know if that's true?

Welcome to AC!

Its possible but not 100%

 

[Johnnyz2]

Do you mean you are not sure that the internal storage is completely overwritten?

 

[mustang7757]

Correct

 

[mustang7757]

With each Android version something always changing I don't keep up with that information

 

[mustang7757]

I found this from Samsung page , once factory reset is done it's not recoverable guess it's part of security so no one can get your stuff so looks like it's overwritten your data
https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...laxy%2Fwhat-is%2Fhard-reset%2F&token=eeU_Aq2V

 

[Johnnyz2]

I tried to find out the same from Samsung and couldn't find a definitive statement. Thanks for finding it and sharing it!

 

[mustang7757]

Your welcome!