Accidentally Deleted Photos on Samsung? 5 Ways to Recover Them

Accidentally deleted photos on Samsung? Don’t worry, there are several ways to get them back. Whether your pictures are still in the Trash, saved in a cloud backup, or permanently deleted, you may still have a chance to recover them. In this guide, you’ll find out how to recover deleted photos from the Samsung phone using five different methods.

How to Recover Deleted Photos on Samsung

Check out our five tips on how to recover deleted photos from Android, depending on your situation. If you recently deleted your pictures, start by checking the Trash in Samsung Gallery or My Files. If you’ve already emptied the Trash or more than 30 days have passed, you can try restoring your photos from Google Photos, OneDrive, or a Smart Switch backup, provided you backed them up before deletion. Now if your photos are permanently deleted and you have no backups, data recovery software will help.

Method 1. Recover Recently Deleted Photos on Samsung From Gallery 

Сheck the Trash in the Gallery app first to find your recently deleted images. Samsung keeps deleted photos and videos there for 30 days before permanently removing them.

Here’s how to recover deleted photos from Gallery:

1. On your Samsung phone, find the Gallery app on your Home screen and tap it. If you can’t find it, swipe up from the Home screen to open the app drawer, type Gallery in the search bar, and select the app.
2. Tap Menu (three horizontal lines) near the bottom of the Gallery screen, then select Trash from the list of available options.
3. Scroll through the deleted photos and videos to find the pictures you want to recover. Tap Edit in the upper-right corner and select the photos you need, or choose All upper-left corner to select everything.
   
4. Tap Restore at the bottom of the screen. Samsung will move the selected pictures out of the Trash and return them to your Gallery.
5. Return to the main Gallery screen and open Pictures or Albums to find your recovered photos. Check their original dates or albums if they don’t appear at the top of the gallery.

Method 2. Recover Deleted Samsung Photos Using Data Recovery Software

Data recovery software scans storage devices for traces of deleted files and attempts to recover photos that haven’t been overwritten. If you’ve never used such tools before and aren’t sure which one to pick, this guide can help you choose photo recovery software.

For this method, Disk Drill will be used as an example. It has a simple, intuitive interface, performs well in photo recovery, and is often recommended by users who have successfully recovered lost pictures from supported storage devices. Its Mac version supports Android recovery, although scanning a Samsung phone’s internal storage requires root access.

Note: If you use a microSD card on your Samsung phone and the deleted photos were stored on it, remove the card from your phone and connect it to your computer using a card reader or a built-in SD card slot. Then select the microSD card in Disk Drill and scan it for deleted photos.

To recover permanently deleted photos on Samsung with Disk Drill:

1. Download Disk Drill from the official website and install it on your Mac. Once the installation is complete, open the application.
2. Connect your Samsung phone to your Mac using a compatible USB cable. Make sure your phone is unlocked and keep it connected throughout the recovery process.
3. In Disk Drill, look at the left sidebar and find the Android Devices section. Click it to see the connected Android devices. Your Samsung phone may initially appear as an MTP device, so you’ll need to enable USB debugging before Disk Drill can communicate with it properly.
4. On your Samsung phone, find and open the Settings app. Scroll all the way down to the bottom of the Settings menu and tap About phone. On the next screen, find Software information and tap it to open the details about your phone’s software.

5. Scroll down the Software information screen until you find Build number. Tap it several times in a row until a message appears confirming that Developer Mode has been enabled. If your phone asks for your PIN, password, or pattern, enter it to complete the process.
6. Return to the main Settings screen and scroll down to the very bottom again. You should now see a new section called Developer options. 
   
7. Tap it, then scroll down until you find the Debugging section. Locate USB debugging, turn on the switch next to it, and tap OK when a confirmation message appears.
   
8. Return to Disk Drill on your Mac and check whether it recognizes your Samsung phone. A notification asking Allow USB debugging? should appear on your phone’s screen. Select Always allow from this computer and tap Allow to authorize the connection. If the notification doesn’t appear or Disk Drill still cannot detect your phone, disconnect the USB cable and connect it again.

   
   

9. Now, you need to root your Samsung phone to give Disk Drill direct access to its internal memory and allow it to scan for deleted photos. Rooting means gaining full control over your Android operating system. Rooting methods vary depending on the Samsung model and Android version, so search online for root Android [YourDeviceModel] to find suitable instructions.
10. After rooting your Samsung phone, reconnect it to your Mac and return to Disk Drill. Once Disk Drill detects your device, a request to grant root access may appear on your phone’s screen. Tap Grant or Allow to give Disk Drill access to your phone’s internal memory. If no request appears, check your root manager’s settings and grant the necessary permissions manually.
11. In Disk Drill, open the Android Devices section from the left sidebar. Find your Samsung phone and expand its list of available storage partitions. Select the partition you want to scan and click Search for lost data. Disk Drill will begin searching for deleted photos and other recoverable files.
12. Once the scan is complete, click Review found items to examine the results. Open the Pictures category to filter the results and look for your deleted photos. Click individual images to preview them and check whether they can be recovered.
    
13. Select the photos you want to restore and click Recover. Choose a folder on your Mac or another storage device where you want to save the recovered pictures, then confirm your selection. Once the recovery is complete, open the destination folder to check your photos.

Note: You can also try recovery apps that work directly on your phone, such as DiskDigger. However, these apps require root access to perform a full scan and recover original photos. Without root access, they can retrieve only smaller preview versions of the original photos.

Method 3. Find Deleted Photos Using Samsung My Files

If your pictures aren’t available in Gallery, check the My Files app. Your photos may still exist in another folder or in the My Files Trash.

Here’s how to find deleted photos on Samsung with Trash in My Files:

1. Swipe up from your Samsung Home screen to open the app drawer, find the Samsung folder, and tap My Files. If you don’t see the app, use the search bar at the top of the screen to find it.
2. On the My Files main screen, scroll down until you find the Utilities section. Tap Trash to open the folder containing recently deleted files.
3. Scroll through the deleted items to find your missing photos. Tap Select in the upper-right corner and choose the pictures you want to recover. Alternatively, touch and hold one of the photos, then tap any additional pictures to select them.

4. Tap Restore at the bottom of the screen to return the selected photos to their original locations.
5. Open Gallery or return to My Files to check whether your recovered photos are available again.

Method 4. Recover Samsung Photos From Cloud Backups

If you regularly backed up your pictures to Google Photos or OneDrive before deleting them, you will find copies of your missing photos here.

Option 1. Recover Deleted Photos From Google Photos

Here’s how to restore deleted photos on Samsung from Google Photos:

1. Find the Google Photos app on your Home screen or search for it in the app drawer. Open the app and tap your profile picture in the upper-right corner to make sure you’re signed in to the Google account you used for photo backups.
2. Return to the main Photos tab and scroll through your pictures to find the missing images. You can also tap the Search icon (magnifying glass) at the bottom of the screen to search for photos by date, place, or subject.
3. To restore the photos to your Samsung Gallery, touch and hold one of the pictures you want to recover, then tap any additional photos to select them. A toolbar will appear at the bottom of the screen. Find and tap Download to save the selected photos to your phone’s storage.
   
4. If the photos aren’t in your library, tap Collections at the bottom of the screen and select Trash at the top of the screen to view recently deleted pictures.
5. Touch and hold one of the photos you want to recover, then tap the other pictures you need to select them.
6. Tap Restore at the bottom of the screen. Google Photos will return the selected pictures to your photo library.

Option 2. Recover Deleted Photos From OneDrive

Here’s how recover deleted photos on Samsung from OneDrive:

1. Swipe up from your Samsung Home screen to open the app drawer, type OneDrive in the search bar, and tap the app to open it. If you don’t have it installed, open the Play Store, search for Microsoft OneDrive, and tap Install.
2. Sign in with the Microsoft account you previously used to store your Samsung photos.
3. Tap Photos or Files at the top of the screen and browse your Gallery, Albums, or My Files to find the missing pictures. You can also tap the Search icon at the bottom of the screen to look for specific photos.
4. Once you find the missing pictures, touch and hold one of them, then tap any additional photos you want to recover. A toolbar will appear at the bottom of the screen. Tap the Download icon to save the selected pictures to your Samsung phone.
   
5. Once the download is complete, open the Gallery app on your Samsung phone to find the recovered photos.

Method 5. Restore Deleted Samsung Photos From a Smart Switch Backup

If you created a Samsung Smart Switch backup before deleting your photos, you can use it to restore them to your phone. This method requires the original backup stored on your computer or an external storage device.

To recover Samsung photos from a backup on a Windows PC or Mac:

1. Open Samsung Smart Switch on your computer. You can find it in the Start menu on Windows or the Applications folder on Mac.
2. Connect your Samsung phone to the computer using a USB cable. Unlock your phone and tap Allow if a notification asks for permission to access your files.
3. Once Smart Switch detects your device, click Restore in the main program window to open the available recovery options.
4. Click Select your backup data to view the backups saved on your computer. If several backups are available, select one created before the photos were deleted.
5. Review the available data categories and select Photos or Images, if included in the backup. Deselect other categories if you only want to restore your pictures.
6. Click Restore now to start transferring the selected files to your Samsung phone. Keep the USB cable connected until Smart Switch confirms that the restoration is complete.
7. Click OK to close the completion window, safely disconnect your phone, and open Gallery to check whether the deleted photos have returned.

What About Samsung Cloud? Can It Recover Deleted Photos?

Samsung Cloud is a built-in backup service that lets Samsung users save and restore contacts, messages, settings, and supported apps. While regular Samsung Cloud backups don’t include photos or gaming screenshots from Gallery, they can help restore deleted apps. So, if you accidentally deleted a mobile game from your Samsung phone, you may be able to recover it, provided it was included in a backup created before deletion.

However, restoring a game doesn’t necessarily bring back your progress or achievements. To avoid losing them, link supported games to Google Play Games or the game’s own account so your progress can be saved separately.

Here’s how to restore a deleted game using Samsung Cloud:

1. Open Settings on your Samsung phone and tap your Samsung account at the very top of the screen.
2. Scroll down and select Samsung Cloud.
3. Scroll down to find Restore data and tap it. If you have several backups, select the one created before you deleted the game.
4. Find the Apps category and check the box next to it. Then tap the arrow beside Apps to expand the list of backed-up applications. Find and select the game you want to restore.
5. Tap Restore at the bottom of the screen. When the Install backed up apps prompt appears, tap Install to reinstall the selected game.

How to Prevent Photo Loss on Samsung Phones

To reduce the risk of losing important photos in the future, follow these simple tips:

• Double-check before deleting photos. Review the pictures you’ve selected before tapping Delete, especially when removing multiple files at once. Also, avoid emptying the Trash until you’re sure you no longer need those photos.
• Enable automatic cloud backups. Use Google Photos or OneDrive to automatically back up your pictures. This way, you’ll have copies stored in the cloud if something happens to your phone. Remember that deleting synced photos may also remove them from the cloud, depending on the service.
• Keep extra copies on another storage device. Regularly transfer important photos to your computer, external drive. Having copies in different locations reduces the risk of permanent photo loss.
• Use a microSD card. If your Samsung phone has a microSD card slot, save your important photos on the card. Deleted photos are easier to recover from a microSD card using data recovery software, with a higher chance of successful recovery.
• Check your backups regularly. Open your cloud storage or backup folder occasionally to make sure your latest photos are actually saved. Don’t assume every picture has been backed up, especially if your phone has limited storage or an unstable internet connection.

Conclusion

Recovering deleted photos from a Samsung phone is often possible, but your options depend on when and how the pictures were lost. To restore recently deleted photos, check the Trash in Gallery or My Files. If your pictures have been permanently lost but you have backups, you can restore them from Google Photos, OneDrive, or Smart Switch. Don’t know how to retrieve permanently deleted photos without a backup? Data recovery software like Disk Drill will help you recover your lost pictures. To prevent similar situations in the future, make sure to back up your photos regularly so you can easily restore them if they are accidentally deleted or lost.

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