Help pics/videos missing from storage...

[AdelitaCampbel]

I am trying not to freak out here...

This is my first post so please forgive me if I leave out information.

I had a system update that I installed 2 days ago (no idea if this is why I am having this problem).

I have NO SD card in my phone.

All pics and videos taken get put on the internal storage.

Yesterday, I took some pictures like normal and when I went to look at them maybe an hour or two later, ALL of my photos were gone except the ones I had just taken. I started to panic and show my husband what was going on. He took a couple pictures of the kitchen and when I went to look at them (a mere 15 mins later), the ones I had taken earlier in the day were gone AND the ones in the kitchen were gone. ZERO photos on my phone can be found.

I started frantically googling what the problem might be but all I have found is take out the SD card and remount it...but I have no SD card.

I downloaded quickpix app and can see ALL my photos via the app! But on the phone's album, there is nada. I also plugged my phone in to my computer and can't find any pictures in the DCIM folder or anywhere.

So before I take it to Sprint, I thought I would post here.

Has this happened to anyone before? My daughter just turned 18 months and I have all of her pictures on there! I am devastated that her pics might be gone forever...

Any insight is much appreciated.

Thanks
Dee

 

[marctronixx]

dont head to sprint. you have the tools at your disposable to fix your issue, and i will help.

do you have a file explorer app, such as ES file explorer? if not, download it from the store and use it to navigate it to internal storage.

first, what is your internal storage capacity? go to settings and storage and share this with the class.

i would recommend that you install an SD card. they are very cheap these days. also have you setup your dropbox account? this will also automatically upload your photos and videos taken from the cameras imager. this will give you a backup option in the cloud.

 

[PyroSporker]

I am trying not to freak out here...

This is my first post so please forgive me if I leave out information.

I had a system update that I installed 2 days ago (no idea if this is why I am having this problem).

I have NO SD card in my phone.

All pics and videos taken get put on the internal storage.

Yesterday, I took some pictures like normal and when I went to look at them maybe an hour or two later, ALL of my photos were gone except the ones I had just taken. I started to panic and show my husband what was going on. He took a couple pictures of the kitchen and when I went to look at them (a mere 15 mins later), the ones I had taken earlier in the day were gone AND the ones in the kitchen were gone. ZERO photos on my phone can be found.

I started frantically googling what the problem might be but all I have found is take out the SD card and remount it...but I have no SD card.

I downloaded quickpix app and can see ALL my photos via the app! But on the phone's album, there is nada. I also plugged my phone in to my computer and can't find any pictures in the DCIM folder or anywhere.

So before I take it to Sprint, I thought I would post here.

Has this happened to anyone before? My daughter just turned 18 months and I have all of her pictures on there! I am devastated that her pics might be gone forever...

Any insight is much appreciated.

Thanks
Dee

Welcome. I feel badly about your situation, must be a terrible feeling.
Don't worry too much, the images are probably not gone or deleted. The pictures are probably still there

Normally I would have a few suggestions to try, however since you are dealing with extremely delicate data and I'm not physically there to help I'm not going to suggest any fixes to try for fear of overwriting the data.

Just because they are not showing in the gallery does not mean they are gone. Sometimes the Gallery application can have hidden folders or malfunction and not display things correctly. It is a side issue, your main focus should be the image files.

Quickpix could possibly be showing the files from a new file directory, or there could be thumbnail files leftover that this application is finding and displaying for you. Another side issue of sorts.

I would recommend highly not taking any more pictures. If in fact they were deleted, there is a slight chance that taking a new pictures or adding new data could overwrite the location of previous pictures which you are wanting to find and maybe recover.

The update could be a significant detail here, during an update they possibly could have been temporarily moved or cached to install the new software. Not sure where this takes place or where they would be stored (they normally get moved and put back), but just know that it is a function of some updates.

I also would not take it to Sprint. The chance of them losing your data forever is too risky in my opinion. You would be better off if you know a friend or acquaintance who knows quite a bit about phones and can investigate for you without modifying the current set up until it has been determined the pictures are found or were indeed deleted. If you find the images well then success! If you find no trace or find that they were deleted there are some recovery options out there.

For the future I recommend implementing a plan for scheduled physical back ups. And as a golden rule always always always do a back up before installing an update or modifying the phone.

Hope this all works out the easy way and you find the files.

 

[AdelitaCampbel]

Thanks for the response!

I downloaded the app you suggested.

Internal storage:
Total 2.09 GB
Available 1.31 GB

Phone storage:
Total 9.93 GB
Available 2.38 GB

Thank you for helping me! I am listening closely.

And my husband ordered me an sd card online that will be here in a few days. I turned google + on to upload pics as I take them but I am afraid to take them now because they disappear.

 

[marctronixx]

you should go ahead and use dropbox. its free for 2 years and gives you 25GB of storage.

you can also use photobucket. it is a free app that uploads photos to your own photobucket account you set up.

so your internal storage is fine. seems you have the files there.

with ES file explorer,

navigate to /sdcard/DCIM. you should see your images there. of you may have a "pictures" folder*also. try there.

but yes DO NOT TAKE MORE photos unless you use Dropbox, photobucket or some other upload service app.

 

[AdelitaCampbel]

Using ES explorer, I can see the images under sdcard/dcim. But how do I get them off my phone?

And with dropbox, are the photos private that get uploaded?

Once I get the pictures off my phone, I want to do a hard rest so I can start using my camera again. Is this a dumb idea?

Does anyone know why I can't find/see my photos when I plug the phone into the computer? I am now forever afraid to use the camera which is the main reason I bought this phone...

 

[marctronixx]

go to dropbox.com. they have a video tutorial that shows you how to use it.

to directly answer, the storage is private. you can set up a folder and share it with other dropbox users if you choose to.

a discussion here about dropbox:

http://androidforums.com/htc-evo-4g-lte/548944-what-size-dropbox-storage-comes-htc-evo-4g-lte.html


so we see the photos and such are not deleted. this is why i asked you to use this explorer app.

just attach your phone (make sure you turn off fastboot) to the computer. you should see a popup on your phone. select "storage device" or whatever it says (my memory escapes me right now--im watching Ralphie May on netflix...).

then go to the drive on your computer, and drag and drop files to your computer.

see here for more info:

http://androidforums.com/htc-evo-4g-lte/555046-mount-disk-drive-transfer-files-etc.html

if you want to be truly wireless, I use wifi file explorer pro. https://play.google.com/store/apps/...mNvbS5kb29ibG91LldpRmlGaWxlRXhwbG9yZXJQUk8iXQ..

you can see your phones files and folders from your computers browser.

 

[PyroSporker]

Using ES explorer, I can see the images under SDcard/DCIM. But how do I get them off my phone?

And with Dropbox, are the photos private that get uploaded?

Once I get the pictures off my phone, I want to do a hard rest so I can start using my camera again. Is this a dumb idea?

Does anyone know why I can't find/see my photos when I plug the phone into the computer? I am now forever afraid to use the camera which is the main reason I bought this phone...

I'm glad you can see the images there. Like we suspected that means they are probably still there and not deleted.

Any update for us on the final resolution? Crisis averted? Did your MicroSD card arrive?

 

[ducecoop]

I bought this phone about 4 months ago but then I went to Asia and really could only use it as a camera.
I would make a habit of dumping pictures from the camera to my laptop daily, just in case something happened to the phone.
I would simple plug the phone in my laptop, tell it to be a disk drive them open in windows (Removable drive/DCIM/100Media) and copy off the phone
Well after about 2 weeks of doing that my images quit showing up in that location. The new images are on the phone (Look in the gallery app or the Photo app and all are there.
When I open Astro on the phone it seems to find my images here:
mnt/sdcard/DCMI/100 media?
So I am assuming somehow the pictures started being saved to the SD card instead of local memory. SO, if this path (Removable drive/DCIM/100Media)) is not to my SD card how do I get to it?
OH! and I did try removing the SD card and plug it direct to the laptop. Still could not find images
Any android peeps can help me out.

tia
duce

 

[Granite1]

Ok, when you plug your phone in, select media sync. It should show up as EVO or phone. Open that up and you should see two folders, one should be phone and one SD. Open the phone folder and find the folder named DCIM, they should be in that folder.

Somehow the phone defaulted to save the pictures to the internal storage partition. In Astro the internal partition is called sdcard, and the removeable sd card is named ext_sd.

Open the camera app and select the gear for the settings, then select storage, from here you can either choose the internal memory or the external sd card.

PS: Welcome to the forums if no one has welcomed you yet!

 

[ducecoop]

Granite1 thanks for the reply and the welcome.
But most of all thanks for finding my pictures.

duce

 

[Granite1]

Granite1 thanks for the reply and the welcome.
But most of all thanks for finding my pictures.

duce

No problem, that's why we're here. Feel free to ask any questions you run across, we're glad to help.

 

[AdelitaCampbel]

I'm glad you can see the images there. Like we suspected that means they are probably still there and not deleted.

Any update for us on the final resolution? Crisis averted? Did your MicroSD card arrive?

No nothing you guys suggested worked. I can still see all the photos on ES File Explorer. And I am using DropBox to auto upload photos and I can see them there. But I can't see them in my photo album and even when I plugged the phone in and used Media Sync, no photos there. I don't see a sdcard folder or a ex_sd card folder.

I am at a loss and I am on the verge of buying an iPhone...

 

[AdelitaCampbel]

And even trying to transfer files the way marctronixx suggested didn't work...

 

[AdelitaCampbel]

Also tried Granite's suggestion and when I plug my phone in via media sync and opening phone I don't see two folders named phone and SD. I see several dozen named data, dcim, downloads, music, movies, media ETC. I don't see an internal or external SD folder.

 

[Amy726]

When I connect my Evo to my laptop via USB cable, I can't find the pictures I've taken anywhere! They are stored on the SD card, and I can see other pictures that are there that were taken with my previous phone, but the Evo pics are not there. I made sure to "show hidden files." The file path is /mnt/sdcard/DCIM/100MEDIA. I cannot see this folder when I look a the files on the computer ("removable disk"). What am I doing wrong?

 

[PyroSporker]

When I connect my Evo to my laptop via USB cable, I can't find the pictures I've taken anywhere! They are stored on the SD card, and I can see other pictures that are there that were taken with my previous phone, but the Evo pics are not there. I made sure to "show hidden files."

The file path is /mnt/sdcard/DCIM/100MEDIA.

I cannot see this folder when I look a the files on the computer ("removable disk"). What am I doing wrong?

The file path that you have specified is for the internal storage of the phone.
I know it is confusing

Internal Storage/Phone Storage is the default location for photos and videos. Within the camera application there is a setting to change the storage location from the internal storage to the user added/removable MicroSD card.
And now in JellyBean, under Settings -> Storage -> Storage Settings you can toggle which storage location you would like to utilize as well.

The file path for the MicroSD card is /mnt/sdcard/ext_sd/DCIM/

In the current file structure the internal storage is designated as /sdcard/
And the added or removable MicroSD card is designated as /extsd/ or /sdcard2/

 

[jayadams22]

Hello all,

I took a video on my Sprint HTC EVO 4g lte and accidentally deleted it. Is there anyway to get that back? If so, please help.

Fonz

 

[htc4gevo]

Im having a similar problem except I did no factory reset. a years worth of photos (7gigs) + my sons first birthday simply vanished as I was attempting to locate the files via media sync & mount as HD option..
both my internal storage & SD card where almost full, and I have never been able to locate my photo files, I figured this was a bug
I noticed there where two DCIM directories on the internal storage, one was empty with only a "untitled" dir. the other with a few pictures..
I hit del. on the empty directory.. I got a warning that this couldn't be reversed so I hit "cancel".. Suddenly I had 7 gigs of free space, I checked for my photos through my camera app.... GONE !!! I almost collapsed .. the empty DCIM dir.. GONE !!! I canceled the delete so I don't think it was deleted, it was empty anyway, did my phone realize some kind of corrupt glitch and replaced this empty directory? please please help..

Im trying to run DATA RESCUE 3 on the internal storage but I am unable to mount the internal storage.. does anyone have any idea how to go about this.. can I create a disk image of the EVO LTE internal storage then scan it with DATA RESCUE ?

any ideas anyone ?.. I will PAY anyone who can recover these files or help me do so.. this is critical . thank you

 

[dustwun77]

Edit: Sadly, my idea did not pan out. Sorry about that.

Hello,

Hopefully someone here can help you.

I can certainly understand your concern. I recently deleted some pics I wish I hadn't. Nothing on your scale though.

Until you can find a resolution to this, I wouldn't take any more pics or add any music or apps or anything.

I had an idea that might be of use but have asked a more knowledgeable individual his opinion before I actually suggest it. would hate to make matters worse for you.

Hopefully will hear something soon.

Im having a similar problem except I did no factory reset. a years worth of photos (7gigs) + my sons first birthday simply vanished as I was attempting to locate the files via media sync & mount as HD option..
both my internal storage & SD card where almost full, and I have never been able to locate my photo files, I figured this was a bug
I noticed there where two DCIM directories on the internal storage, one was empty with only a "untitled" dir. the other with a few pictures..
I hit del. on the empty directory.. I got a warning that this couldn't be reversed so I hit "cancel".. Suddenly I had 7 gigs of free space, I checked for my photos through my camera app.... GONE !!! I almost collapsed .. the empty DCIM dir.. GONE !!! I canceled the delete so I don't think it was deleted, it was empty anyway, did my phone realize some kind of corrupt glitch and replaced this empty directory? please please help..

Im trying to run DATA RESCUE 3 on the internal storage but I am unable to mount the internal storage.. does anyone have any idea how to go about this.. can I create a disk image of the EVO LTE internal storage then scan it with DATA RESCUE ?

any ideas anyone ?.. I will PAY anyone who can recover these files or help me do so.. this is critical . thank you

 

[robintan478]

Spoiler

Im having a similar problem except I did no factory reset. a years worth of photos (7gigs) + my sons first birthday simply vanished as I was attempting to locate the files via media sync & mount as HD option..
both my internal storage & SD card where almost full, and I have never been able to locate my photo files, I figured this was a bug
I noticed there where two DCIM directories on the internal storage, one was empty with only a "untitled" dir. the other with a few pictures..
I hit del. on the empty directory.. I got a warning that this couldn't be reversed so I hit "cancel".. Suddenly I had 7 gigs of free space, I checked for my photos through my camera app.... GONE !!! I almost collapsed .. the empty DCIM dir.. GONE !!! I canceled the delete so I don't think it was deleted, it was empty anyway, did my phone realize some kind of corrupt glitch and replaced this empty directory? please please help..

Im trying to run DATA RESCUE 3 on the internal storage but I am unable to mount the internal storage.. does anyone have any idea how to go about this.. can I create a disk image of the EVO LTE internal storage then scan it with DATA RESCUE ?

any ideas anyone ?.. I will PAY anyone who can recover these files or help me do so.. this is critical . thank you

You may take a look at this guide which I found useful: DCIM folder recovery

hope this helps.

 

[jawaskow]

In similar fashion to other posters, I am trying not to panic . This is my first post so please forgive if I fail to give necessary information. I have an HTC EVO 4G LTE. earlier today I was trying to replace my SD card with a larger one to allow for more memory - I had filled my GB card and wanted to swap it for a 32GB.. I backed up the old SD card and inserted the newer one. The phone required me to format/encrypt the 32GB card in order to mount it. I did, then reset the phone to unencrypt to turn off the screen lock. After mounting the new SD card, all the pics and other data in my internal memory were gone.

I thought - no worries... the pictures would be uploaded to my google account for back up, but for some reason only the pictures on my SD card were backed up. There were no copies of the pics ( last 4 months) from my internal storage.

Is there any way to restore the pictures that were in my internal storage so I can back them up to Google?

I can see the internal storage on my PCS when I have my phone mounted via a USB cable, but recovery software can't access it since it isn't being assigned a drive letter.

Am I sunk? Is there any hope?

I can follow instructions well, but am only moderately android savvy.

Any advice appreciated.

 

[Fabiodriven]

This morning I made a short video that I wanted to share with some of my friends on another forum. When I hooked my phone up to my computer (via cord) it downloaded all of the pictures and videos out of my phone. The problem is, only two of about 9 videos actually uploaded into my computer. The rest just have screen shots of the opening scene and will not play. I tried to manually upload them with no success. The computer says there are no new files to share. So I deleted the pictures and videos off the computer that had already uploaded in hopes the phone would download again, and hopefully right this time. None of them will download now. I'd really like to get these pictures and videos on to my computer. Thanks for looking.

 

[littlepebs]

My Pic just disappeared !! I took one this morning a some yesterday and over the weekend. The one from this morning is here. Yesterday, over the weekend and many more are missing. where did they go???
PLEASE PLEASE HELP! family pic that can not be replaced. I have the Samsung S3