Recover Deleted SD Card Photos/Is SD Card Still Ok to Use?

[porcelain]

Okay, in need of some major help here. I have seen some other threads on this, but none of the mentioned software has worked for me and I'm in quite a panic trying to figure out how on earth to recover all of the photos I accidentally deleted from my GS4's SD card.

Does anyone know of any software for Mac that can help me recover my photos? Or is there an Android app? Something? Most of the software I find is for Windows and a lot of other software looks like it's from sketchy websites. I have downloaded Wondershare Data Recovery EaseUS, but neither will pick up my GS4 and I don't have a card reader. I need something that will find my photos just by hooking up my phone to my Mac.

Any advice?

Edit: I am NOT rooted. It seems like all Android apps require root. I have no idea what to do at this point. I have unmounted the SD card as to prevent anything from overwriting it.

And another edit: Since all the files have been deleted, but a lot of them are damaged (caused by deletion or failing to unmount SD card?), should I buy a new card or is mine still okay to use? I don't want it to mess up future photos, if that's possible.

 

[Thom]

Thread moved from Android Lounge to the forum dedicated to your phone. This is where the majority of the users of your phone will visit.

... Thom

 

[argedion]

Okay, in need of some major help here. I have seen some other threads on this, but none of the mentioned software has worked for me and I'm in quite a panic trying to figure out how on earth to recover all of the photos I accidentally deleted from my GS4's SD card.

Does anyone know of any software for Mac that can help me recover my photos? Or is there an Android app? Something? Most of the software I find is for Windows and a lot of other software looks like it's from sketchy websites. I have downloaded Wondershare Data Recovery EaseUS, but neither will pick up my GS4 and I don't have a card reader. I need something that will find my photos just by hooking up my phone to my Mac.

Any advice?

Edit: I am NOT rooted. It seems like all Android apps require root. I have no idea what to do at this point. I have unmounted the SD card as to prevent anything from overwriting it.

Try PhotoRec it works with Mac as well. However you need to get a card reader and remove the sdcard from the phone this is going to be the best way to ensure you get recovery. Most recovery apps just are not ready for working through the phone but on the card / disk itself. The only app I can think of to use is a root app so it won't do you no good not being rooted. Personally I would remove the card and not use it until I did recovery. Just remember the more you write to it the less chance of a recovery. I see you unmounted it but I would remove it. You can get a good card reader for less than 10 dollars well worth the investment.

 

[porcelain]

Try PhotoRec it works with Mac as well. However you need to get a card reader and remove the sdcard from the phone this is going to be the best way to ensure you get recovery. Most recovery apps just are not ready for working through the phone but on the card / disk itself. The only app I can think of to use is a root app so it won't do you no good not being rooted. Personally I would remove the card and not use it until I did recovery. Just remember the more you write to it the less chance of a recovery. I see you unmounted it but I would remove it. You can get a good card reader for less than 10 dollars well worth the investment.

Oh, I did remove the card as well. Unfortunately, I completely forgot to unmount it originally and just took it out, which I know isn't the best idea. Though I'm keeping my fingers crossed it didn't mess with anything because I've accidentally forgotten to unmount before and there were no issues.

Thank you for your help though! The EaseUS app I had come across is supposed to work with your phone connected to your computer, but it just wasn't doing anything for me. I'm actually going to get a card reader and try it that way. And I'll definitely look into that app. Hopefully I can get some of them back. Next time I'll back photos up periodically. Lesson learned.

 

[Podivin]

... Next time I'll back photos up periodically. Lesson learned.

After I learned MY lesson, I set up Dropbox to automatically upload to the cloud all new pics taken with my phone. I'm sure other services do that same thing, I just already had Dropbox and turned on that option. Since I have two computers that automatically sync anything in the Dropbox, my pictures are as safe as I can make them be, without actually moving them to an external drive (which I do periodically - to two different drives )

 

[porcelain]

Well, I had completely forgotten I got a card reader when I bought my GS4 and the SD card. I used the card reader and EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard since I had downloaded that after this happened.

I was able to recover a lot of photos. Some were missing and some were damaged. No big deal. At least I got a majority of them back (I think. I'm not even sure how many photos I had!) But it makes me wonder where all the more recent photos went. I accidentally deleted them this morning (Friday) around 1 a.m. and the most recent photos were from Thursday morning. Doing a deep recover now to see what happens.

Thanks everyone for the help!

 

[porcelain]

Well, apparently things can be deceiving. While there were photos that were obviously damaged when you looked at the thumbnail, others appeared to be fine. Now that I'm going through the photos and actually opening them... Most are damaged. I don't know if it's because I accidentally took the SD card out without unmounting it or if this would have happened anyway. Oh well. Nothing I can do now. :\

Also... Is this SD card still okay to use or should I buy a new one? Wasn't sure if there was the potential for future photos to be damaged.