Help HELP Recovering Files on my android device

[Artefact]

Hello guys.

I'm kind of in trouble right now.

A few days ago I started transferring all the videos on my phone (Galaxy S7 Edge 7.0) to my computer because my phone was full to the last MB. So I was deleting those videos on my phone as soon as I was done transferring them to my computer.

Problem is I hit Ctrl + Z, thinking it would allow me to select the files I unselected by accident. But no, that goddamn Ctrl + Z key deleted like half of my videos just like that, and of course I had already deleted them from my phone. So everything sucks, I suck, windows sucks, and I'm so angry at myself.

Basically I tried running a lot of recovery programs on my computer, but found nothing. It's like that goddamn Ctrl +,Z key deleted everything by magic. No-thing. Not even one video. A trace of something. I tried Recuva, and things like that.

So I wanted to try recovery apps on my phone directly, but the problem is that :

- I can't install recovery apps ON my phone because I'm afraid it will write over the lost data
- My phone isn't rooted, so I can't really use any PC program to do it right ?

I'm kind of in a mess here. Thank you to anyone who tries helping my poor soul.

 

[svim]

Not knowing just which operating system you were actually using to move your files (Linux, or MacOS, or Windows), generally for most operating systems using Ctrl-z in a graphical user interface is for 'Undo', so that's unlikely to be the direct cause of those deletions. If you had inadvertently deleted those video files, using Ctrl-z probably won't work on deleted files, but if you 'moved' or 'copied' them it would attempt to do a restore to the previous state.
Anyway, if you're using Windows, deleting files via Windows Explorer may not actually result in those video files being deleted. Try using the 'My Files' app (the file manager app in your Apps menu) on your S7 Edge instead to confirm if those videos are or are not actually gone. Using a file manager on your phone is directly accessing your phone's storage media, using a file manager on a computer is just connecting remotely from a non-native OS.

If those files are gone, I don't have any real relevant suggestions to restore them. All I can add is to be sure to set up a backup solution so you don't lose anything else from that point onward. Google Photos is generally a photo library manager but it also has a auto-backup option for video in its Settings menu. Once set up, your photos and videos get backed up into your online Google account.
There's also Samsung's Smart Switch utility. It's not automatic in that you still need to connect your phone to a computer but Smart Switch can be used to backup all your files.
https://www.samsung.com/us/smart-switch/

 

[Dannydet]

Did you check inside the recycle bin on the PC?

 

[Artefact]

Thank you both for your replies. Yes, I checked the recycle bin. In fact, it's the first thing I did after that happened. I'm using Windows 10.

Yes it's actually the Ctrl + Z key that deleted those videos. It's like it "undid" the transfer from my phone thus deleting the videos.

Yes, I'm going to download a auto-backup program as suggested by you.

Don't you think I can get something back with a recovery program on my phone though ?

 

[Hadron]

I'd have thought you'd have more chance with a recovery program on the PC. The only way it shouldn't find something would be if they were never actually copied in the first place - nothing else makes sense.

Recovering from the phone's internal storage is unlikely though. If they were on a removable card, no problem: card reader + recuva, job done. But internal storage, you'll find many programs that claim to be able to do it, verifiable reports of success are a different matter. You may be lucky, and if so it would be useful to know what works, but I don't know anything I can recommend.

 

[lvt]

EaseUS Recovery Wizard works well on my XP computer. It can even dig out some files that Recuva can't.

The free version lets you recover 500MB of data. Just try it, if it works for you maybe it's worth paying some bucks to upgrade to full version.