Android 4.0 and what it means to photo recovery

Android 4.0 ice cream sandwich and later version like jelly bean has brought fundamental changes to the file system. The usb mass storage mode is removed, the available usb connecting mode incudes mtp (media transfer protocol) and ptp(picture transfer protocol). The difference is, in usb mass storage mode, the computer’s in charge but in mtp and ptp mode, android’s in charge, and it doesn’t allow photo recovery software or any other desktop apps to interact with its storage(because now there’s no separate partition and the system files shares the same storage with media files). Due to this update, When recover deleted media from android 4.0 devices, it falls to three scenarios

Impossible: phones born android 4.0 and only has internal memory, like galaxy nexus, the photo recovery software can’t access internal memory in mtp and ptp mode

Possible with a few tweaks: android 4.0 devices with both internal storage and external sd card support. Like Samsung galaxy s3, the phone is born android 4.0 and support sd card, so if your deleted photos are resided in sd card, without going through the phone, you can plug the sd card in a card reader and connect it with the computer. The photo recovery software is able to works on the sd card and bring the photos back, this simplifies things. If the deleted photos are resided in internal memory, there will be a prerequisite, your phone needs to be rooted to use a certain app to enable mass storage mode on the device. The details are explained in the article - how to recover deleted photos from Samsung galaxy s3

Possible and easy: android 2.3 devices updated to android 4.0, such as Samsung galaxy s2, Sony Xperia arc s, droid razr… just go to settings-wireless and network-usb settings, set the usb connection as usb mass storage mode, use the software, the files could be easily recovered.