This article is about file recovery on the new HTC one m8, if the photos were deleted from an original HTC one, as unfortunate, disappointing as it sounds, consider the photos gone.There's currently no viable method to recover deleted files from the original HTC one's internal memory (will be explained in the end of the article), unlike HTC one m8, which does have a SD card for salvation.

Before the recovery, you may want to check again if there's a backup somewhere that you didn't know even exists. If you have logged in the HTC one with a google account and haven't changed the default auto sync setting, even if you have never used or aware of the existence of the service, Google+ might have helpfully been sending photos and videos up to the cloud, and files deleted from Google+ will be kept in the trash for a short period of time for recovery.

If no backup found, and the deleted photos were stored on the SD card (by default they should be), they can still be recovered with file recovery software, when photos were deleted from the HTC one, they are not erased or destroyed, only the pointers to these files removed from the file allocation table, it's like the access you got to the photos are severed but no harms comes to the actual files. Photo recovery software will easily bridge the gap. Also note that the deletion has marked the deleted files as expandable to free up memory space to store new data, try not moving large files or take videos with the HTC one camera before the recovery is done, such activities writes considerable amount of data on the memory thus may put our soon to be recovered photos in jeopardy.

You can retrieve the deleted photos by following these instructions.

• Connect the memory card with computer, it is recommended to connect the card directly to computer with a MicroSD card adapter or USB Micro SD card reader. The software performs better when working directlywith the card than through the HTC one.
• Download photo recovery software, the software is available on both mac and windows, but not on phones and tablets, so if you are reading this article on your HTC one, mark the page and get to your computer.
• After launching the software, it automatically detects the card and asks to scan the mass storage device, the scanning process will probably take a while depending on how many files were stored on the card. All the photos, videos and audio files produced by the HTC one, either deleted intentionally or mistakenly will be rounded up and categorized by types and file extensions, you can maximize the software window and set the preview mode to thumbnail to have a rough overall impression about the wellbeing of the deleted photos, see if the photos are still recoverable or greyed out or corrupted.
• You don't have to check all the files you want within the photo recovery software, just recover them all, windows explorer or finder will be much more efficient with all its search features to round up the pictures and videos you actually want.

The manifestation of the photo recovery doesn't work on the internal memory would be the absences of the driver letter that represents the HTC one in the select drive for scanning process (although you can see HTC one's drive letter in windows file explorer or finder). The software can't work on a storage device unless it's been recognized. So, HTC one m8's SD card, YES. The original HTC and the internal memory of HTC one m8, unfortunately, NO.

FAQ

Does this tutorial also applies to HTC one M9, the latest iteration of the one line?

Yes, the local file recovery solution is feasible on the HTC one M9 because its support for the SD expandable storage. Though the deleted files were previously stored on the SD card, not INTERNAL memory. If the deleted photos were stored on the internal memory, they can’t be recovered, neither from the M8 or the M9.

I attached the SD card to my computer and run the scan, during the scanning, some of the photos seems to be damaged or corrupted, will the photos be repaired after the recovery?

No, technicality required to repair a corrupt the photo file exceeds the capability of the recovery software, which only restores the link between the file and the operating system. To repair a JEPG photo, try using the JPEG repair software, keep in mind that software’s performance depends on the actual condition of the corrupt file, how well preserved of the original data.