How to recover deleted photos from Samsung Galaxy Note 4

Three possible outcomes are to be expected when photos and videos were accidentally deleted from Samsung galaxy note 4:

A:

this could just be a false alarm. Partially thanks to the fierce competition that lead to the aggressive marketing strategy in the cloud business, more often than not, you can be pleasantly surprised by the fact that Google/Microsoft/Dropbox has already tucked you in and have the photos uploaded to their server all along even without your noticing. Well, normally this is a little bit unnerving but in this case, it's a lifesaver, also if that whole Celebgate thing doesn't ring a bell, it's actually recommended to turn on the auto backup feature on the Note 4, it's smart and convenient once you know how to actually, permanently delete a photo.

B:

There's no cloud backup/online copy, and there's no recycling bin on android, it leaves to us to recover the deleted files locally from the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 with computer-based file recovery program, so if you're reading this on the galaxy note 4, it's time to move on to a computer, either Windows PC or Mac will do.

Luckily, if a micro SD card was installed in the galaxy note 4 and the deleted photos were previously stored on the SD card (not the internal phone memory, which is a whole different story and will be addressed later), the recovery process will likely be simple.

In this case, here's a detailed guide about how to recover deleted photos from Samsung Galaxy Note 4's memory card.

First, take the card out from the phone. Since the type of the card is micro SD, use a MicroSD card adapter (if your computer does have a SD card slot) or USB Micro SD card reader to connect the memory card with computer.

Then, download the photo recover, install and launch the program after the memory card is correctly connected with computer.

While the software is active, it automatically detects attached memory card and ask confirmation to scan. The scanning process may range from several minutes to hours to finish depending on how heavily the card has been used. All the previously deleted files, including these deleted intentionally, will be rounded up and categorized by types and file extensions. It will take quite the effort to sort through all the jumbled files and find the actual precious.

Okay, always the woeful BUT. But if the deleted photos were stored on the internal phone memory…

C:

the deleted photos are impossible to recover if there's no online backup and the photos were stored on the internal phone memory instead of the memory card. Sadly, consider the files gone, permanently.

The thing with the cutting edge android is its restriction against third party software like photo recovery, which were prohibited from accessing or scanning the phone memory where the system files reside. So if the recover software doesn't have the permission to scan the storage, it can't recover anything from it.

Hope you are lucky enough not to fall into the C category, if so, don't be so gloomy, the future is splendid and it's yours to live, to archive, just remember to backup once for a while, also if you finally decide to turn on auto backup on your Samsung Galaxy Note 4, use a tricky password to protect your online vault.

Frequently asked questions

Does this tutorial also applies to recovering photos from Samsung Galaxy Note 5?

No, the latest iteration of the Note line removes the expandable SD card storage, thus renders local recovery on a Samsung Galaxy Note 5 impossible. If you deleted photos from a Samsung Galaxy Note 5 and doesn’t have a cloud back up, sadly, there’s currently no viable solution to recover photos directly from the phone’s internal memory, where the core system files are resided, thus restricted from being probed by any recovery software.

During the scanning process, in the preview window, some of the photos appears to be damaged or corrupt? Will the photos be in perfect condition after the recovery?

The scanning will find all the files available on the memory card, so the damaged or corrupt photo could just be a thumbnail copy of the original file. But what you see in the preview window is what you get after the recovery. As per said, the recovery only repairs the link between the operating system and the file, to repair an actual image, the technicality required is far beyond the capability of the recovery software. JPEG repair is specially designed to repair photos in jpg format that’re corrupted due to overwritten, the software doesn’t work magic, the performance of the software depends on the actual condition of the damaged photo.

How to turn on auto backup on Samsung Galaxy Note 4?

A built-in Google app called "Photos" will do the job splendidly. Open Photos app, on the top right corner tap on the list button, then Settings, tap Auto Backup, turn on the auto backup.

Google’s cloud service is great, easy to use and offers relatively generous free quota. You can store unlimited amount of “standard size” photos and videos on the Google server, by standard Google means that the width of the photo should not be exceed 2048 pixels, the video’s resolution no more than 1080p. Well, Galaxy note 4’s camera is more capable than that! If we max out the 16-megapixel camera it will produce large image files and 4k videos. So keep this in mind and use your quota wisely.