Before we get started, it’s important to shed light on one thing – Google Photos. The Photos app are pre-installed on every device powered by android, it’s an intelligent, highly automated media management app that takes the initiative to index all the media files on your phone and upload them to the cloud. Before resorting to recover anything, be sure to check the Photos app on your phone, you might be able to retrieve the deleted photos with a few simple taps.

If there’s no cloud backup, what follows are the step-by-step guide on how to recover deleted photos from Samsung Galaxy Note 8:

Once a delete command’s issued, the operating system is tasked to mark the memory space where the deleted files currently occupies as blank, its purpose is to free up space for storing new files, it doesn’t exert itself to destroy the physical, or rather digital existence of the targeted files. With proper file recovery utility, photos deleted from a Samsung Galaxy Note 8 can be brought back without hassles.

• A computer – either a PC, Mac or Linux
• file recovery utility – Photorec/Recuva/Stellar Phoenix Photo Recovery
• micro to SD card reader/adapter(optional)

1. Download a file recovery program of your preference, Photorec, for instance, is an excellent open-source program that employs an advanced searching algorithm that exhausts all the possible recoveries while being gentle on the established file system, being open-source, Photorec is constantly optimized by some of the most sophisticated, capable developer out there with passion. The only downside can be said about Photorec is, perhaps, its geek roots, its command line-esque user interface might be daunting for folks who’re used to knobs and buttons, in that case, the stellar phoenix recovery program fills the gap with capable recovery method and a polished, easy to use graphical user interface.
2. Take out the SD card from your Galaxy Note 8 and insert into the computer slot, use a MicroSD card adapter if necessary.
3. Launch the photo recovery app, it will automatically detect the attached the memory card and ask for the permission to run a scan. Choose the media device and start the scan.
4. The scanning process lists all the recoverable files from the card, Note that not only the intended files will be brought back, but all the images, videos that were ever recorded on the card will be listed, after the scanning process completes, you will be facing a massive amount of jumbled files. The preferable approach is to save all the files to your computer hard drive, then use Windows file explorer or Mac’s finder to sort out the files by dictating certain specifics such as file size, types or file extensions.

Hopefully at this point you have successfully recovered your lost files, if not, don’t be gloomy, life’s splendid and it’s yours to live and to record.

What if the lost photos are stored on the SD card?

Currently, there’re no reliable method to retrieve deleted data from the android phone’s internal memory through third-party file recovery apps, the internal memory is where the system core files hosted, thus restricted from probing.

Damaged photos in the scanning result.

Even though the operating system doesn’t go destroy the actual data of the deleted files, it does regard these files as expandable, so if you kept using your Galaxy Note 8 after the deletion, they deleted files could be overwritten by the newly captured pictures or videos, thus renders them irrecoverable.

How to set up Google Photos to automatically back up the photos and videos on your Galaxy Note 8

• Open the Google Photos app.
• Tap the menu icon on the left top corner.
• Select Settings > Back up & Sync.
• At the top, switch auto backup on.

QA

If your file loss problem can’t be solved with the solutions proposed in this article (or lack thereof), or having trouble with using the software Photorec or Stellar Phoenix, feel free to post your question in the comment area, I will try answer each exemplary questions and feature them on the top.