First of all: turn off Wi-Fi and data connections on your phone. The
reason to do this is that when data is deleted, whether photos, music,
documents or whatever, it is not actually deleted until something has
been written over it in the device's memory.
All that is initially deleted is the index that points to where the
data starts in your memory, so as long as you can find that point
again, you can get your deleted pictures back. If that new data gets
written over the top of where your lost pictures are, they will be
lost forever. This is why a poorly-timed update can be disastrous.
Note: this process requires root privileges on your phone.
How to recover lost photos on Android
1. Download a free program called Dr Fone for Android by Wondershare
(available for Mac or PC) on to your computer. There are other
programs available, but we've always had good results with Dr Fone.
2. Install the program, launch it and register.
3. Connect your smartphone to your computer with a USB cable. You need
to have USB debugging enabled on your smartphone for this process to
work.
If you do not already have this option enabled, simply go to your
Settings > About Phone and tap the Build Number repeatedly until the
notification appears to say Developer Options have been enabled.
Back in your main Settings screen you'll see Developer Options down
near the bottom. Scroll through the settings until you see USB
Debugging and check the box beside it. You'll see a notification at
the bottom of the Dr. Fone screen saying that USB Debugging is being
opened.
For devices running Android Lollipop you will need to authorize the PC
via the prompt that will appear on your phone.
4. Once Dr Fone for Android has made the connection to your smartphone
you'll be able to select from the following categories of deleted
files. We're only after photos, but if you've lost more than that you
can tick as many as you like.
5. The next step asks you to scan for deleted files or all files. If
you're after a quick recovery of your lost pictures to set your mind
at rest, take the 'Deleted files' option. You'll need to accept the
RSA key prompt on your smartphone (check 'Always accept' to make it
easier), making the connection between the two devices secure and, of
course, grant Superuser permission when prompted.
6. One this is done, Dr. Fone will analyze your phone and reboot it.
If you receive a message on your PC to say your phone has connected
again, ignore it; just let Dr Fone do its thing. Any prompts on your
phone that request permissions for Dr.Fone should be granted.
7. Once Dr Fone has finished analyzing your phone you'll get the scan
results screen where you can check the boxes for the photos (or other
files, as you can see below, depending which file types you selected
earlier) that you want to save, then hit 'Recover' and you're golden.
