How to Recover Deleted Photos on Android: Step-by-step-Guide

Check the Trash (or "Recently Deleted") folder in Google Photos or your gallery app first — deleted images sit there for up to 60 days before they're permanently erased, and restoring one takes under a minute. If the trash is already empty, a no-root scanning app like DiskDigger or Disk Drill can often still pull the file off your storage before it's overwritten — though be warned, most no-root apps only recover a lower-resolution cached thumbnail, not the full-quality original.

In a hurry? Jump to: Google Photos Trash · Samsung Gallery · OneDrive & Dropbox · Recovery Apps (No Root) · After a Factory Reset · Common Mistakes · FAQ

Losing photos feels worse than it usually is. Android doesn't wipe a deleted file the instant you tap delete — it just marks the space as available, and most galleries route deletions through a trash bin first. That gives you a real window to get memories back, provided you act before new photos, videos, or app downloads overwrite that freed-up space. This guide covers every practical recovery path in 2026, ranked by how likely it is to actually work, plus what to expect quality-wise if you end up relying on a scanning app.

Do This Immediately After Deleting a Photo

Before trying any recovery method, take two quick actions that dramatically improve your odds:

• Stop taking new photos or downloading files. Every new file written to your phone's storage risks overwriting the space your deleted photo used to occupy. Once overwritten, that photo is gone for good — no app can bring it back.
• Turn on Airplane Mode if you're not restoring from a cloud trash bin. This stops background syncs, auto-updates, and app cache writes that quietly consume storage in the background.

1. Recover Deleted Photos from Google Photos (Most Common Fix)

On the vast majority of Android phones, Google Photos is the default backup and gallery engine, so this is where you should look first.

Steps:

• Open the Google Photos app and tap your profile icon in the top-right corner, then tap Trash — on some app versions this same shortcut lives under the Library or Collections tab instead, so check there if you don't see it under your profile menu.
• Find the photo or video you want back and tap it to select it — you can select multiple items at once.
• Tap Restore at the bottom of the screen.

Restored items go straight back to their original album and to your device gallery automatically. Google Photos keeps deleted items in Trash for 60 days if they were backed up to the cloud, and for 30 days if they existed only on your device without a completed backup — after that window, they're permanently deleted and unrecoverable through the app. This is Google's own documented policy (support.google.com/photos), and we cross-checked it against multiple independent sources for this update since the exact menu wording has shifted across recent app versions.

2. Recover Deleted Photos from Samsung Gallery (Recently Deleted Folder)

If you're on a Galaxy phone, Samsung's own Gallery app keeps a separate 30-day trash independent of Google Photos, which is useful if you deleted a photo from the gallery directly rather than through Google Photos.

• Open the Gallery app.
• Tap the three-dot menu in the top right corner.
• Select Trash (sometimes labeled "Recycle Bin").
• Tap and hold the photo you want back, then tap Restore.

Other manufacturers ship near-identical Recently Deleted folders inside their stock gallery apps, though the exact settings path varies:

• Pixel: Google Photos is the only gallery, so use the Trash flow above — there's no separate manufacturer-level bin.
• Xiaomi (HyperOS/MIUI): Gallery app → Albums tab → scroll down to Trash → select photo → Recover.
• OnePlus (OxygenOS): Photos app → Albums → Recently deleted → select photo → Restore.
• LG-style / other OEM skins: Gallery → menu icon → Trash can or Recycle Bin → select → Restore.

3. Recover Deleted Photos from Google Drive, OneDrive, or Dropbox

If you back up photos to a cloud drive rather than (or in addition to) Google Photos, check its recycle bin next. Each service keeps deleted files around for roughly a month before wiping them for good.

Google Drive

Drive is a separate service from Google Photos and only holds photos you manually uploaded or backed up there — it does not auto-back-up your camera roll the way Google Photos does.

• Open Google Drive on your Android phone.
• Tap the menu button in the top-left corner, then tap Trash.
• Press and hold the photo you want to recover, tap the three-dot menu, then tap Restore.

Drive holds deleted files for 30 days before permanently erasing them.

OneDrive

• Open the OneDrive app and tap Me in the bottom navigation bar.
• Tap Recycle bin.
• Select the photo, then tap Restore.

OneDrive's Recycle Bin retains deleted files for 30 days (93 days on a paid Microsoft 365 plan), after which they're purged automatically.

Dropbox

• Open the Dropbox app and tap the account icon or menu.
• Go to Deleted files.
• Find the photo, tap it, and choose Restore.

Free Dropbox accounts keep deleted files for 30 days; some paid plans extend that to 180 days.

4. Recover Deleted Photos with a Recovery App (No Root Needed)

If the trash bins above are already empty — because 30-60 days passed, or the photo was never backed up anywhere — a dedicated recovery app is your next move. These tools scan your phone's storage for image data that hasn't been overwritten yet, even after it's been "permanently" deleted from the file system.

Set your expectations before you start: most no-root Android recovery apps can only read cached thumbnail data rather than the original full-resolution file, because Android's scoped storage rules (in place since Android 11) block regular apps from reading raw storage blocks directly. In practice that means you'll often get back a smaller, slightly compressed JPEG that's good enough to keep or share, but not pixel-for-pixel identical to what you shot. Rooted devices and PC-connected deep scans (like Dr.Fone) can sometimes reach further into raw storage and recover higher-quality files, but even then results vary by phone and Android version — treat "root unlocks deeper scanning" as a possibility, not a guarantee.

App	Root Required?	Pricing	Best For
DiskDigger	No for basic scan; root unlocks extra filtering on deep scan	Free with ads; DiskDigger Pro one-time unlock (~$3-5)	Free, no-root thumbnail recovery
Disk Drill	No	Free tier recovers a limited amount; Pro is a paid unlock	SD card and internal storage recovery
EaseUS MobiSaver	No	Free tier with limits; subscription for full recovery	Photos, videos, contacts, messages
Dr.Fone Data Recovery	No, but requires a PC and USB debugging enabled	Paid, subscription-based (free preview scan)	Deep scans via USB to a computer

Step 1 — Download the App

Install one of the apps above from the Google Play Store. Avoid apps with very few downloads or reviews — the photo recovery category on Play Store is unfortunately full of low-quality clones that mostly just show ads. Nearly all of these apps are freemium: the free tier will usually let you preview recoverable photos, but actually saving them often requires a one-time unlock or subscription.

Step 2 — Enable USB Debugging (PC-Connected Tools Only)

If you're using a desktop tool like Dr.Fone, go to Settings > About phone, tap Build number seven times to unlock Developer Options, then go to Settings > Developer options and toggle on USB debugging. Without this enabled, PC recovery software can't access your phone's storage for a deep scan.

Step 3 — Run a Scan

Open the app, grant it storage/media permissions when prompted, and start a scan. Some tools (like Dr.Fone) require connecting your phone to a PC via USB for a deeper scan that can reach storage areas the on-device app can't.

Step 4 — Preview and Recover

Once the scan finishes, preview the recoverable images, select the ones you want, and save them. Recovered files are usually saved back to your device gallery or a dedicated recovery folder — check the resolution before assuming the app failed; a smaller thumbnail-quality copy is a common (and expected) outcome, not a bug.

Recovery apps aren't magic — success depends entirely on how much new data has been written to your storage since deletion. The sooner you scan after deleting, the higher your odds, and the better your chances of getting closer to full quality.

5. Recovering Photos After a Factory Reset

A factory reset is a different (and harder) situation than a normal delete. Resetting wipes the entire user data partition, including the trash bins covered above, so none of the app-level restore steps will work afterward. Here's what still can:

• Check your cloud backup first. If Google Photos backup, Samsung Cloud, or a manufacturer backup was turned on before the reset, your photos are almost certainly still sitting in that account. Sign back into the same Google or Samsung account on the reset phone and let it re-sync — this recovers everything, at full quality, in minutes.
• If there was no backup, act before using the phone at all. A factory reset doesn't securely erase every block of storage on most Android phones; it just resets the file system pointers, similar to a normal delete but device-wide. Every minute you use the "fresh" phone — installing apps, taking new photos — reduces the odds a recovery app can find anything.
• Try a recovery app immediately after reset, using the same DiskDigger/Disk Drill process from the section above, before you restore apps or start using the phone normally. Success rates after a full reset are lower than after a single-file delete, and thumbnail-only recovery is the realistic outcome, not the exception.
• If the data is critical, stop using the device and consult a professional data recovery service — DIY apps have a low success ceiling on post-reset internal storage.

Set Up a Backup So This Doesn't Happen Again

The best recovery is never needing one. A few minutes now saves you a stressful scramble later:

• Turn on Google Photos backup: Settings > Backup > toggle on. This is the single most effective step — it gives you a 60-day trash window automatically, and full protection against a factory reset.
• Use a second cloud backup like a cloud storage and backup app for redundancy, especially for photos you can't afford to lose.
• Periodically copy photos to a PC or external drive via USB for an offline backup that doesn't rely on any account or internet connection.

Common Mistakes That Kill Your Chances of Recovery

• Waiting too long to act. Every day you keep using your phone normally increases the chance the storage space gets overwritten.
• Taking photos or installing apps while trying to recover. Each new file written to storage is a chance to permanently destroy the recoverable data.
• Assuming Google Drive backs up your camera roll. It doesn't by default — Google Photos does. Confusing the two wastes valuable time checking the wrong trash bin.
• Expecting original-quality results from a no-root recovery app. Most of these tools pull cached thumbnails, not the source file. If you need the full-resolution original, a cloud backup or a rooted/PC deep scan is your only realistic path.
• Downloading the first "photo recovery" app you see. Many low-rated clones on Play Store exist purely to serve ads and don't actually scan storage properly. Stick to established names like DiskDigger, Disk Drill, or EaseUS.

How We Verified This

We deleted a batch of test photos across a Pixel and a Galaxy device — some backed up to Google Photos, some sitting only on internal storage, and some on a microSD card — then timed how long each recovery path took and how complete the results were. Google Photos and Samsung Gallery trash restores were instant and 100% successful within the retention window, since the files were never actually removed from storage, just hidden from the main view. We also ran DiskDigger's free tier on unbacked-up internal storage and confirmed the recovered files came back as smaller, cached-quality JPEGs rather than the originals, consistent with what other reviewers report. Retention figures (60 days backed-up / 30 days not backed-up in Google Photos; 30 days in Drive, OneDrive, and Dropbox) were cross-checked against each provider's own current support documentation as of July 2026. The SD card recovery was the most reliable non-trash method, since removable storage isn't touched by the OS the way internal storage constantly is.

Bottom Line

Check the trash first — in Google Photos and in your gallery app — since that's where the vast majority of deleted photos are still sitting, fully recoverable at full quality, for 30 to 60 days. If the trash is empty, stop using your phone immediately and run a no-root recovery app like DiskDigger or Disk Drill before more storage gets overwritten, but go in expecting a lower-resolution thumbnail rather than the original file. If you've just factory reset the phone, your cloud backup is your best (and often only) path to full-quality recovery. And once you've got your photos back, turn on Google Photos backup so you never have to do this again.