Accidentally deleted photos from Android, nothing in Trash

So I messed up. Deleted some old photos from my Android phone, then later cleared Trash thinking I was freeing space. These were family pics, not backed up (yeah I know…). Tried a couple Play Store apps but they just show current files. Am I totally screwed or is there legit way to get them back?

Android

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Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

Orin Thorne

Participant

December 31, 2025 at 8:34 am

Rooting now might actually make things worse. Plus warranty risk. If the data matters, try a proper android data recovery scan. If that fails, it’s probably gone for good.

Kevin

Participant

December 31, 2025 at 8:32 am

That’s what I was afraid of. Any point trying root or custom recovery?

Ezra Flint

Participant

December 31, 2025 at 8:30 am

Agree with @Silas. People underestimate how aggressive Android is now with deletes. That said, desktop android data recovery tools sometimes still detect leftovers if nothing got overwritten yet. Not guaranteed, but better than Play Store apps.

Silas Vane

Participant

December 31, 2025 at 8:27 am

If Trash is cleared, Android usually nukes the encryption keys. Recovery apps won’t work like they used to years ago. SD card would’ve been a different story.

Kevin

Participant

December 31, 2025 at 8:25 am

Internal storage sadly. Phone is still working fine though. Haven’t used it much since.