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That’s the right mindset.
One last tip: don’t restore backups or sync anything before scanning. Sync can overwrite local remnants.
Good luck, and yeah, please update the thread. These situations help others avoid the same mistake.
Appreciate the honesty here. I wasn’t expecting miracles, just hoping it’s not totally gone.
I’ll try a PC-based scan later today and see what shows up. Even getting back some of the older photos would be a relief.
I’ll update once I try it.
Just to set expectations realistically: no recovery method brings back 100% once app data is cleared.
But if:
phone wasn’t factory reset
storage wasn’t encrypted and wiped
device is still accessible
then scanning internal storage from a PC-based Android recovery tool is usually the best shot.
Success depends heavily on how quickly you act.
Yes, that’s actually very normal.
Older files sit in older storage blocks, which are more likely to be marked as free and reused first. Newer files may still be intact because they were written later.
When I went through this, I only recovered photos from about 6 months back, nothing recent. Partial recovery is common in these cases.
That makes sense. I almost installed a recovery app from Play Store but held off.
One thing I’m confused about: some newer photos are still there, but older ones are gone. Is that normal?
Adding to what Silas said.
Don’t try random “fixes” or cleaner apps now. I’ve seen people make it worse by trying to optimize storage again.
If you’re going to attempt recovery, do it from a computer. Installing recovery apps directly on the phone writes data to the same storage you’re trying to recover from.
Correct. Clearing app data removes the app’s internal storage footprint.
WhatsApp stores media in specific folders. When you cleared data, the app removed references and likely deleted associated folders.
That’s logical deletion, not encryption or hardware damage. Recovery depends on whether those storage blocks were reused.
Important distinction: reinstalling WhatsApp doesn’t bring that media back unless backup had it.
Thanks for replying, both of you.
I’ve stopped using the phone except to read this thread. No new apps, no downloads. I’m honestly kicking myself because I didn’t even realize “clear data” would wipe files too.
So this isn’t just a WhatsApp issue, it’s storage-level deletion?
I did the exact same thing last year, so I feel your pain.
In my case, chat history didn’t come back because backup was old, but a chunk of media files were still recoverable. Not everything though.
What hurt me was continuing to use the phone for two days thinking I’d “figure it out later”. That probably overwrote a lot.
Yeah, clearing app data is very different from clearing cache. Cache is temporary junk, app data wipes the local database.
WhatsApp media is tricky though. Messages rely on backups, but photos and videos are often stored locally too. If those folders were deleted and haven’t been overwritten, there might still be a chance.
First thing I’d suggest is stop using the phone as much as possible.
I think I messed up pretty badly and hoping someone here has been through this.
My phone was running slow, so I went into Settings → Apps → WhatsApp → Storage. I meant to clear cache, but I’m pretty sure I tapped “clear storage/data” instead. The app logged me out instantly.
After setting WhatsApp back up, all my old photos and videos are gone from chats. Some recent ones are there, but most of my older media folders are missing from gallery too.
They’re not in trash. Google Photos doesn’t show them either. I didn’t do a factory reset or anything, just this one mistake.
Is this kind of data loss permanent or is there still a chance to recover media files?
Final recommendation for customer response:
Explain SSD TRIM behavior clearly
Clarify this is not software failure
Advise maintaining backups moving forward
No further write attempts on SSD
Technically, this case falls under physical block clearing, not repairable corruption.
Correct.
Repair tools can fix:
Broken JPEG markers
Corrupt quantization tables
Header inconsistencies
They cannot recreate overwritten scan data.
Given NVMe + TRIM + delay before recovery, this is likely permanent data loss
Yes..after certain offset, large blocks of 00.
So I assume repair software won’t help?
i need to improve and streamline how our projects get archived and backed up.
I need some advice regarding software solutions for running backups to an LTO drive.
Our two Flame suites have local storage on each.
Currently we have two Synology Raids (one onsite, one offsite) that hold the backups for disaster recovery purposes. These are big, and getting bigger all the time as (until now) we have stored everything we have ever done. Not deleted anything and still have rushes and all files for projects going back 16 years!
The graphics dept also uses this system for a working drive and backup.
The Synology use the Syncovery software to run the backups.
I used to use LTO 5 tape library, but the amount of tapes required to alternate on a weekly basis was getting to much to handle, and I was convinced by our IT dept to go the Synology route. I now realise that was not planned out as thoroughly as it should.
Now I want to evolve to a hybrid, where the Synology raids are used for Disaster recovery purposes, ie, backing up the daily projects and work files, and to look into getting a new LTO drive and using tape for long term storage.
The idea being that I can set up the backup system to no longer store everything forever, but to keep a 30day snapshot rota and a backup type that retains a duplicate of the current drives. Hopefully this will then delete any files no longer on the local drives and help to keep the data load to a more manageable size.
For software I have used Retrospect in the past but found it a little flaky once the backups got too large. Synology is not easy to understand, and after being setup by the install engineer, I have been stumped by some of its settings. Documentation for it seems non existent!
The main question is …What software are you using to run your backups?
Has anyone got alternate strategies for backups that might be more workable?
Thanks for any insight you might be able to offer…