Samsung News Geek

Not long ago, I tried to upload photos from my Samsung Galaxy SII to onto my Macbook's iPhoto. Why? I can't remember why right now, but for sure, it wasn't one of my brightest ideas...

Once it uploaded them, I decided to delete the photos from my phone.

However, when I went back to iPhoto to open them, I got this "Cannot Be Found" error message prompting me to upload again. But I just deleted everything! I lost the complete contents of my "Camera" folder - I would say about 3 months worth of photos.

This was not the first time I've lost photos on one of my phones. However, it was memorable for me because I was able to get these back.

Here's how I did it and how you can too.

Please Note: I'm NOT guaranteeing that you will recover photos from your Galaxy S3, S2, Note, or whatever device...100%. I'm saying that yes, its possible and it worked for me, but it just may not work in all situations. So just be aware of that.

As soon as I realized I made a mistake, I started looking around for a solution. I didn't use my phone after that.

What I've discovered after hours of searching online and stress of going through this process myself, is that the more you use your phone after realizing that you deleted your photos, the lower your chances that you will successfully recover those photos. For example, if you've taken more pics on your Samsung Galaxy etc. However, if you were in a similar situation as me and didn't use your phone at all, didn't take any new pics etc, you might have a chance.

The technical reason for this, is that when a "delete" is performed on the Samsung Galaxy or any other Android phone, only the space that the file occupies is marked as "available" and can be reused by new pictures or other files. The deleted file will be still there until new data overwrites it. Therefore, if you don't add any new pics or video clips to your phone's memory card, you still can recover deleted photos by using a good Samsung Galaxy recovery tool. If you are on an Apple Mac Computer, download the Mac version.

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Step 1: Download the software. This Android recovery program will work only if you download it onto a Windows PC. **Please Note: If you are using a MAC Computer, download the Mac version here.

Step 2: Connect and mount the phone via USB. Do this by going to: Settings -> Wireless&Wifi -> USB Tools -> Connect USB mass storage to PC and then plugging your Samsung Galaxy device into the PC.

Step 3: Run the software & Scan your phone. The Scan can last a bit, so take a coffee break, or so something else and just relax. Hopefully you will be able to get your pictures back soon.

Step 4: Preview & Recover. You can preview the recoverable photos or videos or music files before recovery. Select the files you want back and click "Recover" to save them safely on your computer somewhere.

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That's it! This tool is designed to recover lost, deleted files including .apk files, photos, music and movie files from Android SmartPhones including Samsung Galaxy S2 and Tablet PCs.

It will work even if your Galaxy S3, S2, Note 2, Tab or Nexus was formatted by mistake, if you switched it off suddenly or it crashed; if your phone's memory card became corrupt; if you are seeing an error message like: "Blank Media" or "Unsupported File system" SD card.

During the time I spent trying to find a solution online, I downloaded many programs.

A lot of them were "free". By this I mean, they claimed to recover your images for free.

Others have a "free scan" feature, which allows you to scan first and see if your pictures are there. Then to recover the photos, you have to pay.

Here is my issue with the so called "free" solutions.

The first one I tried didn't even recognize my phone. That was a total waste of time. The second one did recognize it but I wasn't able to open any of the recovered image files, even though they were shown as recoverable. It kept saying "invalid image" when I tried to retrieve the photo. Before all that though, I had to wait 6hours for the scan to actually finish!!! I had enough. I lost all my nerves and patience, and I just downloaded Wondershare Android Data Recovery.

After about a 30 minute scan, it recovered the photos I wanted (and others I forgot about!). Everything worked perfectly.

Update: Setting Your USB to Mass Storage

Some people are saying that since the Samsung S3 does not have UMS mode (USB Mass Storage) no software picks up the device as a USB mounted device. This is exactly right...

The basic problem is the Galaxy S3 does not have the USB utilities option that is required for mass storage.

Therefore the above program will not find/recognize your device and will not allow recovery of deleted files.

However, there is a solution...

This article explains how to enable USB Mass Storage in Samsung Galaxy S3. Once you follow the given instructions, you can proceed to download the software and retrieve your files!

Please leave your feedback & experience with the above instructions below...

If there are any problems, (for example, how to root Samsung S3), please let me know below...

Because the Galaxy S3 doesn't have a USB, you have to enable it.

To enable USB Mass Storage in Samsung Galaxy S3, you have to root the phone.

Once you root your phone, you can follow the instructions here to get your photos or files back.

How to Root Galaxy S3?

Here is a 1 click root solution for the Samsung Galaxy S3. It is fully reversible and safe, so you never have to worry about bricking your phone or voiding the warranty.

I wanted to add one last point, just to explain a little more the chances of recovery issue. Another thing which would increase chances of recovery is if the pictures or videos were stored on your Samsung phone memory or phone external memory card.

If it's the latter then your chances are good to very good. If the former, there is a less of a possibility of complete recovery. Again, its got to do with how your phone stores its data versus how the Galaxys external memory card stores its data.