Recovering deleted files
Sorry to hear about your lost photo’s and video’s.
This post disregards the cloud side of things, and works on the idea that the photo’s may be able to be recovered from your phone.
Blurb:
Photo’s (and all other files) are stored in pieces in whatever available space there is on your device (computer, phone, tablet, etc.). A key (like a map key) to where each of these pieces is located is created and this key is used to prevent those data storage spaces from being overwritten.
When you move photos to trash, they are scheduled for permanent deletion. Your files can be recovered from this area using your phone software, if you do this before the set time expires (mine is set to 28 days, yours may be different). If you cannot see your files in the trash/bin, it is possible they have been permanently deleted.
Permanent deletion isn’t quite what it sounds. What actually happens is that the key (to where all the photo pieces are) is removed and the data storage space used by all the photo pieces becomes available for storing new data. The photo pieces are not actually gone at this point, but you can no longer see the photos because the key is missing.
Until there is something stored over the top of the file pieces of each of the photos, they remain on your phone. It is possible to gather up the file pieces and recreate the keys (basically, recover your photos from permanent deletion).
This is only possible if the storage has not been overwritten. Once the space is overwritten, then the photos are truly gone. So the quicker you can look for the file pieces (and the less you use the phone until then), the more photo’s you will be able to recover.
To the (possible) solution:
There are software programs that can recover permanently deleted files. You can either use a free program, buy a program, or have a professional to do this for you.
The sooner you do this, the better chance you have of recovering your photo’s.
This link is to a list of data recovery programs you can use:
https://alternativeto.net/software/diskdigger/
This link is to a service that does recovery for you (it’s in Sydney, Australia – this is just a random example, there will be ones near you that provide a similar service):
https://www.nsintel.com.au/service/...ta-recovery/?gclid=CLX9_vzutNYCFZMGKgodwRcIJw
This thread specifically talks about others with the same google photo’s problem.
https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/photos/1vlhwg1e6Ug
Good luck.
