How to recover missing photos from Gallery
In a moment of relaxation, you took your trusty smartphone to look at some photos you are particularly fond of but, after looking for them for a few minutes, you realized that they have literally disappeared from the system gallery! Intending to regain possession of them, you opened Google in search of a guide that could show you where to look for them, ending right here, on my website.
If this is the case, I am happy to let you know that you are in the right place, at the right time! In fact, below I intend to explain how to recover photos that have disappeared from the Gallery by applying a series of simple procedures within everyone's reach, even those who, like you, are not very familiar with the world of technology.
So, what else are you waiting for to get to work? Take a few minutes of free time for yourself, make yourself comfortable and read very carefully everything I have to explain on the subject: I'm sure that, at the end of this reading, you will be perfectly able to find the missing photos, to your utmost satisfaction. . That said, there is nothing left for me to do but wish you a good read and a big good luck for everything!
Preliminary information
Before even getting to the heart of this guide and explaining how to recover photos that have disappeared from the Gallery , it is good to make an important distinction between the possible reasons for the "disappearance" of the images.
In some cases, the photos may no longer be displayed in the Android or iOS Gallery because, for example, they have been voluntarily moved to the Archive section of the device (effectively hiding them from the main view of the photo gallery).
On other occasions, however, the photos may no longer be displayed because, for one reason or another, the folder in which they reside is no longer "automatically recognized" - or, in jargon, indexed - by the system; in this case, it is sufficient to access the aforementioned folder using a file manager.
Similar speech applies to photos automatically moved to the cloud, which may have been deleted from the device during a scheduled cleaning operation; also in this case, all you have to do is access the photos in question through the app dedicated to the cloud space in use and, if necessary, download them again on the device.
If, on the other hand, the photos have disappeared because they were "physically" deleted from the device (even unintentionally), then things are a bit more complicated: first of all, you have to take a look at the basket of the Gallery management app on board on the device; in case of failure, it will be necessary to contact a specific program to attempt to restore the deleted files, starting from the memory of the terminal in use.
In any case, I am going to explain everything to you, in detail, in the following chapters of this guide.
How to recover missing photos from Android Gallery
If you have a smartphone or tablet equipped with Android , this is the section of the guide that best suits your case: in the following lines, I will explain how to access the mysteriously "disappeared" photos again, through a series of very simple steps.
Restore photos that have disappeared from the Gallery
Most of the Android Gallery management apps, such as Google Photos , have a special folder, called Archive , in which you can move the photos you no longer want to see in the Gallery, without however physically deleting them from the memory of the device.
For your information, it is possible to move an image in the Google Photos archive in the following way: after starting the app, simply make a long tap on the photo of your interest, to select it, then press the button (⋮) located at the top right and, finally, touch the item Move to archive attached to the proposed menu.
So, if you have proceeded to inhibit the display of images with the methods explained above, you can access them again in an equally simple way: then start Google Photos , tap on the Photos tab (below), touch the ☰ button located at the top left and press on the Archive item located in the menu that is proposed to you, to access the folder that contains the "hidden" photos.
To restore the display of one or more images in the Android Gallery, make a long tap on the photo of your interest, to select it, repeat the operation on the other images to restore and, when you are done, tap the button ( ⋮) (top right) and select the item Remove from archive located in the proposed menu. It was a lot easier than I thought, wasn't it?
Use a file manager
If you weren't able to find the photos in your device's photo gallery archive, then you may want to try using a file manager, such as Google Files (pre-installed on most Android devices and free to download from the Play Store if needed), to access the folder dedicated to photos taken with the camera, or to view photos captured or sent via a specific app.
Doing it is really simple: to begin with, start the Files app, grant it access permissions to the device memory, if necessary, tap on the Browse tab (below) and then on the item Images . You can navigate between folders containing photos and videos using the tabs located at the top. If you want, you can quickly switch between folders by swiping left or right.
If, even in this way, you should not be able to find the missing photos, you can try to access the folders that may contain them in a "direct" way: to do so, go back to the Browse tab of Files, tap on the Internal Memory (or Card of Memory , if you have opted for storage on microSD) and, from there, access the folder that you think may contain the images you can no longer find.
For example, to view all the photos captured with the camera, you need to go to the DCIM> Camera folder ; to see the photos received and sent via WhatsApp, you need to access the path WhatsApp> Media> WhatsApp Images ; to access the photos taken / edited via the Facebook camera, to the DCIM> Facebook folder , while to view the photos downloaded via Google Chrome, you must enter the Downloads directory .
Once you have identified the image of your interest, you can make it visible again in the Gallery by transferring it to the DCIM> Camera folder . Are you asking me how to do it? I'll explain it to you right away.
First, tap the ▼ button next to the name of the image you are interested in, select the Move item attached to the menu that is proposed to you, tap the Internal memory (or SD card ) option, access the folders DCIM and Camera using the next panel and, when you're done, touch the Move here button to transfer the photo to the main folder dedicated to the Android Gallery.
Use the cloud
Some apps dedicated to the cloud, such as Google Photos , Google Files or OneDrive for Android, allow you to delete images already in the cloud from the device memory , in order to free up a fair amount of internal memory (or space on the microSD ). Typically, this option, called Free up space from device (or similar), resides in the application settings . Following the use of the same, however, the photos may no longer appear in the Android Gallery.
To overcome this small inconvenience, you can use the app used to automatically upload images to the cloud, in order to access them and, if necessary, download them again on the device.
For example, if you have uploaded the photos to OneDrive , start the app of the same name for Android , tap the Photos tab and locate the image of your interest; after this, make a long tap on it to select it, repeat the operation on any other photos to restore, tap the button (⋮) and choose the Save item from the proposed menu, to transfer the photos to the Android memory (and make them visible again in the Gallery).
For more information on cloud apps, I recommend that you take a look at my guide to the best cloud , in which I have covered the subject in detail.
Recover deleted photos
How do you say? You have not been able to restore the disappeared photos from the Android Gallery with any of the procedures seen so far, because you suspect that you have manually deleted them from the device memory?
In this case, I advise you to check if the images in question are still present in the recycle bin attached to the management app of the Gallery you are using (eg Google Photos): usually all deleted photos and videos end up there. through the app, for a period of time usually equal to 30 days.
To access the Google Photos trash can, start the app in question, tap the ☰ button located at the top left and select the Trash item attached to the menu that opens sideways.
Once this is done, locate the photos you want to recover, make a long tap on one of them, in order to activate the selection mode, tap on the other images to be recovered (if necessary) and press the arrow icon located at the top of right, to restore them in the Gallery.
If the photos are not even present in the recycle bin, then you could try to restore them using a computer software or a specific app for the purpose, such as PhotoRec or DiskDigger , which I told you about in my guide on how to recover deleted photos from Android .
However, I cannot guarantee the complete success of the procedure, since, as I was able to explain to you in my dedicated guide, the chances of success vary depending on the time elapsed since the actual deletion of the photo.
How to recover missing photos from iPhone Gallery
If it is your intention to recover photos that have disappeared from the iPhone Gallery , carefully read the following sections of this tutorial, in which I am going to explain how to proceed in the various possible scenarios.
Restore photos that have disappeared from the Gallery
However, I cannot guarantee the complete success of the procedure, since, as I was able to explain to you in my dedicated guide, the chances of success vary depending on the time elapsed since the actual deletion of the photo.
How to recover missing photos from iPhone Gallery
If it is your intention to recover photos that have disappeared from the iPhone Gallery , carefully read the following sections of this tutorial, in which I am going to explain how to proceed in the various possible scenarios.
Restore photos that have disappeared from the Gallery
If you remember well, in my guide on how to hide photos on iPhone , I explained how to use the system sharing menu to inhibit the viewing of photos from the main area of the iOS Photos app, without however physically deleting them from the memory. of the device.
All you have to do, to achieve this result, is to open the image of your interest, press the share button (the square with the upward arrow ) and select the Hide item from the panel that is proposed to you, then confirming the will to proceed, by touching the Hide button
If you've hid the photos this way, you can easily access them using the iOS Hidden album. Doing so is really simple: to start, start the iOS Photos app, tap on the Albums tab (below), scroll the screen until you find the Other Albums section and tap on the Hidden item , to access the dedicated area to photos not displayed in the gallery.
At this point, tap on the Select item located at the top, tap on the previews of the photo to restore, press the share button (the square with the upward arrow ) at the bottom left and, to conclude, touch the item Show from the panel displayed on the screen.
After a few moments, the selected images will be displayed again in the iOS gallery.
If you can no longer find an image previously displayed in the iPhone Gallery, you can try to access "manually" the relevant file (whether it is located in the iPhone memory, or on iCloud Drive ) using the iOS File app. Yes, this is a rather rare event, since the images contained in memory and on iCloud are automatically grouped within the iOS photo albums, but it's worth a try.
To do this, start the File app , recalling it from the home screen of the "iPhone by", tap the Browse tab and, using the available options, go to the folder where you think the _lost_ image is present.
When you have identified it, tap the Select button , located at the top, tap the preview of the image in question (or images, if you intend to view more photos), press the share button and, finally, touch the item Save image , located in the panel that appears on the screen, to add the photo to the Gallery (thus storing it in the device memory).
If none of the methods mentioned up to this point have managed to remedy your problem, as you suspect that you have accidentally deleted the photo from your iPhone memory, you may try to recover it using the iOS / iCloud Drive Recently Deleted album, one sort of "trash can" in which the images remain for about 40 days after deletion by the user (after which the photos are permanently deleted).
So, if you have deleted the images of your interest for less than 40 days, you can quickly recover them by starting the iOS Photos app, going to the Albums tab located at the bottom and tapping on the Recent Items item , located a little further down.
After identifying the photo (or photos) of your interest, tap on the Select item located at the top right, touch the thumbnails of the images you want to recover, press the Recover button and, to bring the images back to the iOS gallery, touch the Recover Photo button and that's it.
If the images do not even appear in the Recently deleted album, you must necessarily contact a computer data recovery program (eg. EaseUS MobiSaver ) to analyze the memory of the "iPhone by" and try to recover the deleted images .
However , this solution, which I told you about in my guide on how to recover deleted photos from iPhone , does not have a very high margin of success, as the result varies according to the period elapsed since the actual deletion of the photo. If all other solutions have failed, however, it's still worth a try!
Use a file manager
