Solved! Lost photos and videos after factory reset

[apples123]

Many people have this question too but I can't figure it out.

Someone took my phone, must have done a factory reset OR simply just logged in with his/her gmail account.
I got the phone back.
All photo albums and videos are gone. I am devastated.

How do I log in with my gmail to see if it's there? I called them, it's safelink wireless but they didn't really know.

Is there setting in phone? I doubt I linked this to any online back up. I am trying to log out of this person's email and log into mine (gmail account) but don';t know how in settings.

I will try going to a desktop and looking in google drive.
I am so desperate, I had a year of photos on there.

There are a lot of youtube videos where you download a recovery app or recovery software. Wonder if this works.


What do I do about the card?? I know there's two chips in the phone.
I don't know what kind of store to take this too, I don't know if people at Target or Walmart know how to do this, that is what safelink said to do.

Thank you

 

[helpstar]

Ask the person what exactly he/she did with the phone.

Have in mind for the future: always do backups on different devices or cloud based storage

If someone removed your account, most likely all data on your phone is lost.
recover a deleted account:
https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/6236295?hl=en

eventually this can help as well:
https/support.google.com/accounts/answer/1721977?co=GENIE.Platform=Android&hl=en&oco=1

Check your phone with a PC. Install the software for your phone on the PC and try backing up the phone with its cards (SD cards).

 

[hang-the-9]

Many people have this question too but I can't figure it out.

Someone took my phone, must have done a factory reset OR simply just logged in with his/her gmail account.
I got the phone back.
All photo albums and videos are gone. I am devastated.

How do I log in with my gmail to see if it's there? I called them, it's safelink wireless but they didn't really know.

Is there setting in phone? I doubt I linked this to any online back up. I am trying to log out of this person's email and log into mine (gmail account) but don';t know how in settings.

I will try going to a desktop and looking in google drive.
I am so desperate, I had a year of photos on there.

There are a lot of youtube videos where you download a recovery app or recovery software. Wonder if this works.


What do I do about the card?? I know there's two chips in the phone.
I don't know what kind of store to take this too, I don't know if people at Target or Walmart know how to do this, that is what safelink said to do.

Thank you

Assuming you are talking about an Android phone based on your references to Google, go to Settings > Accounts you will see what accounts are on the phone and you can add yours.

To check for your files if they were saved in Photos or Drive, just logon to your Google account on any other device, computer, tablet, phone.

Always keep backups, and know where they are and how to get to them. Worrying about losing files only after losing them is too late.

 

[webworkings]

And this is why I advocate not leaving yourself logged into everything and changing passwords the second the phone goes missing.

 

[apples123]

WILL I GET THESE PHOTOS BACK!!!

I tried a program on a PC desktop called FoneLab for Android....nothing
I hooked my phone to the computer with the cable...
Trying for other things like this because I do not think I hooked it up to google drive through settings on the phone, and it's not in my google drive. Where would the photos be?
Lots of memories, friends on there, hikes, etc, should have backed all this up but didn't think the phone would be stolen and wiped in one second by some twit.
Is there anything else like FoneLab? I'll keep trying when not so stressed and tired.
There might be a data recovery store....something like that.
Another article I found online made it seem like it is easy to retrieve even after swiped or factory reset. But they didn't say how.

Thank you

 

[webworkings]

The phone likely doesn't have them anymore. If they were somewhere that could easily be accessed from the device they likely are gone.

If you backed them up somewhere (google, etc.) and you find they are still in there, then you can just download them from wherever it is.

However, again, there is no way to get them back on the device if they were only on the device and it was totally wiped via a "Hard Reset". Just erasing/deleting can 'sometimes' be recovered, but not after a full "Hard Reset".


Note: If you have the backup and sync option turned on, then use the link that was previously provided by helpstar.

As to recovery software.. again these only work with deleted files not a "Hard Reset" and even then they don't always work.

While there is no guaranty that you can get them back. Deleted does mean deleted. There are a few apps/programs out there that 'may' be able to help you recover the data.

A few of the programs you could try would be... DiskDigger, MobiSaver, Android-Recovery and Tenorshare. They are all data recovery apps/programs. There are many others out there, so check around and see which you would rather try. There is also one called RECUVA, that I have heard is free, which you could try.

One important note though, most of these programs are not free. They may say they are "free" or have "Free Trials" and "Free Downloads". Yet to actually recover your data, and get your files back, you may be have to purchase the program/app. Just so you know.

NOTE: For future reference, I really would suggest backing up your data to a computer or cloud. Often. Better to spend the time doing that, rather than to be out all that stuff if the phone dies, things get deleted/erased or it gets stolen.

People don't seem to think that they will lose what is on a phone (tablet, etc.), but it happens all the time. I save everything someplace off of them. To a computer (not laptop), backed up to CDs/DVDs/USBs, saved online (not google or other public places), I even make hard copys (old address book, etc.) of contacts. While I have never lost a device, or had one stolen, I have had them die, and other than someone having access to the data, you still lose everything if you don't back it up.

 

[helpstar]

Take your SD card out of the phone and use an USB SD card reader with a PC/laptop
Then try PC Inspector File Recovery (search for jpg photos with it)

 

[webworkings]

That won't work on a lost or stolen phone, especially when this happened months ago.