Recover deleted photos or files

You emptied the bin, or the folder is simply not where you left it, and your stomach dropped. Before you give up on them, deleting something usually removes the signpost to it rather than the file itself, and the photos often sit there untouched until the device happens to write something else over that space. That means what you do in the next few minutes matters more than anything we do later. Stop using the device now, tell us what went missing and how, and we will look, say plainly what is realistically recoverable and what is not, and quote you a fixed price before we attempt anything. If nothing comes back, there is nothing to pay for the recovery.

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No fix, no fee on the repairIf we cannot fix it, you do not pay for the repair. In writing, on every job.
Free advice by messageDescribe the fault and we will tell you what it sounds like and whether it is worth doing, before anyone travels.
We come to youAcross Leeds, West Yorkshire and North Yorkshire, or we collect and return.
A real person repliesNot a call centre, not a ticket queue: we read every enquiry, day and night, Sunday to Friday. The fixed quote you agree is the price you pay.

The short version

Stop using the device now. That matters more than anything we do.
Deleting usually removes the signpost, not the file itself.
Check the cloud first. The photos are often already safe.
A spinning hard drive gives far better odds than an SSD.
A reformatted memory card is very often still recoverable.

Try this first

Four things to do before anyone touches it

All free, none of them need tools, and the first one matters more than everything else on this page put together. Do them in this order.

Stop using the device this minute, and take the card or stick out of it. Nothing can be written over a file on a device that is not being written to. Every new photo, download, update or saved file is a roll of the dice against the ones you want back, and the fuller the drive, the worse those odds get.
Look in Recently Deleted, or the Bin, before you look anywhere else. Phones, computers and Google Photos all hold deleted pictures in a holding area first, and it empties itself after a few weeks rather than immediately. If they are in there, you can restore them yourself in seconds and this costs you nothing.
Sign into iCloud or Google Photos on a different device, not the one you lost them from. Phones back photographs up on their own far more often than people expect, so the pictures are frequently sitting safe in an account already. Using a second device to check means you are not writing anything new onto the one you want recovered.
Work out whether the files were on a spinning hard drive or on solid-state storage. Listening is only a rough guide - fans whirr too, and a quiet machine can still hold a spinning disk. The reliable check takes seconds: open Task Manager, Performance, and the drive is named SSD or HDD next to the disk. On a Mac, About This Mac, then Storage.

What it usually means

Why deleted photos are usually still there for a while

An accidental delete with the bin emptied, where the files usually sit on the drive untouched until something writes over them
A phone or camera where the pictures are already backed up to iCloud, Google Photos or another device without you realising
A memory card, SD card or USB stick that has been reformatted, or that now asks to be formatted before it will open
Files swept up, hidden or moved by an update, a sync or a tidy-up, so they are misplaced rather than truly deleted
A drive or card that is beginning to fail, where files vanishing is a warning sign rather than anything you did wrong
An SSD, the solid-state drive in most newer laptops and in every modern phone, which quietly clears deleted blocks by itself

Not sure which is yours? Describe it in a message and we will tell you, free. Tell us what it is doing and we will work it out.

At a glance

How the files went missing decides the odds

This is the page where the honest answer varies most, and it varies on something you know and we do not. Find the row that matches yours.

What happened	Realistic odds	What decides it
Deleted from a spinning hard drive, bin emptied	Often good	Whether anything has been written to the drive since. Stop using it now and the odds hold up well.
Deleted from an SSD in a laptop or PC	Often poor, and we will say so	The drive quietly clears deleted blocks by itself. Once it has, no software and no laboratory anywhere can bring them back.
Deleted or lost on a phone	Often good, but usually from a backup rather than from the phone	iCloud, Google Photos and the recently-deleted album come first. Phone storage is encrypted and solid-state, so the phone itself is the hard route.
Memory card or USB stick, deleted or reformatted	Often good	A format usually clears the index rather than the pictures. Take the card out and do not shoot on it again.
A card or drive failing on its own: clicking, freezing, files vanishing	Depends, and time is against you	It gets imaged first and recovered from the copy. A sick drive may have one clean read left, and every power-on spends some of it.
Files gone after an update, a sync or a tidy-up	Usually good	They are often misplaced rather than deleted, and can turn up without any recovery work at all.

The second row is the one that changes the answer most, which is why the kind of drive is among the first things we check. On an SSD we would rather tell you plainly that nobody can help than take your money for a job that cannot be done.

What we do

How we find out what is actually recoverable

You tell us what was lost, how it went missing, and what the device has done since. That last answer moves the odds most
We ask you to stop using it before we set off. Every new photo or download is a roll of the dice against yours
We check the free places first: the phone's own backups, the recently-deleted album, and any cloud account you are signed into
We establish what kind of drive or card it is, because a spinning disk and an SSD behave nothing alike once a file is deleted
We come to you across Leeds, or collect the card, stick or laptop and bring it back. On a healthy drive, one visit is often enough
Where a card or drive is fragile, we image it first and recover from the copy, so its one clean read is not wasted
We say what is realistically recoverable before any work, and you get one fixed quote with that answer in front of you
Recovery is not always tidy. You can get most of your photos back with a few damaged and some of the names lost
Recovered files come back on a separate drive you keep, never onto the device they were lost from. Nothing back means nothing to pay for the recovery

Is it worth fixing?

Is recovering deleted photos worth paying for?

Almost always worth a look before you give up, especially when the photos are irreplaceable ones of family or of people you have lost, because those are exactly the files that cannot be bought again at any price. The odds are best on a spinning hard disk, a memory card or a USB stick where you have stopped using the device quickly, and a straightforward deleted-file recovery on a healthy drive is the cheaper end of this work. There are two honest exceptions where we will tell you plainly not to spend a penny. The first is a happy one, that the photos were already backed up to your phone, your camera roll or the cloud, in which case we help you find them and there is nothing to recover and no recovery to pay for. The second is the hard one, an SSD that has already cleared the deleted blocks itself, where the truth is that no software and no laboratory anywhere can bring those files back, and anyone telling you otherwise is selling you hope. You will hear which of these you are in early, rather than at the end of a bill.

This is a data recovery job. Advice by message is free, then you get one fixed quote before any work starts. If we cannot fix it, there is nothing to pay for the repair.

Send an enquiry and describe the fault

Where we work

We come to you across Leeds, West Yorkshire and North Yorkshire

Home or work, day or night, Sunday to Friday. There is no walk-in shop, so we come to the machine, or collect it and bring it back. Start at computer repair in Leeds, or pick your area.

Questions

Deleted photo recovery questions we get asked

I deleted my photos and emptied the bin. Are they gone for good?

Usually not straight away, and that is the reason we ask you to stop using the device this minute. Emptying the bin removes the signpost to the photos rather than the photos themselves, and the contents sit there until the machine happens to write something new over that space. So the moment they went is not the moment they are lost, but every hour the device keeps being used, the chance of them being written over climbs, and it climbs fastest when the drive is nearly full. Switch it off or set it down, leave it alone, and let us look before anything else gets written on top.

What should I do right now?

Stop using the device. That is the single most useful thing you can do, and it is worth more than anything we do afterwards. If it is a phone, stop taking photos and stop installing apps. If it is a camera card or a USB stick, take it out and do not save anything else to it. If it is a laptop or a computer, stop browsing and stop saving files, and do not download recovery software onto the same drive you lost the files from, because the download itself can land on top of what you are trying to get back. Then send us an enquiry and tell us what happened.

Can you recover deleted photos from my phone?

Often, and the first thing worth doing costs nothing. Phones back photographs up on their own far more than people realise, so before anything else it is worth checking your iCloud or Google Photos, your camera roll's recently-deleted album, and any other device you are signed in on, because the pictures are frequently sitting there safe. Do that checking on a different device where you can, so you are not writing anything new onto the phone itself. If they genuinely are not backed up anywhere, phone recovery is harder than recovery from a plain card or hard disk, because most modern phones use encrypted solid-state storage that clears deleted data quickly, and we will be straight with you about the odds before you spend anything rather than promise a result we cannot guarantee.

I reformatted the memory card, or it says the card needs formatting. Is there any hope?

Frequently, yes, and reformatting is not the disaster it sounds like. A format usually clears the index rather than wiping every photo off the card, so the pictures often remain until new ones are written over them. The rule is the same as everywhere else on this page: stop using the card immediately, do not take more photos on it and do not let the camera or phone format it again, and let us collect it. The less that has been written to the card since, the better your chances, and cards and sticks tend to give up their deleted files more readily than solid-state drives inside phones do.

Does it matter whether it is an SSD or an old hard drive?

It matters more than almost anything else, so it is one of the first things we check. On an older spinning hard disk, a deleted file usually stays put until something writes over it, which is why quick action so often pays off. On an SSD, the solid-state drive in most newer laptops and in phones, the drive tidies up after itself and quietly clears deleted blocks in the background, and once it has done that the file is gone for everyone, us and any laboratory included. We will tell you which kind you have before any work starts, because on a spinning disk the news is often good and on an SSD we would rather give you the honest answer than take money for a job that cannot be done.

The laptop will not turn on. Can you still get the photos off it?

Usually, and this is more often good news than people expect. A machine that will not start very often has a perfectly healthy drive inside it, and the real fault is the screen, the board or the power, so the files are sitting there untouched. Where the machine is dead but the drive is sound, the drive can be read on our own equipment and your photos copied onto a drive you keep. Two things change that answer, and we check both early: storage soldered to the board, which is normal on slim laptops and modern Macs, and encryption, because if a drive is encrypted and nobody has the key then the data is beyond everybody, us included. If the laptop got wet rather than simply dying, leave it switched off and do not put it on charge, since liquid and power together are what turns a recoverable board into a dead one.

Can you do it today, and what does it cost?

Sometimes quickly, and we will be straight with you rather than promise a slot we cannot keep. A simple deleted-file recovery from a healthy drive or card can often be sorted quickly, while scanning a large drive takes as long as it takes to work through the whole of it, and a fragile drive has to be read gently in passes and cannot be rushed. On price, we will not print a figure, because the same lost folder is a different job on a sound card and on a failing drive, and any number on a page would be one we had to go back on. We look, tell you which situation you are in, and give you one fixed quote before we attempt anything. If nothing comes back, there is nothing to pay for the recovery.

Sound more like one of these?

Tell us what is wrong.

Send an enquiry and describe the fault. We will find the fault properly, give you a fixed quote before any work, and if we cannot fix it there is nothing to pay for the repair. A real person who does the work, not a call centre.