All media files wiped - AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III

I went snowboarding today and took tons of great pictures . I came home and tried to upload the files to my computer. At first I tried bluetooth but it didn't work for some reason. I then plugged in the USB cable and attempted to manually copy them. I couldn't find them on either my phone or my sd card. Furthermore, I saw a folder called "Blackberry" in triplicate on my sd card ( the card was in my old BB ) and I decided to erase it. It erased 2 copies and said it couldn't erase the third one. After that... poof, ALL media files are gone. Literally everything. Folders are intact but the files are all gone! On the phone, on the SD card, in every folder: camera, pictures, whatsapp, videos, you name it.. all gone!
I am running AOKP d2att 9.30.2012 with 4.1.
I was able to recover the files from the SD card with an undelete software, by putting the card in my old BB which exports it through UMS. But the S3 has no UMS option. I then spent the next 2h trying to get the S3 to export its internal storage through UMS and hoping I could undelete the files.
Isn't this just crazy ? Anyone had anything similar happen to them ? Do I have any other options at this point ?
P.S. Didn't have time to backup the new pics...

I made *some* progress.
I installed 'DiskDigger' app which was able to retrieve the deleted files from the external sd card ( which I was already able to do by mounting it in the BB and using a desktop app for undeleting ). DiskDigger also worked on the internal sdcard and it recovered about 500 deleted files, like really old files from months ago but NONE from the Camera folder or other folders which contained images/videos. They appear to be mostly files which were displayed in the browser, used by Facebook, etc.
I booted my device in CWM and ran e2fsck in adb shell without any luck.
Where could my files be ? Are they really deleted ? If so, why doesn't the 'undelete' software pick them up ? How can videos, camera photos, whatsapp images, pictures be gone in one instant ? This makes no sense at all!

Photos are usually stored in DCIM/Camera

Related

[Q] What needs to be on SD?

Over the past 6 months I have collected a plethora of "****" on my SD card, lots of apps that left behind empty folders, logs, etc. I want to "fresh start it" and wipe everything off of it to eliminate all the folders that are no longer needed. Yes, I'm a app downloader/uninstaller, lol and as I'm sure some of you know leaves behind a trail of crap on your storage medium.
My question is, what does the SD card HAVE to have left on it (if anything) for the phone to operate correctly? I am Rooted/S-Off/SkyRaider 3.3.
Do i need to leave update.zip for instance on it, pictures i can i move to my Linux box, but I would hate to format the SD only to find out I just borked myself by removing a crucial system file the custom roms or rooting need.
I would also move my RomManager backup to my LB as well, just thought of that....
Anyone know?
i would leave clockwordmod folder, android.tether, android, and titanium backup folder..i mean thats what i have and would keep on my phone...I'm sure your setup is similar.
Thank you! =)
Damn good post. I went ahead and wiped my SD as well through clockwork. I saved my pictures and stuff to my desktop and then retransfered from there. What really sucks is organizing my pictures/music/media/ Sometimes when I switch ROM's I forget the camera auto saves pictures to internall emmc folder. What would be prime is to have it auto sync with a service like drop box.
so... we dont need :
"update.zip"
data
permissions log
blackberry? (never understood this being on my card)
etc...
i just formatted card via settings - storage - card format...
it took like 2 secs... and i have 3-4 gig of music on there...
seemed too fast for a format...
only 2 files it left on card was android.secure and lost.dir
i am re-adding some files i need, but wondering if your list above is the only "neccessary" files - obviously i'm adding my backups but i'm nervous cause theres a ton of files i'll be "missing"
i do have it backed up on 2 pc's, so i guess i'm covered...
hoping this helps - really just want a fresh canvas to work with...

I can see folders on Astro, but not on my PC

hey guys
I had a bunch of pics that I received via MMS and I needed to use, so I just long click on it and selected to save do sd card. But when I connect the phone to the pc on mass storage mode, I can't find them anywhere.
So I installed the app SaveMMS and saved all the pics to a folder with the same name. Still nothing showed up when I connect the phone to my PC.
Using ASTRO, I can see all the pictures on the download folder and I can also access the SaveMMS folder (and actually some other folders that I cant see from my PC).
I tried to copy to somewhere else and even that didnt work.
I ended up emailing myself the pics...
Any idea on whats happening?
I got root and im using opendesire with a partitioned sd card (and no, there's no pictures on the ext partition).
many thanks
Does any file names or folders on your phone look like, for example, this ".hello"
If so, get rid of the full stop at the start of the name via Astro, as it will not show up on your computer
Thread moved to Q&A.
delete my post
thanks for the reply
the first thing I checked was for hidden folders, and it wasnt that.
the folders ended up showing up on the desktop as well, out of nowhere.
but it just seemed some random, dont know what was the issue.
This is usually because you are using a2sd which makes the SD card do strange things. Changes are only actually saved to the card for the computer to see when restarting the phone
The problem is well documented, and a fix have been made which should fix it
Well, its really weird.
But better weird with A2SD than normal without it ;p

Recover deleted files from the SD?

I mistakenly rooted my phone without doing any sort of backup's, was using Toolkit to backup up all my files but for some reason it didn't backup anything, the backup folder is fully empty, lost all my pictures/videos etc..
Is there a way I can recover them by connecting my Gnex to the PC or something? are there any programs made especially for such purpose? please help guys.
Thanks.
Rovian said:
I mistakenly rooted my phone without doing any sort of backup's, was using Toolkit to backup up all my files but for some reason it didn't backup anything, the backup folder is fully empty, lost all my pictures/videos etc..
Is there a way I can recover them by connecting my Gnex to the PC or something? are there any programs made especially for such purpose? please help guys.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope, not that i've heard of.
You're kinda SOL, sorry. Especially because you can't mount the storage as UMS, so normal recovery tools wouldn't even have a chance.
That's sad..
However guys, I had the Gallery folder (DCIM) on my PC like 1 week ago, I copied it to my PC as a backup but deleted it as well couple of days ago, I tried looking for it on Recuva but I couldn't find it, I found pictures/videos deleted way before my Gnex files, I didn't find a single picture or video of my Gnex gallery.. does it make a difference if you deleted the whole folder having all the files in it rather than the picture/video itself? is there a way to recover the whole folder along with it's deleted files? a program made for that, I don't mind buying it if it can recover the folders or at least it's files.
Tried Recuva as I said but It didn't catch the folders, only pictures/videos files.. I recovered them all and I found not a single picture or video of the DCIM files I deleted couple of days ago.
Thanks.

Lost Vacation Photos While Moving to SD!

We were on our first vacation with our 2 year old and I took a day's worth of photos and at least an hour or two or video. I didn't realize the HTC camera app was saving to the internal SD and I hit my limit. I thought it was as clear as using Root Explorer to move the entire DCIM folder from the "storage" folder to the "sdcard" folder under the funny looking numbered folder that eventually points to the SD. In the process, it asked if I wanted to replace the target DCIM folder, and I thought sure, why not?
Now, my internal storage is barren and my SD card does not show the images I attempted to move... I'm in shock and sadness and currently trying to run FonePaw on the internal storage to see if It can recover anything. So far, it's found only the stuff I deleted months ago. There is the possibility while manipulating folders that I overwrote SD to internal somehow but I'm not sure how that might have happened.
I'm reluctant to install anything such as DiskDigger or Undelete Recover to the phone as that might overwrite more of what I'm trying to recover. Does anyone have any idea what I could have done and how I might get out of this mess? *sigh* MANY many thanks in advance to anyone that might be able to help out. I'm in such a state of sadness at the moment *double sigh*

That was strange...

I connected my phone to Windows 10 laptop and copied over a folder I download from torrent to the laptop and then I was going through the folders I had in my storage and saw that there was one named 'sdcard'. I opened it and saw there was 'UC Browser' related folder (I think it was UC Downloads but don't remember it correctly but sure there was UC in the name). I deleted that folder happily thinking I cleared some useless folder and then I ejected my phone and opened gallery and all photos were grayed. No thumbnails. I restarted my device and BOOM.... ALL MY FILES WERE DELETED. there were only Android and Whatsapp (but no media was present) folders and storage was empty. But all my installed apps are there and they work like normal except the games which had files in SD card (like asphalt xtreme, Angry Birds 2)
Soory for this long boring story but PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE somebody tell how did that happen.
What actually happened?
Were was the fault?
Anyone else faced this issue ever?
Ashish.akc said:
I connected my phone to Windows 10 laptop and copied over a folder I download from torrent to the laptop and then I was going through the folders I had in my storage and saw that there was one named 'sdcard'. I opened it and saw there was 'UC Browser' related folder (I think it was UC Downloads but don't remember it correctly but sure there was UC in the name). I deleted that folder happily thinking I cleared some useless folder and then I ejected my phone and opened gallery and all photos were grayed. No thumbnails. I restarted my device and BOOM.... ALL MY FILES WERE DELETED. there were only Android and Whatsapp (but no media was present) folders and storage was empty. But all my installed apps are there and they work like normal except the games which had files in SD card (like asphalt xtreme, Angry Birds 2)
Soory for this long boring story but PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE somebody tell how did that happen.
What actually happened?
Were was the fault?
Anyone else faced this issue ever?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
is your phone one plus 3. it doesn't have SD card slot
hem.acharya said:
is your phone one plus 3. it doesn't have SD card slot
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I know that but it is oneplus 3. I told that there was a folder named 'sdcard' inside the internal storage
hem.acharya said:
is your phone one plus 3. it doesn't have SD card slot
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ashish.akc said:
Yeah I know that but it is oneplus 3. I told that there was a folder named 'sdcard' inside the internal storage
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes and no.
Yes ---> when you boot to TWRP and go to "Install", you will be in a folder named "sdcard". It is the folder where you can transfer files into it from the computer (vise versa), install ROMs, etc.
No ---> OnePlus 3 doesn't have an SD card slot.
Let me know if you need more information.
Also, I've posted a guide to solve a lot of issues with the latest Nougat release. Check it out: https://forum.xda-developers.com/oneplus-3/how-to/guide-flashing-oos-v4-0-1-custom-rom-t3537757
If you connect laptop to 1+3 in TWRP, sdcard it's youre internal memory.
If you connect laptop to 1+3 in system, internal memory it's where you got youre media, documents, etc. Youre sdcard it's from the rom.
Recently, i was on a rom and i have a 0 directory. And in it was my pictures, music, movies. They are moved inside of 0.
That happend to, on my HTC One m8, when Android 6 was new, about a year ago.
Ashish.akc said:
I connected my phone to Windows 10 laptop and copied over a folder I download from torrent to the laptop and then I was going through the folders I had in my storage and saw that there was one named 'sdcard'. I opened it and saw there was 'UC Browser' related folder (I think it was UC Downloads but don't remember it correctly but sure there was UC in the name). I deleted that folder happily thinking I cleared some useless folder and then I ejected my phone and opened gallery and all photos were grayed. No thumbnails. I restarted my device and BOOM.... ALL MY FILES WERE DELETED. there were only Android and Whatsapp (but no media was present) folders and storage was empty. But all my installed apps are there and they work like normal except the games which had files in SD card (like asphalt xtreme, Angry Birds 2)
Soory for this long boring story but PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE somebody tell how did that happen.
What actually happened?
Were was the fault?
Anyone else faced this issue ever?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think to have understood the issue: you've deleted the entire Internal Storage (aka /sdcard or /storage/emulated/0).
There is no other reason.
Luckily, both system and installed apps are stored with their own configurations in /data partition, that's different from the Internal Storage.
To recover files, you can at first try with Android software: GT Recovery.
Otherwise, you've to look for commercial PC programs:
http://alternativeto.net/software/jihosoft-android-phone-recovery
dbabaev21 said:
Yes and no.
Yes ---> when you boot to TWRP and go to "Install", you will be in a folder named "sdcard". It is the folder where you can transfer files into it from the computer (vise versa), install ROMs, etc.
No ---> OnePlus 3 doesn't have an SD card slot.
Let me know if you need more information.
Also, I've posted a guide to solve a lot of issues with the latest Nougat release. Check it out: https://forum.xda-developers.com/oneplus-3/how-to/guide-flashing-oos-v4-0-1-custom-rom-t3537757
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
null0seven said:
If you connect laptop to 1+3 in TWRP, sdcard it's youre internal memory.
If you connect laptop to 1+3 in system, internal memory it's where you got youre media, documents, etc. Youre sdcard it's from the rom.
Recently, i was on a rom and i have a 0 directory. And in it was my pictures, music, movies. They are moved inside of 0.
That happend to, on my HTC One m8, when Android 6 was new, about a year ago.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Simone98RC said:
I think to have understood the issue: you've deleted the entire Internal Storage (aka /sdcard or /storage/emulated/0).
There is no other reason.
Luckily, both system and installed apps are stored with their own configurations in /data partition, that's different from the Internal Storage.
To recover files, you can at first try with Android software: GT Recovery.
Otherwise, you've to look for commercial PC programs:
http://alternativeto.net/software/jihosoft-android-phone-recovery
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I never installed twrp. I have been running it all stock all the time and always used the default file manager.
And let me get more detailed about the folder I deleted: the folder named 'sdcard' was located in root directory that is in the same directory as there are other folders like Android, DCIM, Downloads, Pictures and others. It appeared like any other folder.
I had taken a full backup of the internal storage in last week of November and saw that there was no folder named 'sdcard' there.
Ashish.akc said:
I never installed twrp. I have been running it all stock all the time and always used the default file manager.
And let me get more detailed about the folder I deleted: the folder named 'sdcard' was located in root directory that is in the same directory as there are other folders like Android, DCIM, Downloads, Pictures and others. It appeared like any other folder.
I had taken a full backup of the internal storage in last week of November and saw that there was no folder named 'sdcard' there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I find it much strange (like the name of your thread ).
/sdcard should be seen as a folder only when you are browsing device with root permissions (and in rare contexts).
Because via PC or non-root File Manager, that folder is shown as Internal Storage, so can't be deleted.
Folders like Android, DCIM etc. are subdirectories of /sdcard, so you erased that too.
Regarding TWRP recovery: it backups only /data partition, because of more convenience.
Internal Storage shouldn't be erased after factory reset or firmware changing, then it maybe very big.
Personally I'm in disagree, because user should be free of doing "uncomfortable" choice.

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