Lost ALL images and videos - will rooting possibly save me? - Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro Questions & Answers

Hey all,
as I was backing up files from my phone (internal storage full, 500MB to go) via USB, and after I'd done a bunch of PDFs and what not, I wanted to start moving videos / photos. That failed instantly and after that, EVERY SINGLE IMAGE / VIDEO file was gone from the phone. I installed three "recovery" apps - they couldn't find a thing. I have a bunch of family stuff I really, really would like to have back.
I downloaded the MIUI unlocking tool and wanted to 'get going' with rooting, but I'm getting a "Unlock will erase user data" notification, for if I continue. This does not seem what I want.
- Can I continue without definitely trashing any hope of recovering files?
- Is there another way to get to files that magically disappeared (no Sync on, no OneDrive auto-backup, no nothing at all) that do not required root, and/or ...
- Is this a "known" problem? I cannot seem to find anything.
Many, many, many thanks......

As MIUI Unlocking tool says, it will delete all the data on the phone.

Whelp, this is happening. I'll give it a go before I can't get the files...
I have to wait 2 weeks for the MIUI tool to allow unlocking the bootloader. So I guess at this point I'd mostly like to know if the Mysterious Case of the Disappearing Files is something that's more common on the Redmi Note 5 - or on Android 8.1 / MIUI? I'd like to assure the reader at this point that, while threads like these are a dime a dozen and it often boils down to user error, I'm not a complete nitwit and assure you I was doing nothing other than Ctrl-X -> Ctrl-V to harddrive, got an error message, 40GB were magically freed up on internal storage and ALL files were gone. All of it. Folders too.
Updating thread title, hope that's okay..

Realistically, considering different "undelete" / "recovery" apps are not finding ANYTHING!!! at all, how likely is it even that something will be found once the device has been rooted? This almost seems like it had a system reset while it was still enabled...... Just everything gone / re-encrypted / whatever. Is that even possible? Again, though, the device DID NOT reboot. The files were there......then 40GB was gone.

It is possible to recover the data but the process will require root permissions. Install Disk digger pro from playstore. And give root permissions it can easily recover the most of the photos ( May recover all but possibilities are less ) Give a try bro it will definitely help you. As it helped me before.

I had something similar back when I had Redmi Note 3. Files just disappeared when I put them inside obb folder. However, they reappeared when I entered the recovery (it was custom) and I copyed them via cable onto my pc. They weren't there when I connected normally turned on phone to the pc, and it was annoying. So whatever you are doing, don't format your phone, otherwise you'll lose the files forever.
If rooting and installing an app to recover the files won't help, I suggest you flashing twrp and trying to find them from there using the cable and a pc, or whatever.

Thanks. It's a shame I'm finally "getting in to" rooting only now, now that I have a problem. When I tried many years ago I felt it was too complicated and most of all risky....
The main problem I have with rooting is that the Mi Unlock Tool wishes to Reset the phone, re-encrypting it in the process, and destroying any hope of recovering data. I intend to flash OrangeFox before it can reset.... Does anyone have a better idea....? It's really very, very much appreciated!

Related

Recover your lost files??is a dream for GN?

Hello there,
it is one of the best phone and the easiest to recover or update in my opinion but,
the issue of no memory card is really something bad for your files in case if something happened to the phone!
i know backup is so important but what if you phone crashed all of the sudden because of an application update and you will enter in the repeated boot loops and you have to reset the phone or flash new software!!
OH! Then your will loose everything in the mobile !
it is really sad it happened to me twice in2 weeks i lost allot of good pictures.
i am sure most of the phone users tried to recover the lost files and no one could do it because the phone is identified as MTP, no logical letter drive can be assigned to the phone!!!
All recover software’s couldn’t find the phone and even when i tried hexcomp from the market to recover the pictures, couldn’t do it.
my question for our developers is there any scripts can make the phone work as usb when it is switched off ??
or ,
is there any way to assign a logical drive to the phone instead of MTP so we can recover the lost files?
I don’t know why Goggle didn’t think of such problem because it happened to allot of people and I am not used to back up my files before because there were in memory card.
I really hope the developers will work on such issue because this is the worst thing I found it in the phone.
I might be wrong but I think you can pull everything off the phone using adb whilst in recovery mode?
Dropbox.
It can sync pictures as soon as you take them.
You can sync files between multiple devices, including uploading and downloading to your phone.
Titanium Backup can be synced to drop box.
Check it out,
https://www.dropbox.com/referrals/NTc4MjI1MTU5
Sent from my Verizon 4G LTE Galaxy Nexus.
i tried Pull before it took long time without doing nothing
i know dropbox and i know what it do
i am asking the DEVELOPERS:
1-is there any scripts can make the phone work as usb when it is switched off ??
2-is there any way to assign a logical drive to the phone instead of MTP so we can recover the lost files?
Thanks
husme2000 said:
i tried Pull before it took long time without doing nothing
i know dropbox and i know what it do
i am asking the DEVELOPERS:
1-is there any scripts can make the phone work as usb when it is switched off ??
2-is there any way to assign a logical drive to the phone instead of MTP so we can recover the lost files?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Theoretically you probably could write a CWM script to create a virtual folder and mount that as USB media via CWM. But it would require loading the script to the phone via ADB anyways.
This has also been discussed before:
[Any way to save data on a Nexus in a bootloop?]: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1448633

[Q] Desperate newbie with deleted files problem….help please!!

I have a real cry for help!
Somehow all my pictures disappeared from my Galaxy Nexus. My only possible explanation (since it could not have decided to delete them itself!) is that I must have been a complete idiot and last night when I thought I was deleting a video I had just taken I must deleted the camera directory itself. This is supported by the fact that there was no ‘camera’ directory when I looked this morning. I then took a new photo and the directory reappeared. I have plenty of experience with PC’s but I’m a newbie with smartphones. I figured if I don’t write any more files to the phone then most of the actual data should still be there so I hoped to do some kind of undelete.
I’ve done some research and it looks like the ‘feature’ of only connecting as an MTP device (rather than USB mass storage) is potentially a killer blow. Without an assigned drive letter it seems that none of the usual recovery programmes will recognise the phone.
In theory an alternative might be to take a complete image of the phone contents and somehow recover the data from here?
I am pretty desperate as I have five months of pictures/videos of my kids etc, and most of that data must still be on the phone – but how to get to it?
Finally – yes I am a complete plonker, I shouldn’t have made such a stupid mistake and I should have backed up the phone or the pictures. I have learned my lesson. But given that, is there anything I can do?
BTW - the phone came from 3 network (via a reseller) and I have not touched it with respect to unlocking/rooting etc. It is in the state I received it.
HELP please!
Thanks very much...........
I believe the MTP vs. USB Mass storage would be a driver thing. There are many different versions of drivers so its possible there are ones that will mount the phone with a drive letter. I can think of some other things to try (Boot into fastboot mode by turning phone off then powering on by holding power, volume up and volume down at the same time and holding till it vibrates). You could also try Disk Management under windows to see if you can assign a letter
In the future I highly recommend setting up a google account and using Google Photo/Instant Upload to keep a backup of your photos. You dont even have to sync anything else
Thanks for your suggestions, much appreciated.
I’ve now tried going into fastboot mode and connecting to PC but no joy – Windows recognises there is a device connected (usually ID’d as an OMAP4440) but can’t find a driver.
Disk Management also doesn’t show the Nexus as a drive and therefore won’t allow a Drive letter to be assigned.
Try these (obviously no guarantees and I havent used any personally)
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=fahrbot.apps.undelete
http://android-photo-recovery.com/tutorials/deleted-file-recovery-for-google-nexus-phones.html
EDIT: Found another:
http://www.wondershare.com/disk-utility/recover-deleted-photos-from-nexus-s-and-galaxy-nexus.html
Thanks again, I appreciate all suggestions. Yes I have come across these and unfortunately they don’t solve my issue. The last two are amongst those I’d seen reported as not working as they need a drive letter. I had installed both anyway but found that to be true (
The first requires root access which I don’t have. If I understand correctly, to root I’ll need to unlock the bootloader first, and unlocking will erase all the data anyway??
Unfortunately, you are out of luck. You cannot mount the storage on a GNex in USB Mass Storage mode, and I am pretty sure that none of the "undelete" programs that run in Android support ext4 (which is what our GNex internal storage is formatted).
If you are running 4.0.1 or 4.0.2, you can still get root access without losing your data (but not on 4.0.4), but I can't see how it will help you given what I mentioned above.
I am on 4.04 so sounds like I can't get root access without overwriting, can I roll back to 4.01/2 without overwriting the data? (sounds unlikely but I have to ask - I upgraded from 4.02 without losing data....).
If not, is there a way to get a data image without rooting? That way at least I have the data preserved if at some future point it becomes possible to do an undelete on Ext4 data??
Gavdroid said:
[snip]
can I roll back to 4.02/3 without overwriting the data?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately no.
Gavdroid said:
If not, is there a way to get a data image without rooting? That way at least I have the data preserved if at some future point it becomes possible to do an undelete on Ext4 data??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe there are utilities to "do an undelete" on ext4. The problem is how to get access to the data image. I don't really know of any way to pull off the data partition of a GNex to your computer, but it may be possible.
Have a look at this thread. I think shaaXo managed to find a way for your computer to see the memory on the GNex and likely dump it (although it is not very user-friendly).
That sucks. If it's deleted, it's gone for good. Sorry, buddy.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA
Thanks very much I will go through that post and see where I get to!
Edit! - uh-oh, taking a quick look it seems you need to use CWM, which I take to be ClockworkMod, which I thought required the phone to be rooted to install it? And if I understand correctly, rooting requires an unlocked bootloader, which wipes your data??
I will take a deeper look in case I've misunderstood (very likely), but am I thinking clearly here?

Recover deleted files

While updating to lollipop i accidentally relocked and unlocked the bootloader resulting in a full memory wipe but i had my college work on there so i really need to recover the data lost but upon connecting the phone to the pc it appears as "portable device" which is not detected by recovery tools as well as the android apps as the undeleter root couldn't recover the data i need so is there a way to
1- connect htc one m8 to the pc as usb storage (aka removable disk)
2- another way to recover files
Thanks in advance
The issue is that Android now mounts internal storage by MTP, as opposed to the old Mass USB storage format. So computer's can no longer read the memory like its a USB drive. I think at some point (probably not even for this phone) I saw a method to dump the files in order to perform a file recovery, but it was pretty complicated and looked like a PITA.
You can try some apps on the Play Store that claim to recover files (using the phone itself, not a computer). But I've never used any, can't vouch for them, and don't know if they really work. Also keep in mind, the more you use the phone, the higher the likelihood that the files you want will be overwritten by other data.
Good luck. But in the future you have to remember to backup important personal data before making any major changes or mods to the device. I never fail to be disappointed at how many folks never bother to backup their important data; than freak out about it once its lost. Most of the time, at that point its too late. You should have been backing it up all along. If its important to you, back it up.
Well sir thank ypu for your help i don't think ill be able not to use the phone all that long as well as im now facing that the wifi wont open which is really annoying

PLEASE HELP - Recover Image(s) / Video(s) - ( Located on my SD Card )

Hello Guys,
Phone Specs: Note 4 SM-910A Android 6.0.1
I'm felling kinda "not so smart" today, because by mistake I pressed the Trash icon when in the Gallery, just wanting to get rid of one image in a folder and quickly realized that preview was for the entire folder and not a simngle image thus the entire folder of 3000+ images and videos where deleted by mistake
I tried to stop it and it looked ok, nothing happened "seemly", but within a few mins all was gone.
The second not so smart thing is a lack of a current backup, as I don't seem to connect my phone to a computer like I used to, so it was out of sign out of mind. So my last backup was May of 2017.
Then using apps like DiskDigger shows me 13,000+ files, but most are junk from what I can see and I'm still missing what I wanted to keep / restore.
dr.fone and anything I could find seems like pure trash or at least for my phones version it has ZERO value. Also tried taking the MicroSD and using working USB converter(s)many computers will not even read it. So I will not reform it, or maybe all will be lost forever. It must be in some type of proprietary format, but I can read the card, :when it's in the phone" in the list under My Computer showing SAMSUNG-SM-N910A as a drive / device.
Also I'm not sure what to use that works like an Itunes type of backup, that will always backup even over WIFI, so this can never happen again. Are there any tricks to this that I'm missing, is there no file restore that indicates previous path and or deletion time and date.?
Thank guys for any help / direction you can offer.
Don't know about recovering your files but I use foldersync to backup my phone automatically at night when it's plugged in to the wall and on wifi, I set it so it backs up to my smb share. The app has several ways of doing backups and where to save backups
If u have Google photo sync enabled then ure stuff is backed up so check ure Google account first.
If not them there are 2 ways go about it from pc or straight from ure phone.
Install one of the hundred of free undelete/restore apps from playstore or Google on pc. And just let it scan ure SD card it will find all ure pics just don't save anything new to the SD card until I've recovered it or u will start to loose some data as new stuff overwrites the old. As for videos Ive had mix results so your milage may vary u may get some u may get no n e u may get all but unplayable.....who knows video files are more complex than pictures and documents.

Question Should I spent time on recovering or it's not possible at all

Hello, there is my problem with OP9 Pro – phone was stuck with some bug and only way to fix it was Wipe Data. Now it's ok, but I do really need to restore photos and videos. Phone is NOT rooted.
After reading tons of information I'm not sure that it's possible to get data back. As I understand I need to follow next steps:
1. Unlock bootloader without wiping data again in order not to lose old structure.
2. Root device, or at least temporary root it.
3. Use some tools to search and restore photos.
But now I'm not sure that everything would be fine. Even the first step is not 100% guarantee that it's possible to avoid data wiping.
So, If there are someone who understand this better, could you please advice me what should I do? Should I waste tons of time or it's muck more likely impossible to do?
Thanks!
mrGenry said:
Hello, there is my problem with OP9 Pro – phone was stuck with some bug and only way to fix it was Wipe Data. Now it's ok, but I do really need to restore photos and videos. Phone is NOT rooted.
After reading tons of information I'm not sure that it's possible to get data back. As I understand I need to follow next steps:
1. Unlock bootloader without wiping data again in order not to lose old structure.
2. Root device, or at least temporary root it.
3. Use some tools to search and restore photos.
But now I'm not sure that everything would be fine. Even the first step is not 100% guarantee that it's possible to avoid data wiping.
So, If there are someone who understand this better, could you please advice me what should I do? Should I waste tons of time or it's muck more likely impossible to do?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you are not bootloader unlocked right now. All hope is lost since unlocking will force a wipe of data that can't be stopped.
MrSteelX said:
If you are not bootloader unlocked right now. All hope is lost since unlocking will force a wipe of data that can't be stopped.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just wiped phone and restored some latest backup (which did not contain media ofc). I was reading about scenario, when we can backup current system, patch it somehow, unlock bootloader and keep old data somehow in place. But it looks so unstable for me.
The folder structure was destroyed when the data was deleted. Although the files still exist -if- they haven't been overwritten, they would be completely juxtaposed. A vast sea of files that could only be sorted by size and file type. No associated time stamps, exif data, original file names and no way to restore it. Let that sink in for a moment.
Just recovering a flash card with a 100 images on it and then trying to sort them is a major headache unless you have a photographic memory. The files names are gone. The recovered images will have a new assigned number generated that is unrelated to the file's original name. Now imagine trying to do that with a 100gb jigsaw puzzle from hell.
Always redundantly backup critical data to at least 2 hdds that are physically and electronically isolated from each other and the PC.
blackhawk said:
The folder structure was destroyed when the data was deleted. Although the files still exist -if- they haven't been overwritten, they would be completely juxtaposed. A vast sea of files that could only be sorted by size and file type. No associated time stamps, exif data, original file names and no way to restore it. Let that sink in for a moment.
Just recovering a flash card with a 100 images on it and then trying to sort them is a major headache unless you have a photographic memory. The files names are gone. The recovered images will have a new assigned number generated that is unrelated to the file's original name. Now imagine trying to do that with a 100gb jigsaw puzzle from hell.
Always redundantly backup critical data to at least 2 hdds that are physically and electronically isolated from each other and the PC.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, thanks! Really, there is nothing critical, just default amount of family photos and videos (phone is my father's, I'm just investigating possibility of recovering).
And tons of different information is all across the web. Also, latest Android 12 is pretty new and I guess lots of articles are not suite for that phone.
So, I guess it's too overwhelmed even to try root phone and search files. Maybe, data value is lower that possibility to turn phone into a brick.
mrGenry said:
Yeah, thanks! Really, there is nothing critical, just default amount of family photos and videos (phone is my father's, I'm just investigating possibility of recovering).
And tons of different information is all across the web. Also, latest Android 12 is pretty new and I guess lots of articles are not suite for that phone.
So, I guess it's too overwhelmed even to try root phone and search files. Maybe, data value is lower that possibility to turn phone into a brick.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you want the best possible outcome take it to a data recovery specialist. That's all they do.
Don't use any apps like FoneDoctor, they will find stuff but encrypt the drive $o only that app can unencrypt it.
blackhawk said:
If you want the best possible outcome take it to a data recovery specialist. That's all they do.
Don't use any apps like FoneDoctor, they will find stuff but encrypt the drive $o only that app can unencrypt it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! A bit upset, but Im great to get useful information.
mrGenry said:
Thanks! A bit upset, but Im great to get useful information.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Losing critical data is never pretty.
I've lost a database with decades of data on it. The only way to help prevent this is redundant backups.
Perhaps your father had backup them up deliberately or by happenstance to a PC or other device.

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