Question HELP! Looks like I lost ALL my Photos when trying to move them to Windows (Android / Pixel Pro 7)

[sdhaku]

I have a Pixel 7 Pro and from time to time will back up my photos to my desktop. I'm still running Windows 7 Pro (yeah yeah I know time to upgrade but I like it). I haven't had issues in the past with transferring as long as I broke the data up into smaller chunks. This morning was different. It even had a hard time loading the pictures when connected to my phone. This is probably due to the amount of data there. I tried a few different settings but I think they killer was I tried the "transfer images and videos" Windows option when connected. That seemed to lag so I canceled it. Next thing I know my entire Photo collection is gone from my phone. This is about 2 years worth of photos (some very important from family that have passed away). I don't use cloud services as I prefer privacy (no lectures please). I tried DiskDigger but seems like that only flags images I sent through something like WhatsApp or LINE or screenshots. Not the images I had taken with my camera.

How can I recover this data?

 

[ex_bubblehead]

It all depends upon the method of transfer. If you were copying then there is still a possibility of recovery. If using move then it's likely a no go.

 

[sdhaku]

It all depends upon the method of transfer. If you were copying then there is still a possibility of recovery. If using move then it's likely a no go.

I usually go in and copy then paste over to my computer. Because it seemed unresponsive I tried a few different things. For example PTP when connected vs File Transfer. I do think the "Import pictures and videos" (using Windows) option is what screwed things up. But it basically froze up. Does this option REMOVE data? I would think it would just copy it.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

The data is likely gone and not retrievable at this point. This is why you make backups BEFORE something like this happens, especially if you have things of vital importance.

 

[sdhaku]

The data is likely gone and not retrievable at this point. This is why you make backups BEFORE something like this happens, especially if you have things of vital importance.

How could I do it "BEFORE"? THIS WAS THE BACKUP!

 

[ex_bubblehead]

A single copy is NOT a backup. Multiple copies on multiple media, kept in completely separate locations.

 

[sdhaku]

A single copy is NOT a backup. Multiple copies on multiple media, kept in completely separate locations.

So create a copy of everything on my phone...on my phone?

This is how I've always done it:
1. COPY photos/videos over to a photos directory for that year on my desktop machine
2. COPY that directory over to an external hard drive

This way the data is in 3 places (my phone, my computer, and a backup drive). THIS TIME there was an issue during step 1, the initial copy of data from phone to computer. This is the problem I'm trying to solve. I don't really want to resort to using cloud services. I'm more focused on data recovery solutions.

 

[stuff and nonesense]

Professional data recovery companies can sometimes recover data. This is dependent on the data not being overwritten and it isn’t cheap. You could call one of these and ask if they can help.

(I tend to email myself the valuable photos from my phone, time consuming but I don’t risk losing the originals)

 

[Scar Mountain]

Two things I can think of:

Check your phone storage usage. Has it gone down? It's possible in principle the photos are still in the file system but no longer accessible through whatever app it was.

Do you have any prior phone backups held on other storage media or your PC? It's always good to have a phone backup to restore from, and if you do, at least part of your photo album would be there.