2022-10-30
Readers regularly ask how to recover videos on their phone, so I wrote this guide. All you'll need is Recuva software, a card reader and a phone memory card. Let's get to searching for your /files!
Content
- Download Recuva
- Recover Android mp4 (video)
- Run the Recovery Wizard
- Save your movies to disk. Disk
- Check video quality
- Video recovered with corruptions
- Frequently asked questions
Download and install Recuva
Recuva - is a free downloadable repair program. I recommend it because it is very easy to learn. Recovery Wizard is available in Russian. Besides video, the program finds dozens of other data types and formats. Thus, it is able to return music /files, documents, pictures. The main thing is that your /files have not been overwritten by other data. Well, in the most severe cases, the deep scan option will be useful.
So the first step is to download the program and install it on your computer.
Important. Install the program NOT on the disk where the /files have been removed.
Download Recuva
Connect the USB memory stick to your computer
To recover deleted video on your Android you need to read the data from the memory stick through the card reader (what is that). If you use a laptop - you're in luck: it usually already has a built-in card reader.
And in the worst case you could use an mp3 player (if you have a memory card slot) or a telephone instead of a card reader. The main thing is to have your phone's sd card displayed in the list of available drives when you connect the device.
Recover guide
I have recorded for you the instructions on how to recover deleted videos and mp4 movies. Check it out, it will only take you 2 minutes of your time.
Starting the Recuva Recovery Wizard
The Recuva Recovery Wizard will be useful for novice users, and it makes the process very easy.
When the Recovery Wizard window appears, click "Next". You need to select the type of information you will be recovering. In our case this is the item marked in the screenshot.
Recuva Recover Wizard: Select the media to search
The following video types included in the Recuva search: avi, mov, mpg, mp4, flv, wmv, mpg, mpeg, mpe, mpv, m1v, m4v, ifv, qt.
The selection of data types will save you time. Recuva will skip all other media types. Basically, you can select "All /files" (for example if you don't see the above listed extension), but this will make the recovery process more complicated.
In the "Location..." field select the location where you deleted the /files and where you want to recover them from. Tick the "On the Memory Card" option in order to scan your storage location.
Select the location you want the program to look for your deleted videos
At the last step you should enable the Deep Analysis. This will significantly increase the chances of recovery. Besides, an sd-card scans quickly compared to a large hard drive. Based on our experience, the search for the deleted videos will take less than an hour.
Click the "Begin" button and wait for Recuva to scan the phone memory card completely.
Saving recovered video /files to disk
When the memory card scan is finished, the search results will be displayed. For your illustration we will move to the advanced mode.
Filtering recovery results
A color marker appears next to the file name in the line:
- red -little chance
- yellow - chance of recovery
- green - high chance
The searched video /files can be identified by name. However this might not always be possible (after deleting the title information might disappear from the file table). Mark the lines you need and click "Restore". Specify where you want to save the software.
Important! Do not specify for saving the disk from where the /files have been deleted. There is the possibility that you will overwrite the information: this reduces your chances. 
Checking the quality of the video clip restore
Once you have saved the clip to your computer. You have to check the restored video: are there any corrupted parts, is it playing correctly?
To verify if the video is okay, launch any player and scroll.
Check that the restored video does not contain artifacts
It is fine and no artifacts, go back to drink tea and celebrate the victory!
Video not recovered, Recuva doesn't help
Recuva is a great tool, clear and accessible to the user. But there are more functional software available. I will recommend 3 other utilities that can recover deleted video from phone. If Recuva couldn't find the deleted clips or saved a corrupted clip, use them.
Active File Recovery
Supported formats: 4xm, asf, amv, avi, fli, flc, flv, mxf, mkv, mpg, mts, mpeg, m2v, r3d, rm, rmvb, wmv.
With Active File Recovery can recover deleted videos not only on the phone but also on USB flash drives, external USB disks. Supported non-Windows file systems are UFS, XFS, Ext2/Ext3/Ext4 & BtrFS, which means more chances to detect deleted items on the hard disk.
In the Pro version, support for RAID arrays has been added - this will be interesting for the professionals involved in editing, etc.
At last Active File Recovery has a LastChance Recovery option for recovery when the Advanced Search is no longer useful.
CardRecovery
The CardRecovery program searches for removable media: usb flash drives, microsd, etc. Recover video via a step-by-step wizard.
Supports the following formats for recovery: AVI, MPG, MOV, MPEG, MPEG-2, ASF, MP4, 3GP, MTS
DiskDigger
DiskDigger software is one of the closest alternative to Recuva.
Supported Recovery Types: AVI, FLV, WMV, MOV, M4V, MP4, 3GP, F4V, RM, RMVB, MKV, MPEG, MTS, M2TS, R3D, WEBM
It features advanced search and scan of the specified area on the phone flash drive. Supports virtual and hard disks, USB flash memory sticks, CD/DVD and other media.
Table: supported video formats for восстановлении
| Формат/Программа | 3gp | asf | avi | flv | m4v | mkv | mov | mp4 | mpeg | mpg | wmv |
| Recuva | + | + | + | + | + | + | + | + | |||
| Active File Recovery | + | + | + | + | + | ||||||
| CardRecovery | + | + | + | + | + | + | + | ||||
| DiskDigger | + | + | + | + | + | + | + | + | + |
Часто задаваемые вопросы
Возможно ли как-video, the video shot with the Android camera that has been saved by default to the sd card?
Unfortunately it is not possible to recover the videos. In this situation we can provide you only with a few advices:
- Check the content of the phone internal storage with your computer or your Dropbox/Google Drive.
- Here you go, just in case, check the content of the phone internal storage with Android Gallery: in case the video is present.
- The only chance to recover the data on the phone is to find the stolen flash drive.
I recovered all the photos, but the only family video in mov resolution, although I found it.
The Recover My Files software is quite suitable for recovery, however do not stop at one product. Try Recuva in advanced verification mode. See above for instructions on how to recover. You may use the Recovery Wizard, selecting the file type "Video" (mov is included in the list of supported file extensions).
Also consider the Diskdigger, CardRecovery and R Studio Portable.
The phone had little memory left. I decided to reboot it, because half of the pictures and videos had disappeared. How to recover the lost /files!?
We can not determine the reason why the videos have been deleted from the phone. Android cannot erase documents without your knowledge, this could be caused by a virus or a cleaning program.
If the data have been stored on an sd card, it may be recovered through Recuva or CardRecovery (do not forget to insert the card through a card reader and PC).
Rescue from the internal memory is more difficult: this is the purpose of the Undeleter utility, installable directly on the Android (can be downloaded from Google Play).
The action cam recorded video /files. I have accidentally hit the format button and the /files have been erased. Question : is it possible to recover after formatting ?
Your main mistake is that after deleting /files (by formatting) you overwrite them, and that reduces the possibility to recover the data. Roughly speaking the video /files which were marked for deletion in the file table have most likely been overwritten with new ones after you ran out of free space.
However you can still try to recover a formatted flash drive at least partially - if that really saves the situation. For this purpose we suggest to read the corresponding article on our website: see how to recover a formatted drive.
The phone internal memory stores pictures and videos. I accessed the gallery only the multimedia from Viber application remained but the ones from the internal memory were gone.
Recovering from sd card and internal memory are, as the saying goes, two big differences. The problem is that you cannot simply access the phone's file system.
Messenger Viber stores user /files in the * /viber/media/User photos folder. You need to search for them there. Recovery programs are handy for finding /files on the sd card, but to scan the internal memory, you need to create an image of it. You can read how to do that here. After making the image you can recover your Android videos just like you can recover your sd-card.
I deleted a video from the memory, then I rebooted my phone. Can I recover the /files, does this require the installation of root?
Yes, the phone needs the activation of root access, because the video was deleted from the internal memory.
As for the applications, the DiskDigger (Android version) and Recuva would be suitable for the recovery. In order for Recuva to "see" the drive in the device list and be able to scan it, you need to make a copy of the internal memory. How to do that I described here.
If you can recover some of the /files erased by the traffic police after the car accident.
Yes, if the recorded video was stored in the sd card.
Install any of the programs, connect the memory card to the PC (you need a card reader for that) and start the scanner.
Be aware that the /files might have been overwritten several times. If you have used the recorder after deleting it there is not much chance.
Two days ago I deleted a video on my phone. Going to the Recycle Bin, they're not there. Where can they be and how can I find them?
There is no Recycle Bin on my phone by default, like on my desktop. Although, for example for Android there is an application called Dumpster, which emulates the Recycle Bin.
We assume that Dumpster has not been installed on your phone. In this case the following programs may help you:
- DiskDigger for Android (to recover from the internal memory)
- Recuva - to recover from an sd card.
The programs support video and photo formats and are not limited to the free version.
Video was open yesterday. Then my phone ran out of power. I moved the flash drive to another phone. Took a few clips, then moved it back. As a result no old videos and no new ones.
For the Android there are animation applications like Undeleter or DiskDigger. Both products are easy to download from Google Play. Please note however, that their functionality might be insufficient plus they require an activated root access to work properly.
If the video was on an sd card we suggest searching for a PC or laptop and recovering it with Recuva - this would be more reliable and straightforward.
