How to find deleted whatsapp images
How to restore deleted WhatsApp photos and videos
It should be noted that WhatsApp has no dedicated feature to restore deleted media from chat. But users can still recover deleted files from file manager or cloud storage. Here’s how.
Divya Bhati
New Delhi,UPDATED: Dec 1, 2022 15:19 IST
By Divya Bhati: WhatsApp is one of the most used instant messaging apps globally with millions of daily active users. Users not only chat with one another on the platform but also share media files including photos, videos, and more. But often due to storage crunch, many users tend to delete large WhatsApp files and in the process lose a lot of important photos and videos. If you have also done the same, do not worry because there's a way to restore the deleted files.
advertisement
While there is no dedicated feature by WhatsApp to recover these media files, there are some tricks through which users can recover deleted photos and videos. Here's a closer look at how users can recover deleted photos and videos on WhatsApp.
WhatsApp saves all photos in the phone gallery
WhatsApp by default saves all the photos and videos in the phone gallery. So, even if you have sent the media and deleted it from the chat, the photos will be saved in the device gallery, Google Photos or Photos for iOS.
Restoring WhatsApp backup from Google Drive or iCloud
WhatsApp backs up the chats and media on Google Drive for Android users and on iCloud for iOS users. If the media has been deleted after the daily backup, then you can recover the media files by restoring the backup from Google Drive or iCloud on your device. To recover from Backup-
- Uninstall WhatsApp on your device and reinstall.
- Setup with the same phone number.
- When prompted during the setup to restore the data from a backup, accept it.
- Once the setup is completed all the media and conversations that were successfully backed will be restored on the device.
Check WhatsApp Media Folder
The option for restoring WhatsApp media from the media folder is only available for Android users.
- Open the file explorer app.
- Go to the WhatsApp folder in the root directory.
- Now go to the media folder and WhatsApp Images folder inside it.
- You will see all the received images in this folder.
- Go to the sent folder and you can find the deleted photo or media there.
Turn off Delete Media optipn from Gallery
So, if you want to avoid deleting WhatsApp media accidentally from the phone gallery while deleting it from WhatsApp chat, then turn off "Also delete media received in this chat from the device gallery" option.
- Open any WhatsApp chat.
- Select a media and tap on the delete icon.
- WhatsApp will prompt your 4 options-
- Also delete media received in this chat from the device gallery.
- Delete for everyone.
- Delete for me
- Cancel
- Now, uncheck the first option to avoid deleting media from the phone gallery.
Edited By:
Divya Bhati
Published On:
Dec 1, 2022
How to Recover Deleted Photos From WhatsApp
It's easy to accidentally delete photos in WhatsApp. After one mistaken tap, you might wonder how to retrieve WhatsApp pictures you erased.
Let's look at how to recover deleted photos from WhatsApp. We'll look at the possible methods for getting your photos back and what you should know about this unfortunate scenario.
How to Recover WhatsApp Images That Were Saved Automatically
By default, on both Android and iPhone, WhatsApp will automatically download images from your chats to your device. Thus, the first place you should check to get back deleted photos from WhatsApp is your phone's photo app.
On Android, have a look inside the Gallery app or Google Photos. iPhone users should look at the Photos app. To help narrow your search, switch to the Albums tab and look for WhatsApp.
You might also use the search tools of your gallery app to check around the time the image was sent, if you remember that information.
2 Images
If you find your deleted WhatsApp photo, you're in luck! You still have a copy and can send or share it anywhere you like. Be sure to back it up so you don't permanently lose it. You should also know what to do if WhatsApp stops downloading media in the future.
In case you don't see the photo here, but you use cloud storage on your phone, there's still hope. If you use the automatic camera upload feature of your cloud storage app, there's a chance that WhatsApp downloaded the image on its own, then your cloud storage app uploaded it automatically.
Check inside the Camera Uploads, Camera Roll, or similar folder of your cloud storage service and you might find the image inside.
How to Recover WhatsApp Images From Someone Else
If the above didn't work, recovering a deleted picture from WhatsApp without a backup might still be easier than you think.
You should next check to see if the person (or people) you were talking to has a copy of the message with the lost photo attached. If you uploaded an image to a WhatsApp chat and then deleted it on your end, someone else in the group chat (or your chat partner) could still have it on their device.
Ask the person to check their WhatsApp chat for the picture. If they have it, they can forward you the image, or even save it to their phone and pass it on using email or another messaging service. WhatsApp lets you see all media shared in a chat by tapping its name at the top and choosing Media, links, and docs.
Just because you tapped Delete For Me on a photo in WhatsApp doesn't mean it's gone for everyone. WhatsApp only shows the Delete For Everyone option for about an hour after you send a message, making it tougher to hit by accident.
2 Images
It's wise to ask people to recover WhatsApp images for you as soon as possible.
The longer you wait, the greater chance of the other person also deleting the image, losing it when they switch to a new phone, or similar.
How to Restore Deleted Photos From a WhatsApp Backup
If nobody else has a copy of your deleted image, the next best way to recover lost WhatsApp photos is through a backup. Both the Android and iPhone versions of WhatsApp support backups (to Google Drive and iCloud, respectively). If it hasn't been long since you lost the photo(s), restoring your latest WhatsApp backup is your best bet.
Of course, you must have enabled WhatsApp's backup feature before deleting the image for this to work. If you haven't backed up in the past, this method isn't an option.
First, navigate to Settings > Chats > Chat Backup. You'll see information here, including when the latest backup ran and how often you're set to back up your data. If you deleted the pictures since the last backup, you can uninstall and reinstall WhatsApp to restore the backup and thus recover your images.
2 Images
Simply uninstall the app from your device, then reinstall a fresh copy of WhatsApp from the App Store or Google Play. You'll have to confirm your phone number again, then you'll see a prompt to restore your data from a backup, if there is one. Accept this, and WhatsApp will restore all your messages as they were at the time of backup.
Note that doing this will cause you to lose any WhatsApp messages you've exchanged since your last backup. You should thus make sure you save or screenshot any important messages before you restore the old backup to get your pictures back. Again, time is of the essence here. If another backup was performed since you deleted the photos, you're likely out of luck.
How to Recover Deleted WhatsApp Photos From Your Phone's Storage (Android Only)
On Android, by default, WhatsApp saves every image that you send and receive and puts them in a specific folder. Thus, you can erase an image from a WhatsApp chat and still have it on your phone in this folder.
Download a free file Android explorer app, such as Files by Google, then drill down to the following folder:
Internal Memory > WhatsApp > Media > WhatsApp Images
2 Images
Here you'll see all the images you've received in WhatsApp. There's a Sent folder inside this one that contains pictures you've sent. Browse through and see if your missing photos from WhatsApp are inside.
If you're looking for a media type other than photos, you'll also see WhatsApp Video and other folders here—be sure to have a look at them.
Unfortunately, this step isn't an option for iPhone users. This is because Android allows you to browse much of the device's local folder hierarchy, while iOS's Files app is limited to just a few cloud folders.
Try Dedicated Recovery Solutions for WhatsApp Photos
When you search Google for help recovering deleted WhatsApp images, you're likely to come across dozens of programs that promise a solution.
While they sound great, the reality of recovering WhatsApp photos in this way is grim.
Just like recovering deleted WhatsApp messages, the vast majority of this "recovery" software isn't going to help you. While recovering WhatsApp images is a bit different than recovering normal text messages, these programs all still have the same big problems: they require root access (on Android), don't work without paying, or both.
These recovery programs follow a similar story. They claim that they can easily recover your messages by installing software on your desktop and connecting your phone. But once you run the program, you'll either get no result, see that the app requires root access, or have to pay to actually perform the recovery. These include dr.fone, Johosoft, iMyFone, and similar tools.
And they're not cheap, either. A license typically costs anywhere from $20-50, and even if you do decide to pay, there's no telling if the software will actually recover anything.
You can try if you're desperate, but don't get your hopes up.
The WhatsApp Photo Recovery Truth
Unfortunately, the only real way to recover deleted media from WhatsApp comes from having a proper backup beforehand. WhatsApp does not keep your chat history on its servers, due to the app's nature of being end-to-end encrypted. You can't contact the company to recover messages or files.
In case you wondered, you can't use file recovery programs like Recuva either. These apps can't scan modern smartphones to recover files, as today's phones don't use the USB Mass Storage protocol that external drives do.
Once you delete a message, the only way you can recover it is through the backup file kept on your phone or your cloud account. If you have a backup, the best way to restore it is using the reinstall and restore method detailed above.
Without a backup, you can't restore those photos. Recovery apps don't have the ability to make deleted images appear out of nowhere.
This is why it's so important to back up everything ahead of time to prevent such a loss of data.
If you do decide to give one of the recovery programs a try (which we don't recommend), make sure you act quickly. When you erase a file from your phone, it isn't deleted right away. Instead, the OS marks it as safe for deletion. Then, when new data comes in, it replaces the data tagged for deletion. That means you have the best chance of recovering data soon after deleting it.
Good Luck With Recovering Deleted WhatsApp Images
We've laid out the possible methods for restoring any WhatsApp photos you deleted. Unfortunately, most of the methods rely on thinking ahead before the problem happens, but there's still a chance that you can retrieve your photos.
Otherwise, you'll now know what to do to keep your pictures safe in the future.
How to recover deleted WhatsApp photos on Android
Almost every user at least once in his life has experienced a situation when some important photos were - intentionally or accidentally - deleted from the correspondence in the WhatsApp application.
The reasons for this can be very diverse: the images might seem unnecessary to you, and you deleted them yourself, and then realized it and decided to restore them; maybe your child or friend accidentally deleted some files from the chat on your device; or perhaps the photos disappeared after a crash in the program or as a result of an arbitrary shutdown of the device. In any case, this situation can be quickly corrected. About how to recover deleted photos in WhatsApp on Android , read further in our article.
- Method 1. How to recover deleted photos in WhatsApp -- The easiest
- Method 2: Search for WhatsApp photos in the phone's internal memory
- Method 3. How to restore photos in WhatsApp on Android from a backup
- Method 4. Restore WhatsApp photo on Android from pen pal
Method 1. How to recover deleted photos in WhatsApp -- The easiest
How to recover deleted photos in whatsapp? Here, let's get acquainted with the simplest and most reliable method.
To quickly and easily recover deleted photos from WhatsApp on an Android phone, you can use specialized programs that will help you make the file recovery process as simple and efficient as possible. One of the best programs of this type is Tenorshare UltData WhatsApp Recovery. Download the installation file of the program from the official website of the developer, install it on your computer and follow the attached guide. nine0005
-
Download and install Tenorshare UltData UltData WhatsApp Recovery on your computer and launch the software. Connect your device to your computer with a USB cable.
-
There are 2 functions to choose from, select "Recover Whatsapp Data".
-
Follow the on-screen instructions to enable USB debugging on your Android phone. After that, your Android phone will be detected automatically. Then click the "Start" button in the program. nine0005
-
Sign in to your WhatsApp account on your device. If you have already done so, click the "Yes, I want to continue" button;
Note: To avoid data loss, follow the on-screen instructions to backup WhatsApp;
-
After Backup, UltData for Android will start scanning WhatsApp data on your device;
-
After the scan is completed, all WhatsApp data will be displayed, including WhatsApp messages from a year ago.
Select the messages you want to recover, then click the "restore" button. Also, you can preview them before restoring. nine0005
Video Tutorial: How to Recover WhatsApp Data with UltData for Android
This program will become your reliable assistant in recovering any type of files. Friendly interface and intuitive commands will make the whole process of data recovery convenient and comfortable for the user: a couple of mouse clicks and the necessary files will be available again on your computer. Below we offer you a brief overview of this program for review, and you can always find more detailed information, download versions and user reviews on the official website of the Tenorshare developer. So, the main features of UltData WhatsApp Recovery:
- Restore various types of data, including contacts, call history, SMS text messages, photos, videos, WhatsApp media files, etc.
- Support for over 6000 Android phones and tablets, including Samsung, Huawei, Xiaomi, OPPO, Moto Z, etc.
- Fully compatible with Android 12/11/10/9/8.1/8/7/6/5/4.4 or iOS.
- Availability of the Russian-language version of the program.
Method 2: Search for WhatsApp photos in the phone's internal memory
If you only deleted the images you need from the WhatsApp chat, you can easily find them in the appropriate folder on your phone's internal memory. Provided, of course, that you have not disabled the function of automatically saving files to the memory of your device. To go to photos downloaded from WhatsApp conversations on your phone, follow the instructions below.
- Step 1. On your Android phone, open File Manager.
- Step 2: Select "Device Storage" and find the "WhatsApp" folder. nine0008
-
Step 3. From the three folders inside, open the "Media" folder and then select the "WhatsApp Images" folder. All photos received through the application will be located here. In addition, here you will find the "Sent" folder, in which the images you sent are saved.
- Step 4: If desired, copy the photo data to a PC by connecting your phone to the computer with a USB cable.
Method 3. How to restore photos in whatsapp on android from backup
2.1. Restore from local backup
Before restoring images from a backup, save your phone's current files to another phone, computer, or external media. Then follow the instructions below.
- Step 1: Remove the WhatsApp application from your device.
-
Step 2. Open File Manager. Select "Device Storage" and find the "WhatsApp" folder. From the three folders inside, open the "Databases" folder. This folder can contain up to 7 backup files that are stored for a maximum of a week. Select the backup file you need (the date of creation of each is displayed in the file name). nine0005
- Step 3: Rename the selected backup file from "msgstore-YYYY-MM-DD.1.db.crypt12" to "msgstore.db.crypt12".
- Step 4: Download and install the application again, and then launch it.
- Step 5. When prompted to restore messages and media, select the Restore option. All files in the backup, including lost photos, will be available to you again in the WhatsApp conversation.
2.2 Restore from Google Drive Backup
If you have backed up WhatsApp chats to Google Drive, you can use them to recover deleted WhatsApp photos. To do this, it is important to remember the phone number and Google account that you used when creating the backup. Please note that only the most recent backup can be restored from Google Drive.
Method 4. Restore whatsapp photo on android from pen pal
In addition to using the above methods, you can simply ask your chat partner to send you the necessary images. Since you deleted the photo from the chat only on your device, then most likely the recipient / sender still has these photos in the correspondence. nine0005
Conclusion
So, in this article, we looked at 4 effective ways to restore photos in WhatsApp on Android.
Each of these options is quite simple, does not require special knowledge or skills, and you can choose any of them based only on your personal preferences. But of course we advise you to try Tenorshare UltData WhatsApp Recovery because it is the easiest and most reliable even though you have deleted your Whatsapp photos. In the comments under this article, you can suggest your own ways to recover photos deleted from the WhatsApp application, as well as share your experience with our readers and tell us which of the methods listed in the article was useful for you! nine0005
How to recover deleted media files and photos sent to Whatsapp
Useful apps » Whatsapp
Updated: 01/09/2022, author - Ilya
Ilya is the editor-in-chief of the site softdroid.net. He is the author of several hundred guides and articles on Android setup. For about 15 years he has been repairing equipment and solving technical problems for iOS and Android.
I dealt with almost all more or less popular brands of mobile smartphones and tablets Samsung, HTC, Xiaomi, etc. I use iPhone 12 and Samsung Galaxy S21 with the latest firmware version for testing. nine0005
Information about the author
Whatsapp photos are stored not only in correspondence. A file that you accidentally deleted from one location is likely to be found elsewhere: in a chat, backup, device file storage. If the search was unsuccessful, try to restore the image using recovery programs for Android and Windows.
Contents of :
Which folder contains Whatsapp photos
All photos sent from the device or sent (received) via WhatsApp are automatically saved. Where are Whatsapp photos placed? On Android devices, you will find messenger media in a folder called WhatsApp in the internal memory. nine0005
How to find "lost" photos:
- Open File Manager + (or another file system navigator).
- Navigate to the Media folder. Full path: Android > media > com.whatsapp > WhatsApp > Media
- Within the WhatsApp directory there are three subfolders
- Open Media, look for WhatsApp Images in it and see its content:
- WhatApp images - folder with photos
- WhatApp video - video folder
As a rule, if a photo is deleted from the correspondence, but not from the Smartphone Gallery, it can be found in the specified folders.
Note . On some models of smartphones and tablets, the folder with files from WhatsApp may not be located on the internal, but on removable media - a microsd memory card. This is usually found on Chinese devices with a modified (rooted) firmware.
Recovery method if photos are left in chats, but not in Gallery
New versions of the WhatsApp application announced a new feature: if you deleted a photo from the Gallery, then by going to the chat where this photo was, you can download it back to the gallery. However, this method of “rescue” is relevant only on the condition that you have not cleared the chat itself, the correspondence with its contents.
How to restore images from a backup file
In addition to Media, there is a Backup directory inside the WhatsApp folder where backups are stored. The messenger generates them automatically once a day/week/month (if this feature was previously enabled in the settings). By default, backups are made every night. nine0005
If you deleted a photo sent more than a day ago from the Android Gallery and chat, try restoring it from a backup copy. To restore files and correspondence from backup, you need:
- Delete the WhatsApp messenger.
- Download and install it again.
- Enter a phone number to log into your account.
- When the system prompts you to restore data from a backup, agree to the offer (click the "Restore" button). nine0137
- Wait for installation and recovery to complete.
It is important to consider that the copy will contain files from 1 to 7 days old. It is possible that the documents you are looking for will not be in the archive.
In addition, it is desirable to set up a backup copy every day (to prevent accidental deletion of data). You can do this in the settings, section "Chats" → "Backup copy of chats".
How to recover photos from WhatsApp chat
In the latest version of WhatsApp, media files and documents are stored on the server. Any of them can be re-downloaded if the correspondence in which they were transferred was saved directly. You can do this in the mobile and browser versions of the messenger.
To open the browser version on a computer:
- Go to web.whatsapp.com in a browser.
- Open the app on your phone and scan the QR code (Settings → WhatsApp Web) .
- Please wait until all data is loaded - the messenger can be used.
nine0137
DiskDigger or Undeleter to search for a deleted photo on the phone's sd card
DiskDigger or Undeleter applications are useful when the correspondence with the desired image has not been saved, but it was previously downloaded to the smartphone's memory. The above applications allow you to find deleted files that have not yet been overwritten. The fact is that when deleting a file, it is not destroyed, but only marked as “suitable for overwriting”. Thanks to this, accidentally erased documents and multimedia can be found, especially if not much time has passed since the erasure. nine0005
The algorithm of actions in the mobile versions of DiskDigger or Undeleter is the same (but consider the first option):
- Install and launch the DiskDigger application.
- Choose the scanning path, in this case, the address of the folder with WhatsApp media files on the memory card (media > com.whatsapp > WhatsApp > Media).
- Select the scanning method: "Dig even deeper".
- Select the file types to be scanned (eg jpg, png). nine0137
- Waiting for the search to complete.
- View the results, mark suitable files for recovery.
- Choose where to save the recovered files and click "Save selected files".
Photo recovery on iPhone via Dr.Fone
I should note that this method is ineffective and will work in rare cases (if root access to the file system is provided, which is now rare for modern Android devices). For iPhone, the procedure is as follows:
- Download Dr.fone (available for Windows, Mac OS) and run it on your computer.
- Connect your iPhone to your computer with a USB cable.
- Check "WhatsApp & Attachments".
- Click the "Start Scan" button to scan the deleted WhatsApp images in the iPhone memory.
- After the scan is completed, the recovered items (all found photos, videos) will appear in the categories. nine0008
- Select from the list the files you want to recover from the chat
- Click the Recover to Computer button.
- Check the results.
Good to read : Can Dr Fone be trusted?
Restoring video from WhatsApp chat
We often get questions like this:
“In connection with the purchase of a new device, I transferred all information from Android to PC, made a WhatsApp backup, deleted the application from Android. All photos and videos were deleted, after I found out that they were not on the PC either. I downloaded WhatsApp again - photos and chats were restored, but no videos, covers remained in the gallery, and they have weight, but they are not reproduced! There were very important videos with the first steps of the child and family videos…”
Step-by-step instructions for recovering video from Whatsapp:
- Open any file manager for Android.
- Go to the internal storage and find the Whatsapp folder. It stores photos, videos, audio and other media objects.
- Open the Whatsapp folder, find all the media files there and check their contents.
- If you don't find anything, go to your internal storage folder at Whatsapp > Trash.
- If you can't find the video in the Trash, your content has been permanently deleted (and most likely cannot be restored on your phone). nine0008 Recuva You don't need root to recover photos with it, but it only works with the phone's sd card.
Recuva analyzes the memory of the gadget connected to the computer and finds files with the required extension in it. Upon completion of the analysis, you can select the appropriate images and restore them in a couple of clicks.
How to use Recuva and PhotoRec (video):
The procedure for recovery is:
- Download, install and run Recuva.
- Select the medium on which the document was deleted.
- Start analysis.
- Select the desired file and restore it via the appropriate function.
The last option is to ask the sender or recipient for a copy of the photo.
Forwarded media is saved on the devices of all participants in the WhatsApp conversation. Therefore, if all else fails, there is one obvious and simple way - to contact the one with whom the correspondence and file exchange were conducted. The sender or recipient of the image you need can send it again, and you will save time: searching, configuring and trying to deal with Recuva and its analogues. nine0005
How can I prevent accidental deletion of files in the future?
The best way to recover photos is not to delete or lose them. If you follow these steps, you will reduce to zero the likelihood of losing valuable information.
Simple steps:
- Make regular Whatsapp backups.
- In the backup settings, enable the "Add video" option to save a copy of this type of file.
- Synchronize Whatsapp with your Google account by connecting it through the messenger settings. nine0137
- Copy media files (photos, videos) to a safe place on your hard drive to avoid accidental deletion from your phone or when copying to Whatsapp.
The bitter irony is that these steps should be taken BEFORE you delete something, not afterwards. So we advise, if you are already faced with the unpleasant problem of losing Whatsapp data, then take appropriate measures.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is it possible to recover WhatsApp photos from the phone's internal memory (folder - WhatsApp photos) that were deleted when clearing the cache? nine0004
Theoretically, yes.
In practice, it depends on many factors. First of all, this will require root access and the DiskDigger for Android application (as an option, Undeleter). We advise you not to hesitate, as photos may be overwritten by other applications.
On the phone (OS Android 10) deleted the WhatsApp application. Accordingly, all photos and videos were deleted. How to restore them?
- Reinstall Whatsapp mobile app on Android via Play Store. nine0008
- Connect your account when launching the messenger for the first time.
- If there is a backup copy of Whatsapp data, you will be prompted to restore it..
- Check if the files are displayed now.
Photos and videos were dropped on WhatsApp. One fine day, empty windows appeared in the morning, then completely disappeared.
The easiest way is to ask the other person to send the files again. Since Whatsapp does not store these files on its server, you can only restore data from a backup if you have one (on your phone or in Google Drive).
nine0005
When I open WhatsApp and they send me photos, they don't open. A notification appears: no sd card.
- The memory card may contain reading errors, which is why the messenger does not detect it. The solution to the problem is to check the media for errors according to the instructions.
- If no errors are found, you will have to format the sd card and / or restore data on it.
We did a flashing of the phone. When installing Whatsapp, what was on the old one was restored. How to return a photo to a phone with a new firmware? nine0004
Most likely, it will not be possible to return locally saved files (when flashing, data from the internal memory is deleted). You can only restore from a backup copy. Or export photos and videos on the old phone, then import them to the new phone.
Please rate the article:
Ilya is the editor-in-chief of the site softdroid.
