Deleting photos from a smartphone is one of the most frustrating situations for a user, especially when it comes to valuable footage: family photos, documents or unique moments that cannot be restored. Xiaomi Redmi smartphones (be it Redmi Note 12, Redmi 10 or POCO X5) are no exception: even here photos can disappear after accidentally pressing, crashing the system or resetting settings. Fortunately, the manufacturer has provided several mechanisms for data protection, and third-party tools allow you to return what you lost even in the most difficult cases.
In this article, we will look at all the ways you can recover deleted photos on Xiaomi Redmi, from standard MIUI features to professional PC utilities. You will learn how the shopping cart works in the gallery, where to look for backups in Mi Cloud, and what programs will help if the images were deleted months ago, and how to prevent data loss in the future with automatic backup and cloud services.
⚠️ Important: The faster you start to act after deleting, the better the chances of success. Every new photo, video or installed application reduces the likelihood of recovering old files, since the system can overwrite their data.
1.Check the basket in the standard MIUI gallery
The first thing you need to do is look in the gallery basket, and in MIUI firmware (starting with version 12), deleted photos are not erased immediately, but are sent to a temporary storage facility where they are 30 days old, both for images that have been manually deleted and for those that have disappeared after cleaning the cache or crashing the application.
To find the basket:
- Open the Gallery app (a icon with multi-colored squares).
- Slip along three horizontal lines in the lower right corner (menu).
- Select Recycle Bin (may be called Recently Deleted on some versions of MIUI).
- Find the right photos, highlight them and click Restore.
If the cart is empty or not on the menu, it means:
- 📅 The photos were deleted more than 30 days ago (retention period has expired).
- 🗑️ You cleaned the basket manually through Settings → Warehouse → Cleanup.
- 🔄 The smartphone was reset to factory settings.
⚠️ Note: Some Redmi models (e.g. Redmi) 9A or Redmi 8) the cart can be disabled by default. To activate it, go to Gallery Settings → Basket → Turn on.
2. Recovery via Mi Cloud (Xiaomi Cloud Storage)
If your Xiaomi Redmi has enabled sync with Mi Cloud, the chances of returning photos are much higher.The cloud automatically saves copies of the images (provided that the function is activated in the settings).
How to check:
- Open your Settings → Xiaomi Account → Mi Cloud.
- Make sure the slider opposite the Gallery is on (green).
- Go to i.mi.com from any device and log in with the same account.
- In the Gallery section, find the Remote or Recycle Bin folder (up to 60 days of storage).
If there are no photos in the cloud:
- 🔌 Synchronization has been disabled in the settings.
- 📶 At the time of removal there was no connection to the Internet (photos did not have time to download).
- 💾 Cloud is out of space (only 5GB is free).
💡
To avoid future data loss, enable automatic uploading of photos to Mi Cloud over Wi-Fi. Go to Settings → Xiaomi Account → Mi Cloud → Gallery → Autoboot and select Wi-Fi Only.
⚠️ Note: If you have deleted photos from the cloud cart or more than 60 days have passed since sync, it will not be possible to restore them through Mi Cloud.
3. Using Google Photos to Restore
Many Xiaomi Redmi users are installing Google Photos as an alternative to the standard gallery, and this app also has its own shopping cart and backup feature.
Steps to recover:
- Open the Google Photos app.
- Slip on your profile in the upper right corner.
- Select the cart (photos are stored there for 60 days).
- Select the desired pictures and click Restore.
If the cart is empty, but backup has been enabled:
- Go to photos.google.com.
- From the menu on the left, select Archive or Device Folders.
- Check the folder with the name of your Redmi model (e.g. Redmi Note 11).
Important: Google Photos only saves the original photos in full resolution if you have a Google One subscription.The free version compresses the photos to 16 MP, which can degrade the quality.
4. Connecting to a computer and scanning memory
If the photos aren’t found in the cart or cloud, the next step is to connect Xiaomi Redmi to a PC and scan its memory using specialized programs, which works even if the pictures were deleted long ago, but does not guarantee 100% results – it all depends on whether the data was overwritten.
Tools required:
- 🖥️ Computer with Windows/macOS.
- 🔌 Cable USB (preferably original).
- 🛠️ Recovery software (e.g. Recuva, DiskDigger or EaseUS MobiSaver).
Step-by-step:
- Connect Redmi to your PC and select File Transfer (MTP) mode.
- Install and run a recovery program (e.g., Recuva).
- Select your smartphone’s drive (usually a removable drive with a letter like E:).
- Start a deep scan (can take anywhere from 30 minutes to several hours).
- Once completed, mark the photos you found (.jpg,.png,.heic formats) and save them to your PC.
Disable Wi-Fi and mobile data on your phone
Charge your smartphone by at least 50%
Use the original USB-cable
Do not connect your phone to other devices during scanning-->
⚠️ Warning: Do not save recovered files back to your smartphone - this may lead to overwriting the remaining data.
5. Recovery after resetting or system damage
If the photos are missing after a Hard Reset, MIUI update, or physical damage to the phone, standard methods may not work.
| Situation | Decision | Chances of success |
|---|---|---|
| Reset to factory settings | Use DiskDigger with root or connect memory as a disk to a PC | 50-70% |
| Damage to the file system | Switch your smartphone through Fastboot and try to recover data with 7-Data Recovery | 30-60% |
| Physical breakdown (not included) | Remove the memory chip and connect to the programmer (requires a specialist) | 20-40% |
For recovery after discharge:
- Install DiskDigger (the Android version) on your PC.
- Connect Redmi in Debugging Mode (Debugging by Debugging) USB) (included in the settings → The phone. → Version. MIUI — Tap 7 times, then return to the additional → For developers).
- Run a scan with root rights (if the phone is not rooted, the chances are lower).
What to do if the phone is not determined by the PC?
6.Prevention: How to avoid future loss of photos
To avoid the problem of deleted photos, follow these tips:
- ☁️ Enable automatic sync with Mi Cloud and Google Photos (you can use both services at the same time).
- 📁 Regularly copy your photo to a PC or external drive (once a month).
- 🔄 Do not clean gallery cache through applications like Clean Master – this can delete thumbnails and metadata.
- 📱 Use a microSD to store a photo if your phone supports memory expansion.
- 🔒 Set a password for the gallery (in MIUI There is a Secure folder feature to avoid accidental deletion.
⚠️ Note: If you often take pictures in the format HEIF/HEIC (It's the default version of the new Redmi, and note that not all recovery programs support this format. JPG through the Gallery appendix → Edit → Save how.
💡
The most reliable way to protect photos is double backup: to the cloud (Mi Cloud + Google Photos) and to a physical medium (PC or microSD).