How to view deleted photos from Xiaomi phone: from cart to deep scanning

Losing photos from your phone is one of the most frustrating situations for a Xiaomi owner, especially if the photos capture important moments: documents, family holidays or travel. Fortunately, even after deleting, you have a chance to recover files - provided you act quickly and correctly. In this article, we will discuss all possible ways to return deleted photos, from standard MIUI features to professional tools that work even after formatting memory.

It's important to understand that recovery success depends on how long it's been since you deleted it and how much you've been using your phone since then. Every new photo, app installed, or system update can overwrite deleted data, making it impossible to recover it, so take action immediately after you find it missing!

We tested all the methods described on Redmi Note models. 12 Pro+, POCO X5 Pro, Xiaomi 13 Ultra and Mi 11 Lite with the latest versions MIUI 14/15 (Instructions are universal and will be suitable for most of the brand's devices released after the launch of the new product. 2018 year-end.

1.Check the basket at Xiaomi Gallery

The first thing you need to do is to look into the Gallery's built-in application basket, where in MIUI, deleted photos are not erased immediately, but are sent to a temporary storage facility where up to 30 days are left (some models have 15 days), which is the easiest and fastest way to return files without third-party software.

How to open the basket:

• 📱 Open the Gallery app (image with multi-colored squares).
• 🗑️ Click on the three horizontal lines (menu) in the lower right corner.
• 🔍 Select the Recycle Bin (or Recently Deleted on some versions).
• ✅ Tag the desired photos and click Restore.

If the cart is empty or there is no photo, move to the following method. Note: after cleaning the cart manually (Clear button) or after expiration of the storage period, the files are deleted irrevocably in terms of standard MIUI tools.

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On some Xiaomi firmware, the basket is hidden. To turn it on, go to Gallery Settings → Recycle Bin → Enable the basket.

2. Recovery via Xiaomi Cloud (Mi Cloud)

If your phone has synced with Xiaomi Cloud, the chances of returning a photo are much higher.The cloud automatically saves copies of photos, documents and notes, but only if:

• 🔄 Autosynchronization Gallery has been activated in the settings.
• 📶 The phone was connected to the Internet (Wi-Fi or mobile network) after the photo was created.
• 💾 Cloud storage was not exceeded (freely available 5 GB).

How to recover photos from the cloud:

1. Open your Settings → Xiaomi Account → Mi Cloud.
2. Sign in if you have logged out of your account.
3. Select the Gallery (or Photos) section.
4. Click Photo Management and find the Recycle Bin folder or Archive.
5. Mark the desired files and click Restore on the device.

If the photo is not in the cloud cart, check the All photos folder — it may be that they just didn't sync due to lack of Internet. It's also worth checking the Archive, where MIUI sometimes automatically moves old photos.

3. Search for backups in Google Photos

Many Xiaomi users do not even suspect that their photos are automatically uploaded to Google Photos - unless, of course, this feature was manually disabled. the service offers 15 GB of free space (together with Gmail and Google Drive) and saves pictures in original quality or in compressed form (the option is High Quality).

How to check out Google Photos:

• 🌐 Open the Google Photos app (if not, install it from Play Market).
• 🔍 In the bottom menu, select Photos and scroll down – it’s possible that deleted photos are still there.
• 🗑️ Click on the profile avatar → The basket, the photo is stored there for 60 days.
• 🔄 If no photo, check the Archive folder or search by date/place.

Google Photos may not show all photos if:

• 📵 The phone was disabled synchronization over the mobile network (only Wi-Fi).
• 🔋 The battery was discharged during loading.
• 🛠️ You manually disabled backup for the Gallery app.

4.Use of third-party programs for deep scanning

If you don't find a photo in your cart, the cloud, or Google Photos, you'll need to move to professional recovery tools that scan your phone's internal memory at a low level, finding fragments of deleted files, but there are risks:

• ⚠️ Not all programs work with MIUI Due to the features of the file system.
• 🔒 Full access may require root rights, which voids the warranty.
• 🦠 Unqualified use can lead to complete data loss.

We recommend the following proven utilities (tested on Xiaomi with Android 12/13):

Instructions for DiskDigger (the easiest option):

1. Install an app from the Play Market.
2. Start and select Start basic photo scanning.
3. Wait until the process is completed (it can take 10–30 minutes).
4. Tag the photos found and click Restore (save them to a memory card or cloud).

Turn off Wi-Fi and mobile data on your phone

Connect Xiaomi to your PC through the original USB-cable

Enable File Transfer Mode (MTP)

Install ADB drivers (if root is required)

Do not connect other devices to the same port. USB-->

Critically, don't save the recovered photos back to the phone's internal memory, which can overwrite the remaining deleted data, use a memory card, cloud or computer.

5. Recovery through MIUI backup

If you’ve ever created a local backup through Settings → Additional → Backup and Reset, there’s a chance to retrieve a photo from it.This method works even if the phone was reset to factory settings, but requires access to a backup file (usually stored in the MIUI/backup/AllBackup folder).

How to get a photo from the backup:

• 📁 Connect your phone to your PC and find the backup folder (file name starts with backup_ + date).
• 🔧 Rename the file extension from.bak to.zip.
• 📂 Unblock the file with WinRAR or 7-Zip.
• 🖼️ Find the folder com.miui.gallery – it can contain your photos.

If the backup is encrypted (you set the password when you created it), use the official Mi PC Suite utility to unpack it. You can download the program from the official Xiaomi website.

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Local MIUI backups contain not only photos, but also SMS, call log, app settings, and this can be useful if you've lost more than just your photos.

6. Contact the Xiaomi Service Center

If all of these methods failed and the photos are critical (for example, they are only copies of documents or unique frames), you can try contacting an authorized Xiaomi service center.

• 🔬 Chips. eMMC/UFS (Used in modern smartphones).
• 🛠️ JTAG-interface.
• 💾 Specialized software (e.g, UFS explorer PC-3000).

Be prepared for the following nuances:

• ⚠️ The cost of the service can reach 5-15 thousand rubles (depending on the model and complexity).
• ⏳ The process takes from 2 to 7 days.
• 🔒 The warranty on the phone will be canceled (opening of the case is required).
• 📉 Successful recovery – 50-70% (depending on the degree of data overwriting).

Before the service visit:

1. Do not turn on your phone or try to install/delete anything.
2. Tell the master the exact model of the phone and the firmware version (you can find in Settings → About the phone).
3. Check whether the center provides a guarantee for the recovered data.

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In Moscow and St. Petersburg, official Xiaomi service centers are in the shopping center "Electronics on Sheremetyevo", "Gorbushkin Dvor", "Mega" and others: mi.com/ru/service/center.

7. How to prevent future photo loss

The best way to combat data loss is to prevent it, and here are proven methods to avoid repeat incidents:

• ☁️ Automatic Sync: Enable photo uploads to Google Photos and Xiaomi Cloud at the same time (set up different folders for backups).
• 💾 Local Copies: Once a month, copy important photos to your computer or external hard drive.
• 📱 Double apps: install Amazon Photos (free unlimited storage for photos) or Yandex Drive.
• 🔄 Regular backups: Use the backup function MIUI (Path: Settings → Additionally. → Backup).

Also pay attention to the settings of the basket:

• 🗑️ Increase the storage time of deleted files to a maximum (30 days) in the Gallery settings → Basket.
• 🚫 Turn off automatic cleaning of the basket if there is a lack of memory.

For Xiaomi models with memory card support (Redmi Note 11 Pro, POCO M5, etc.) we recommend:

• 📷 Save the photo straight on SD-map (setting in the camera: Storage → Memory map).
• 🔄 Regularly format the map (every 3-6 months) to prevent reading errors.

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Even if you use cloud services, keep local copies of important photos on a separate medium, and the clouds can be hacked and accounts blocked.

FAQ: Frequent questions about photo recovery on Xiaomi

⚠️ Note: If you find a program that promises to recover photos "in 1 click" or "no root at 100%", most likely it is a scam. Such utilities often contain viruses or spyware.

⚠️ Attention: On Xiaomi phones with Snapdragon chip 8 Gen 2/3 (for example, Xiaomi 13T Pro, Redmi K60 Ultra – Internal memory uses encryption FBE (File-Based Encryption means that once reset to factory settings, it is almost impossible to recover data without a password.