Accidentally deleting an important video on a Xiaomi smartphone is a stressful situation that many users are familiar with. Often files disappear after a hasty cleaning of the gallery or as a result of a system failure when the user does not have time to understand what happened. Fortunately, the Android operating system on which the MIUI or HyperOS shell is based has built-in data protection mechanisms to return lost information.
Before you panic, you need to understand the way your device's file system works, so when you delete a video, it doesn't disappear without a trace at the same moment, it's only marked as re-writable, and you can restore it until you have new information written to the deleted file, which is why the first rule is, immediately stop using your smartphone and don't take new pictures.
In this article, we will take a look at all the ways you can watch deleted videos on Xiaomi, from simple built-in features to using specialized software. You will learn where to look for the Recycle Bin in the gallery, how to work with cloud services and what actions you absolutely cannot do if you want to return your files.
Search for Remote Casts in Gallery Cart
The first and most obvious step for a Redmi or Poco smartphone owner is to check the built-in Recycle Bin, and since certain versions of the MIUI shell, developers have implemented a buffer zone where deleted files are stored for 30 days, a standard protection mechanism against random user actions.
To get into this section, open the standard Gallery app and go to the Albums tab. Scroll down to the very end where you'll find a folder called Deleted or Recycle Bin. It stores all the photos and videos you've erased but haven't yet cleaned completely. If the file is there, you can restore it with a single touch.
⚠️ Note: The storage period of files in the Gallery Recycle Bin is limited to 30 days. After this period, the system automatically clears the buffer, and it becomes impossible to restore files with regular means.
The recovery process is very simple: select the right video or click "Select All" if you want to return the entire album. Then click "Restore" (usually an icon with a counterclockwise arrow) The files will return to their original albums as if the deletion never happened.
Use of Google Photo Cloud Service
Many Xiaomi users are unaware that their smartphone automatically syncs media files with a Google account. Google Photos is a powerful backup tool that often saves data even when the local copy on the phone has already been destroyed.
To check, open the Google Photos app (a flower icon) or go to photos.google.com from your computer. It also has its own Recycle Bin, which works independently of the phone's system basket, and can store files there for up to 60 days if they have been removed from the cloud, or indefinitely if they are simply removed from the device but left in the cloud.
Algorithm for recovery through the cloud:
- 📱 Open the Google Photos app on your Xiaomi device.
- 🗑️ Click on the Library icon in the lower right corner and select Recycle Bin».
- 🎥 Find the right video, pinch it with your finger to highlight.
- ↩️ Click the Restore button to return the file to the phone gallery.
Importantly, this method requires a stable Internet connection to work, and if the video has been removed from the cloud, too, the chances of recovery drop dramatically, but it's worth a try. Sometimes files pop up in the archive or in the Settings section -> Recycle Bin after the time after synchronization.
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Enable Autoupload and Sync in Google Photos settings so that your videos are saved to the cloud automatically immediately after shooting.
Checking the Mi Cloud and synchronization
Xiaomi’s ecosystem offers its own cloud service, Mi Cloud, which is deeply integrated into the system. If your device has enabled a Mi Account and activated gallery sync, then deleted videos may be there, and this is especially true for users who are not actively using Google services.
You can check for backups through your smartphone settings. Go to Settings → Mi Account → Mi Cloud → Gallery. If sync is enabled, you will see a list of all the albums that are stored on the company's servers. Even if you deleted the video from your phone, it can be saved in the cloud.
You should also use the web version of i.mi.com. Sign in using your Mi Account. The web interface often displays files that for some reason have not been downloaded on your mobile device. The web version also has a Deleted folder, where files are taken in after erasure and stored there for a standard 30 days.
| Parameter | Google Photo | Mi Cloud | Local Basket. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Storage period | 60 days | 30 days | 30 days |
| Network dependency | Required. | Required. | Not required |
| Storage volume | 15GB (free) | 5GB (free) | Depends on memory. |
| Quality. | Condensed or original | Original | Original |
Recovery through computer and specialized software
If the built-in methods didn't work, deep memory scanning software comes to the rescue, and these tools can find traces of files that have been deleted past the basket. USB-cable.
One popular program is Dr.Fone, Tenorshare UltData or the free utility Recuva (works only with a phone connected as a drive, which requires root rights), the principle of which is to scan the memory sectors where the video data is physically located.
Procedure for using PC software:
- Connect Xiaomi smartphone to your computer via USB-cable.
- Turn on USB debugging mode. Go to Settings → About Phone and click on the build number 7 times to activate the developer menu. Then, in Advanced Settings → For developers, turn on “Debugging by USB.”
- Run the recovery program on your computer and select the scan mode.
- Wait until the analysis is finished and select the found videos for recovery.
☑️ Preparing for recovery via PC
⚠️ Attention: Most effective data recovery software is paid. Free versions often only allow you to find files, but require payment to save them. Be prepared to buy a license if the data is really important.
Analysis of garbage folders in messengers and cache
Often users are looking for ways to watch deleted videos on Xiaomi, forgetting that the video could have been saved automatically elsewhere: Messengers like Telegram, WhatsApp and Viber have their own folders for media files that are not always deleted along with the message in the chat.
For example, in Telegram, a video deleted from a chat can remain in the app cache folder or in the phone’s shared gallery if you had the “Save to the Gallery” setting. Check the file manager by going along the Internal Memory path → Android → media → org.telegram.messenger → Telegram → Telegram Video.
On WhatsApp, the situation is similar. Even if you delete a message, the file may lie in hidden folders. Use the built-in MIUI file manager, go to Documents or Video and sort files by date. Sometimes the videos are saved to the WhatsApp → Media →.Statuses folder (for statuses) or just WhatsApp → Media.
Hidden folders of Android 11+
Professional rehabilitation and preventive measures
In cases where the video was deleted long ago, the phone's memory was actively overwritten with new data, or the file system broke down, home methods may not work, then the only option is to contact specialized service centers engaged in data recovery.
Experts use expensive equipment to read NAND memory by sector. This is expensive and does not provide a 100% guarantee, but for critical data (for example, from surveillance cameras or unique events), this is the last chance.
To avoid future data loss, take the following steps:
- 🔄 Set up automatic sync with two clouds (e.g. Google Photos and Mi Cloud at the same time).
- 💾 Make regular backups to an external hard drive or computer.
- 📱 Be careful when using the “Memory Cleanup” features in third-party accelerator applications.
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The most reliable way to protect yourself is the 3-2-1 rule: three copies of data, on two different media, one of which is located in another physical location (the cloud).