Losing important photos on a smartphone is always stressful, especially if the footage captures unique moments of life. Owners of Xiaomi, Redmi and Poco devices often face a situation where the gallery is empty and memory is overflowing or there has been an accidental failure. Fortunately, the Android operating system and the MIUI shell (or HyperOS) provide several layers of data protection to avoid irreversible loss.
Before you panic, you need to stop using your device to keep your memory sectors from being overwritten with new data, and recovery is possible with both built-in cloud services and custom PC software. Below, we’ll look at the step-by-step algorithms that will help you save your digital memories.
The effectiveness of the method depends on whether the synchronization was enabled before the deletion. However, even without a backup, the chances of success remain high if you act quickly and correctly. In this article, we will look at all the options available, from simple checks of the Recycle Bin to deep scanning of the system.
Checking the built-in basket in the gallery
The first and easiest step, often overlooked in a hurry, is to check the system folder Deleted: In the MIUI shell and the new HyperOS, deleted files are not erased instantly, but moved to a special buffer where they are stored for 30 days, a standard security feature designed to protect the user from accidental errors.
To access this folder, you need to open the standard Gallery app and go to the Albums tab. At the bottom of the folder list, usually the Deleted section. If you don't see it right away, try scrolling through the list to the end or clicking on three dots in the corner of the screen to display hidden albums.
⚠️ Note: Files in the basket take up space in the phone's memory. If your smartphone reports a lack of space, the system can automatically clear that folder before 30 days have elapsed.
Inside the folder, you'll find all the images and videos that you deleted in the last month, and you can select specific shots or use the "Select All" feature, and then click "Restore" and then the photos will return to their original albums, saving the shooting date.
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If you deleted photos more than 30 days ago, they will no longer be in the standard shopping cart, in which case you need to move to methods of recovery through cloud services.
Recovery through Mi Cloud and Synchronization
Xiaomi's ecosystem offers a powerful backup tool, Mi Cloud. If you have your Mi Account enabled and your gallery synced, all your images are automatically uploaded to the company's servers, which not only frees up space on your phone, but also has a backup copy.
To check for deleted files, go to your smartphone Settings, select Mi Account and then Mi Cloud. Make sure the Gallery Sync switch is active. If so, your photos may be in the cloud web version, even if they are removed from the device.
- 📸 Visit i.mi.com from a computer or other device.
- 🔑 Sign in using the same Mi Account as on your phone.
- 🗑️ Find the Gallery icon and check for lost images in the main stream or in the local cloud cart.
It is important to note that free space in the Mi Cloud is limited to 5 GB. If the limit was exceeded, the sync could stop and new photos did not get to the cloud, in which case it is worth checking the date of the last successful (backup) in the account settings.
Use of Google Photos Service
Most Xiaomi smartphones come with Google services pre-installed, and the Google Photos app is one of the most popular media content tools, with its main advantage being independent of the phone manufacturer and having its own, often more reliable, shopping cart.
Even if you used a standard Xiaomi gallery, the Google Photos app could create copies of your images in the background. Open the app, tap the Library tab in the lower right corner and select Recycle Bin, where files are stored for 60 days if they are normal photos, and up to 30 days if they are screenshots or objects removed from the cloud.
The path to autoload settings:
Google Photos → Profile (avatar) → Settings → AutobootIf the cart is empty, check the archive. Sometimes users accidentally archive photos thinking they have deleted them, or vice versa. It is also worth going to the web version of photos.google.com, since the browser interface sometimes displays files that are hidden in the mobile application due to cache.
☑️ Checking Google Photos
Analysis of local system backups
Shell MIUI has a built-in function of creating full system backups to internal memory or SD-Many users create backups before they flash or update, forgetting about them afterwards. If you backup before the data is lost, the photos can be preserved inside this archive.
You can find these copies through the Restore menu. Go to Settings, select About Phone, and click on the MIUI version several times to add an additional menu, or look for Advanced Settings → Recovery and Reset → Local Backups. This shows all previously created restore points.
| Type of backup | Location of files | Selective recovery capability |
|---|---|---|
| Complete copy of the system | /MIUI/backup/AllBackup | Only through the Recovery menu |
| Local MIUI backup | /MIUI/backup/AllBackup | Yeah (photos, contacts, text messages) |
| Google One Reserve | Cloud storage | Yes (at initial setup) |
If you find a date-appropriate copy, you can start the recovery process. Be careful: restoring the full system can roll back settings and installed applications to the state at the time of the backup creation. It is best to try to retrieve data through third-party backup viewers if the standard menu does not allow you to select only the gallery.
⚠️ Note: Recovery from a full local copy MIUI may require a password if it was set when you created the backup.
Third-party programs for deep scanning
When built-in methods fail, PC software comes to the rescue, programs like Dr.Fone, DiskDigger, or Tenorshare UltData are capable of deep memory scanning, not looking for deleted files, but for the tails in the file system that are marked as free space but are not physically overwritten yet.
To work such programs on the phone Xiaomi must enable debugging mode on USB. This is done in the Developer Menu, which is hidden by default. To activate it, you need to quickly click on the build number 7 times in the About Phone section. Once the corresponding notification appears, go to Advanced Settings» → «For developers" and turn on the switch "Debugging by USB».
Do you need Root rights to recover?
The process of recovery is like this: it scans memory sectors, finds fragments of images, and tries to assemble them into integral files. The less action you took on your phone after deleting, the higher the chance that the sectors were not overwritten with new information.
- 💻 Install the selected program on your computer (Windows or macOS).
- 🔌 Connect the phone with the original cable and allow access on the smartphone screen.
- 🔍 Run the scan and wait for the analysis to be completed.
- 💾 Select the photos found and save them to your computer’s hard drive.
Preventing Data Loss in the Future
The best way to combat photo loss is through regular and automatic backups. Configure syncs to only happen when connected to Wi-Fi so that mobile traffic is not consumed. Current compression algorithms in Mi Cloud and Google Photos allow you to store thousands of images in their original quality, taking up minimal space.
Use the 3-2-1 rule: three copies of data, on two different media, one of which is located elsewhere (for example, in the cloud). For a Xiaomi owner, this means: the original on the phone, a copy in Mi Cloud or Google Photos, and a periodic backup to a computer or external hard drive.
It is also recommended to periodically check the work. SD-The flash memory has a limited resource of overwriting cycles, and a sudden card failure can lead to the loss of the entire archive.
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Automatic synchronization is the only guaranteed way to protect against accidental device deletion or breakage. Don't rely on just your phone's memory.