Accidental removal of an important photo is a stress familiar to every smartphone owner. Owners of Xiaomi, Redmi and Poco devices often face a situation where precious footage disappears from the gallery after cleaning up memory or resetting the system. Fortunately, the Android operating system and the MIUI shell provide several layers of data protection that allow you to recover what you lost.
Before you panic, you need to understand that deleting a file doesn't always mean physically erasing it from the drive; the system only marks the space as free to write new information, which is why immediately stopping using your smartphone after a loss is discovered greatly increases your chances of success. The less new data you write down, the more likely you are to recover.
In this guide, we will look at all the current methods of image return, from built-in cloud sync tools to using specialized software on your computer. You will learn how to work with a shopping cart in a gallery, how to check hidden folders and what actions you absolutely cannot do to avoid aggravating the situation.
Check the built-in basket in the Gallery application
The easiest and fastest way to get back deleted images is to check the system basket. Starting with certain versions of the MIUI shell, the standard Gallery app introduced a feature similar to the Recycle Bin on a computer, where deleted files do not disappear forever immediately, but are moved to a special buffer, where they are stored for 30 days.
To access this repository, you have to open the Gallery app and go to the Albums tab, and scroll down to the bottom of the list, and you'll see Deleted. It stores all the images that you've erased manually. If the file is there, it takes only a few seconds to recover.
However, it is worth remembering that this method only works if you have not cleaned the cart forcibly and not more than a month after the removal, and the feature can be disabled in the settings of the application itself, if the user previously decided to save space on the device.
- 📸 Open the Gallery app on your Xiaomi.
- 📂 Go to the Albums tab at the bottom of the screen.
- 🗑️ Find and click on the “Deleted” folder at the bottom of the list.
- ↩️ Select the desired photo and click the button "Restore».
☑️ Pre-reconstruction checks
It is important to note that if you deleted a photo through a file manager, a gallery mine, or used the "Never Removal" feature, this folder will not have files, in which case you need to move to more complex methods of searching for backup copies.
Recovery through Mi Cloud Service
Xiaomi’s ecosystem is actively promoting the use of its own cloud storage Mi Cloud. If your device has activated Mi Account and enabled gallery synchronization, all your pictures are automatically copied to the company’s servers, this is the most reliable way to protect against data loss in case of a breakage or theft of your phone.
To check for a backup, you don't even have to have a phone on hand. You can access the official cloud service website from any computer or other smartphone, log in with your login and password that were used on the lost device, and go to the Gallery section.
⚠️ Note: If you have recently changed your Mi Account password or enabled two-factor authorization, make sure you have access to your phone number or backup codes, or your account may be blocked.
The Mi Cloud web interface also has a Remote folder that works independently of the shopping cart on your phone. Even if you cleaned up storage on your smartphone, files can be saved in the cloud for up to 60 days (for subscription users) or 30 days (for free accounts).
What to do if the cloud is out of place?
Use of Google Photos and other cloud services
Many Android users use Google Photos by default, an app often pre-installed on Xiaomi smartphones and can run parallel to their home gallery, and the advantage of this method is that Google provides unlimited (in quality-saving mode) or large storage space.
The Google Photos archive is checked in a similar way: we open an app or a website photos.google.com. In the Library section -> Recycle Bin, deleted items are stored. Google's feature is that files in the shopping cart can lie for up to 60 days, and for Google One subscribers - and longer.
Also, check out other cloud storage that may have been installed on your Xiaomi: Yandex.Disk, Dropbox or OneDrive. Often users install them to automatically upload photos, forgetting about it, and then find lost photos there.
| Service | Storage period in the basket | We need the Internet. | Free seat limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mi Cloud | 30 days | Yes. | 5GB |
| Google Photo | 60 days | Yes. | 15 GB (total) |
| Yandex.Disk. | 30 days | Yes. | 10GB |
| Dropbox | 30 days | Yes. | 2GB |
Search for hidden and system folders through Explorer
Sometimes photos are not deleted, but simply hidden or moved to system directories, especially if the gallery app malfunctions. Xiaomi’s Explorer tool allows you to view the file structure in more detail than a regular gallery.
Open the Explorer app and go to the root folder of the device. You are interested in DCIM, Pictures and MIUI directories. Inside the DCIM folder, often there are.thumbnails (hidden thumbnails folder) or.Trash. To display hidden folders, click on the menu (three dots) and select the appropriate option.
It's also worth checking the.MiCloud or.cache folder in the application directory, and sometimes cached images stay in the system even after they're removed from the visible part of the gallery, and you can find them by sorting files by date of change.
- 🔍 Launch the “Conductor” app on your smartphone.
- 📁 Go to the folder. DCIM or Pictures.
- 👁️ Enable the display of hidden files in the Explorer settings.
- 📅 Sort files by date to find lost photos.
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Use file extension search. Search for ".jpg" or ".png" in Explorer to find all images on the device, including those that are lost in the back of the folders.
Using computer programs to restore
If built-in methods fail, the last and most difficult option is to use specialized software on a PC. Programs like Dr.Fone, DiskDigger (PC version) or Recuva (when connected as a drive) can conduct deep memory scans.
To work such utilities often need to turn on the phone USB-This feature is in the Developer Menu, which is hidden by default, and to activate it, you need to quickly click 7 times on the build number in the About Phone section».
Settings -> About Phone -> 7 clicks on "Version MIUI" -> For Developers -> Debugging by USBOnce connected to a computer, the program will attempt to gain superuser (Root) rights to access protected memory areas. Without Root rights, recovery efficiency is significantly reduced, as modern versions of Android restrict applications from accessing disk sectors marked as free.
⚠️ Note: Data recovery software is often paid.The free versions usually only allow you to scan the device and show a preview of the files found, but require payment to save them.
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The effectiveness of computer programs depends on whether the memory was overwritten with new data after the photo was deleted.
Prevention of data loss and setting up autosave
To never face the problem of losing photos again, you need to properly configure the backup system. The best strategy is the three-copy rule: the original on the phone, the copy in the cloud and the periodic copy on the computer hard drive.
In the Xiaomi camera settings, you can activate the Save to the Cloud option immediately after shooting, you can also set up Wi-Fi sync to avoid wasting mobile traffic, and check sync status regularly to make sure the process is successful.
Remember to periodically clean your phone's memory of unnecessary files, but do so consciously using size and date sorting.Installing apps from unknown sources can lead to infection with a ransomware virus that will hide or delete your data, so only use trusted app stores.
- ☁️ Enable autosynchronization in Mi Cloud and Google Photos.
- 💾 Once a month, copy important archives to a PC or external disk.
- 🔒 Set a strong password for accounts to protect against hacking.
- 📱 Avoid installing questionable apps to 'accelerate' your phone.