Accidental deletion of important videos is a stressful situation faced by many Xiaomi smartphone owners. The Redmi 7, despite its age, remains popular due to its robust hardware, but its file system running Android has its own storage features. When you click the Delete button, the operating system does not erase information instantly, but only marks the space as free to write.
This is the time period that is critical to saving your files, and if you stop using your device immediately and don’t download new heavy apps or shoot new high-resolution videos, the chances of success are much higher, and in this article we will discuss in detail the algorithms for video recovery based on MIUI.
There are several levels of data access, from the regular Recycle Bin in the gallery to deep memory scanning with specialized software. It is important to understand that the effectiveness of the method depends on how long it has been since the loss and whether the device has been restarted. Below we will look at all the available options, starting from the simplest ones.
Check the built-in basket in the MIUI Gallery
The first and easiest step that users often ignore in panic is to check the system folder “Deleted”: the MIUI shell installed on Redmi 7, by default saves deleted media files for 30 days, a kind of security buffer that allows you to cancel an error without connecting a computer.
To get into this section, you need to open the standard Gallery app and go to the Albums tab. Scroll down to the bottom of the list where you find Deleted. It stores all the photos and videos that have been manually erased but have not yet been permanently destroyed by the system. If the file is there, it will take a couple of seconds to recover it.
But remember, if you've cleared your recycle bin before or more than a month has passed, your files will disappear forever, and your videos may be missing if they've been deleted through the file manager with the option to "Delete Forever" bypassing the standard procedure, so we'll move on to more sophisticated methods.
- 📂 Open the Gallery app on the main screen.
- 📂 Go to the Albums tab at the bottom of the screen.
- 📂 Find the folder Deleted at the bottom of the album list.
- 📂 Select the desired video and click the Restore button.
⚠️ Note: Files in the cart take up space in the phone's memory.If your Redmi 7 has little free space, the system can automatically clear old items from the cart before 30 days have expired.
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The built-in MIUI cart is the only way to return a video without loss of quality and use of third-party software if less than a month has passed since the removal.
Use of the Mi Cloud cloud service
Xiaomi device owners often neglect to set up a Mi Account, and this service offers a gallery sync feature that can be a salvation at a critical moment. If your Redmi 7 was enabled sync, then a copy of the deleted video could be saved on the company's servers.
To check, log in to your phone's settings, select your Mi Account, and go to the Cloud section, where you can find Gallery and check sync status, and even if you've deleted the video from your phone, it can be stored separately in the cloud version, including in a cloud cart that also has a 30-day storage life.
An alternative way to check is by logging in via a browser on the official i.mi.com website. Sign in with your login and password. The web version interface sometimes displays files that for some reason have not been downloaded to the mobile application. This is especially true if the phone was without a network at the time of deletion.
What to do if the synchronization is turned off?
It is important to note that free space in the Mi Cloud is limited to 5 GB. If your video archive is large, old files may have been pushed out by new ones or simply not downloaded due to space shortages.
- ☁️ Go to Settings. → Mi accunt.
- ☁️ Select the Cloud section and check the synchronization status.
- ☁️ If necessary, log in to i.mi.com via PC.
- ☁️ Check the cloud cart for remote items.
Analysis of Google Photos and Drive Backups
Google's ecosystem is deeply integrated into Android, and Redmi 7 is no exception.The Google Photos app is often set by default or offered the first time you set up your smartphone. Its Autoboot and Sync feature could work in the background even if you didn't know it.
Open the Google Photos app and go to Library → Recycle Bin. The algorithm is similar to MIUI, but the storage time is different: for ordinary users, photos and videos are stored for 60 days, and for Google One subscribers - up to 5 years. This greatly expands the time window for recovery.
Also, it's worth checking Google Drive. Some users have set up automatic folder backups that way. Go to the Drive app, click on the menu and select "Backups." If there's a copy of your device made before you delete, you can recover the data, although that might require a complete phone reset.
⚠️ Attention: Restore from a full Google backup requires device formatting.Make sure you have up-to-date data that hasn't been synced before starting this process.
Recovery through computer and Android software
When standard methods are exhausted, you have to resort to “heavy artillery” — specialized software for PCs. Programs like Dr.Fone, DiskDigger (PC version) or Tenorshare UltData scan internal memory for residual data. For Redmi 7, this method can be effective, but requires training.
The main condition for these programs is that they have Root rights on the device, without which deep scanning of internal memory of Android is impossible due to security limitations, and if your phone is not rooted, programs will only find thumbnails or cached versions of the video, not the originals.
The process is as follows: you install the program on the computer, connect the phone through the USB-cable, turn on debugging USB You can go to the developer menu and start the scan. It can take anywhere from 15 minutes to several hours depending on the amount of memory you have.
Settings → About Phone → 7 times press on "Version MIUI" → Settings → Advanced → For Developers → Debugging on USB☑️ Preparation for deep scanning
It is worth considering that most quality recovery software is paid. Free versions often only allow scanning and showing previews, requiring payment for the recovery process itself. Always check the preview before buying a license.
Table of comparison of recovery methods
To make it easier for you to choose the right method, we have systematized the basic methods in a table that will help you estimate the time spent, the need for additional equipment and the likelihood of success for the Redmi 7.
| Method | Conditions required | Storage period | Probability of success |
|---|---|---|---|
| MIUI basket | No. | 30 days | High (if not cleaned) |
| Mi Cloud | Mi Account, Internet | 30 days | Medium (depending on settings) |
| Google Photo | Google account, Internet | 60 days | High (if synchronization is enabled) |
| PC software | Computer, USB, Root (preferably) | Before the re-recording | Low/Mediocre (depending on time) |
As you can see from the table, cloud services offer the most reliable way to protect yourself, but only if you have to set up your security first, and local methods depend solely on your speed of response and the lack of a new record.
Why you can’t slow down and what to do next
The Android file system used in Redmi 7 works on the principle of cyclic writing. When a file is deleted, its space is marked as “free”, but the data physically remains on the disk until the system decides to write new information there.
The most critical mistake is to continue making new videos or installing heavy games immediately after a loss is discovered, and this is guaranteed to overwrite the memory sectors where your files were located, in which case even professional restoration at the service center may not work.
If none of the software methods worked, the last option is to go to a dedicated service center, but for internal smartphone drives, this is often not economically feasible, since the cost of work can exceed the price of the Redmi 7 device itself.
- ⛔ Turn on In Airplane Mode Immediately to Stop Background Synchronization and Log Recording.
- ⛔ Do not connect your phone to your computer in file transfer mode without the need.
- ⛔ Don’t take screenshots of the screen, as it’s also a data record.
- ⛔ Avoid restarting the device if possible.
⚠️ Warning: Do not attempt to disassemble the phone or retrieve the memory card (if the video was on it) unnecessarily.Static electricity can damage the memory controller, making the data unreadable.
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If the video was on SD-You can take it out of your phone and connect it to your computer through a card reader, and you can recover data from external cards more effectively than from internal memory.