Accidental removal of important images is a stressful situation that almost every smartphone owner has faced. When you click “Clear the basket” or just swipe your finger the wrong way, valuable footage can disappear from the gallery in a split second. However, it is too early to panic: the MIUI operating system and modern cloud storage mechanisms often leave “backdoors” to return information.
In this article, we will look at all possible scenarios for recovering lost files using built-in system tools and proven third-party solutions. The speed of your actions directly affects the success of the operation, so it is important to immediately stop active use of the device after finding a missing one. The less new data is recorded in memory, the better the chances of complete success.
There are several levels of recovery, from simple gallery activities to complex computer work, and we'll go through each of them, assessing effectiveness and risk, and it's important to understand that not all methods are universal, and the algorithms may differ for different versions of Android and MIUI shells.
Checking the folder “Recently deleted” in the gallery
The most obvious and often ignored step is to check the standard shopping cart in the Gallery app, where, starting with certain versions of MIUI, the system automatically moves deleted media files to a special buffer where they are stored for a certain time, usually 30 days, but in some configurations can be up to 60 days.
To get there, you have to open the standard Gallery app and go to the Albums tab, and at the bottom of the list you'll see the item "Recently Deleted." If you don't see it right away, try to scroll through the album list to the end, and inside this folder, files are sorted by date of deletion, and you can recover them piece by piece or in bulk.
- 📸 Open the Gallery app and select the Album tab.
- 🗑️ Find the “Recently Deleted” folder at the bottom of the list.
- 🔄 Click “Select” and select the desired images for return.
⚠️ Note: If you manually cleaned this folder or more than 30 days have passed since the deletion, the files will be permanently destroyed from the file system level.
It is worth noting that files in the Recycle Bin take up space on your device, so the system can automatically clean them when there is a lack of disk space.
If this folder is empty, don't despair. It's just the first line of defense, and it depends on how quickly you catch it. Next, we'll look at the more powerful tools that are connected to the manufacturer's ecosystem.
Use of the Mi Cloud cloud service
Xiaomi’s ecosystem offers its own cloud service, which often syncs the user’s gallery by default. If your device had a Mi Account enabled and synced, your photos could automatically be uploaded to the company’s servers before they were deleted.
To check, you need to go to your phone settings, select Mi Account and click on the Cloud icon, where you can see the sync status and the number of gigabytes occupied. If the sync was active, remote images can often be found through the i.mi.com web interface, logging in.
The web version of the cloud has more advanced functionality than the mobile application, there is a separate tab "Gallery", where files can be stored even after cleaning the local cart, if they were successfully synchronized before.
1. Go to i.mi.com from your computer.
2. log in to your Mi Account.
3. Go to the Gallery section.
4. Select the desired photos and click the Restore button.It’s important to understand the difference between on-premises storage and the cloud. Synchronization is a two-way process, but deleting a file in the cloud can result in deleting it on the device, and vice versa, if the settings have not been manually changed.
How much space does the Mi Cloud give you for free?
Synchronization through Google Photos
Most Xiaomi smartphones come pre-installed with Google Photos, which is one of the most reliable backup tools available. Unlike Mi Cloud, this service is often turned on by default when you first activate your smartphone if you log in to your Google account.
The app can back up in the background using Wi-Fi or mobile, and even if you delete a photo from your phone’s gallery, it can stay in the Google cloud for 60 days in the Library → Recycle Bin. After that period, files are permanently deleted.
Google Photos allows you to sort your images by date, location, and even face recognition, making it much easier to find specific frames among thousands of images, and to restore it, you just have to open the application, find the deleted file, and select the return option.
- ☁️ Open the Google Photos app on your smartphone or PC.
- 🗑️ Go to the Library section → Basket.
- ✅ Select a photo and click "Restore».
There's an important caveat: if you delete a photo from Google Photos on one device, it will disappear from all the devices that log in to that account, which is a duplicative protection, but it requires caution when cleaning up storage.
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Turn on the “Free Space” function only after you have made sure that all photos are uploaded to the cloud, which removes local copies, leaving only cloud-based ones.
Third-party programs for data recovery
When built-in methods fail, specialised Deep Scan tools come to the rescue, trying to find traces of files in the device’s memory that have been formally deleted but have not yet been physically overwritten by the new data.
Popular solutions include Dr.Fone, DiskDigger, and Recuva (for memory cards), which are heavily affected by access rights. On devices without Root rights, scanning will be superficial, affecting mainly cache and thumbnails. Full access to memory sectors requires unlocking the bootloader and obtaining superuser rights.
The way you work with these programs is usually standardized. You connect your smartphone to your computer through a computer. USB-You run the scan, you wait for the results. It's important to use the original cable, because cheap analogues can only work in charging mode without transmitting data.
⚠️ Attention: Installing restorers directly on the internal drive of the smartphone can lead to overwriting of deleted data, reducing the chances of success.
It should also be mentioned that modern versions of Android use file system encryption, which makes it almost impossible for third-party software to recover data without first unlocking the device. Encryption protects your privacy, but makes life difficult for those who have lost access to files.
☑️ Check before starting recovery
Analysis of the effectiveness of recovery methods
Not every method is equally effective in every situation, and the effectiveness depends on how long ago files were deleted, whether encryption was used, and whether synchronization was enabled. Below is a comparative table that will help you navigate the method.
| Method | Probability of success | The need for a PC | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gallery basket | High (up to 30 days) | No. | Low. |
| Mi Cloud / Google Photo | Medium (depending on settings) | No. | Low. |
| Programs (without Root) | Low (cache/miniatures only) | Yes. | Medium |
| Programs (with Root) | Tall. | Yes. | Tall. |
As you can see from the table, cloud services and the built-in shopping cart deliver the best results with minimal effort, and using third-party software is a last resort that requires technical skills and is often paid.
Also worth considering is the type of memory: Modern smartphones use flash memory with a TRIM mechanism that automatically cleans blocks marked as deleted to speed up the system, which means that the more time has passed since deletion, the less likely it is to find a file by software methods.
Preventing Data Loss in the Future
The best way to combat photo loss is to back up regularly, don't rely on "maybe" or set up automatic uploads to Google Photos or Yandex.Disk so that your photos are saved online immediately after they're created.
Also, back up important data periodically to an external hard drive or computer. Use the 3-2-1 rule: three copies of data, on two different media, one of which is in another physical location (for example, in the cloud).
Be careful when cleaning your memory. Before you click "Clean All," always check the contents of the folders manually. Automatic cleaners may make mistakes and delete the files they want, thinking they're duplicates or cache.
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Regular sync with the cloud is the only 100% way to ensure the safety of photos in case of loss or breakage of a smartphone.
Keeping these simple rules in place will keep you from becoming frustrated in the future, and digital memories are invaluable, and their safety should be a priority for every user.