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28 July 2023  Amanda J. Brook  Senior Product Manager
 

Summary
Discover the causes and recovery techniques for SD card photo loss/disappearance. Maximize storage capacity and data transfer capabilities for mobile phones, cameras, and tablets.



Table of contents

table iconI. Several reasons for the loss/disappearance of photos on the SD card
table iconII. Use Renee Undeleter to Recover Lost Photos from SD Card
pictures disappeared from sd card

I. Several reasons for the loss/disappearance of photos on the SD card

1. Photos are hidden

In order to solve the problem of SD card photo loss/disappearance, you first need to check whether the photos on the SD card are hidden due to virus infection or other reasons, resulting in files that cannot be displayed. You can modify options in (Control Panel) to view hidden files.
First, press the Windows icon + R key at the same time, then enter (Control Panel) in the run window, and press the (Enter) key to open the Control Panel. Then click (Appearance and Personalization).
Click Appearance and Personalization
Then click (Show hidden files and folders). In the File Explorer options, find (Show hidden files, folders, and drives) and check it, and then click (OK).
control panel show hidden files
After completing the above operations, if the photos on the SD card can be found, and they are hidden files, then you can back up these photos before doing other processing. If you still can’t find the photos, they may have been deleted.

2. There is a problem connecting the SD card to the device

If you do not insert the SD card into the mobile device (such as an Android phone) in the correct way, the SD card may not be recognized normally on the mobile device, so when we go to the album to view the photos, we will find that the SD card photos are not displayed , causing the illusion of photo loss. At this time, please remove the SD card first, and then insert it into the device in the correct direction/angle. Do not force the SD card into the slot. If the card reader is damaged or there is a problem with the SD card slot, the photos on the SD card will not be accessible. You can try to use another card reader to read the contents of the SD card.
In addition, when transferring photos between the SD card and the device, if the connection is loose, the transfer will be interrupted suddenly, which may also cause the loss of photos in the transfer.

See also:Reasons why Android photo album does not display SD card photos

3. Accidental deletion or virus

Accidental deletion is a common cause of data loss. If you often accidentally delete data, it is recommended that you regularly back up the SD card. Viruses in the SD card may also cause loss of photos. Some viruses will automatically delete files in the SD card. At this time, you can connect the SD card to the computer through a card reader, and use anti-virus software to scan and kill the virus.

4. SD card failure

When the SD card fails, the photo files in it may also be lost. This phenomenon often occurs in those SD cards that have reached the end of their service life or are of low quality.
The above are the common reasons for the loss/disappearance of SD card photos. If you confirm that the SD card photos are not hidden or cannot see the photos because the SD card cannot be recognized, then the SD card photos may be deleted. Please refer to the second part contents to recover lost photos from SD card.

II. Use Renee Undeleter to Recover Lost Photos from SD Card

1. What is Renee Undeleter?

Rene.E Laboratory ™ data recovery software It is a software specially used to restore system data files. When you accidentally delete important files, empty the recycle bin, or format the disk/storage, you can use this tool to retrieve the lost data. The software covers four functional modules, including file recovery, format recovery, partition recovery and image creation, which can help you solve all data loss problems in an all-round way.
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Easy to use Recover data by 3 steps;

Multiple scan modes Fast partition scan, whole partition scan and whole disk scan;

Supported file types Image, video, audio, text, email and so on;

Image creation Create a partition image to read and back up data;

Supported devices SD card, SDHC, SDXC, USB flash drive, hard disk and computer.

Easy to use Recover data by 3 steps;

Multiple scan modes Fast partition/whole partition/whole disk scan;

Supported devices SD card/USB/hard disk.

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2. How to recover lost photos from SD card with Renee Undeleter?

As a professional data recovery software, Renee Undeleter not only has comprehensive functions, but also has a very simple operation process. The specific operation steps are as follows:
Step 1: Connect the SD card to the computer using a card reader. Download, install and open Renee Undeleter, and select (Format Recovery).
Note: Do not install Renee Undeleter in the disk where data is lost to avoid data overwriting.
Select formatted recovery option
Data recovery function introduction:
File Recovery – Quickly retrieve files lost due to accidental deletion or emptying the recycle bin.
Formatted Recovery – Quickly recover files lost due to inaccessible or formatted partitions.
Partition Recovery – Analyze and get partition information and perform a full scan of the entire partition.
Create Mirror – You can create a mirror image for a partition to back up the current partition state.

Step 2: Select the SD card partition where the photos are lost, and click (Next). Then enter the file scanning process, please wait patiently. The scan time is determined by the partition size.
Format recovery selected partitions to scan
Step 3: After the scan is over, select the files you want to recover and click the (Recover) button. Please save the recovered files on other disks, and avoid saving files to the original storage location (SD card) which may cause data overwriting.
Select the file you want to restore and click Recover
If the loss of your SD card photos is not caused by human factors, but caused by SD card failure, then after the SD card lost photos are recovered, the SD card can be repaired.