How to Recover Photos from an SD Card | Step-By-Step Guide

Recovering lost photos from SD cards can be crucial, especially if you lose something valuable and important. SD cards, commonly used in digital cameras, smartphones, and other valuable devices, are prone to data loss due to valuable reasons. You may lose photos from your SD cards due to various reasons such as accidental deletion, formatting, corruption, or even physical damage. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore various SD card recovery methods to help you understand how to recover photos from an SD card, ranging from simple solutions to more advanced techniques. 

Common Causes of Photo Loss on SD Cards

Before diving into photo recovery methods, it’s essential to understand the common causes of data loss on SD cards. Some of the main reasons are:

• Accidental Deletion: One of the main reasons for photo loss is accidental deletion, i.e., when you delete files while managing or reviewing them on your device.
• Formatting: Formatting an SD card, whether intentionally or by mistake, wipes all data from the card, making it seem as though the photos are lost forever.
• File System Corruption: The SD card’s file system may become corrupted due to improper ejection, power failure, or software issues, rendering the files inaccessible.
• Virus or Malware Attacks: Viruses or malware can corrupt files on the SD card, leading to data loss.
• Bad Sectors: With regular use, SD cards may develop bad sectors, areas of the storage that become unreadable, causing potential data loss.

How do I Recover Deleted Photos from SD Cards?

When your photo or any other data is deleted from an SD card, it is not immediately removed from the card. Instead, the space your photos were occupying will be marked available for new data. The actual photo remains on the card until new files overwrite it. You can easily follow the photo recovery methods mentioned in this part of the blog to restore those photos:

Method 01: Check the Recycle Bin

If your photo is deleted from the SD card when it is connected to your computer, the first step is to check the Recycle Bin (Windows) or Trash (Mac). Sometimes, the deleted files might be available there and you can easily restore them by applying the below steps:

• Firstly, connect the SD card to your computer using an SD card. 
• Open the Recycle Bin/Trash folder on your device and locate the deleted photos that you need to restore. 
• Once you find the required photos, right-click on them and select “Restore” (Windows) or “Put Back” (Mac) to save selected photos to their original location.

Method 02: Use Built-in Backup Utility

If you habitually maintain regular backups of your important photos, you can try recovering them using those backups. Both Windows and Mac have built-in tools that may help recover lost photos from an SD card. Follow the below steps to recover deleted photos using File History (Windows) and Time Machine (Mac):

Using File History (Windows)

If you have File History enabled on your Windows device, follow the below steps to restore previous versions of files:

• Launch Control Panel, and go to “System and Security” > “File History.”
• Browse for the photos you want to recover and click “Restore” to recover them.

Using Time Machine (Mac)

If you have Time Machine backups, go through the below steps to recover lost photos:

• Firstly, go to “System Preferences” > “Time Machine.”
• Use the timeline to browse previous backups and find the lost photos.
• Click Restore to recover the selected version of photos to their original location.

Method 03: Assign a New Drive Letter to the SD Card

Assigning a new drive letter to an SD card can help you recover deleted photos by re-establishing proper communication between the SD card and your device OS. Here’s how to assign a new drive letter to an SD card on Windows 10/11:

• Press the Windows + X keys to open the WinX menu.
• From the menu options, select Device Manager. 

• Now, select and right-click on your SD memory card.

• Select Change Drive Letter and Paths, and then click Change.

• After that, click the drop-down menu icon next to Assign the following drive letter option.

• Select a new drive letter of your choice from the drop-down menu and click OK.
• From the warning that appears on your screen, click the “Yes” button to give the confirmation.

After assigning the selected drive letter to your SD memory card, the new letter will start appearing everywhere, and now, your SD memory card will become accessible.

Method 04: Recover Deleted Photos Using Third-Party Photo Recovery Software

When the above methods fail, third-party deleted photo recovery software like Stellar Photo Recovery is often the most effective way to restore deleted photos. This all-in-one photo recovery software completely scans your storage drive like SD card, memory cards, HDDs, SSDs, etc. to find the deleted photos. It can scan and detect just about any type of file on your SD cards; allowing you to restore deleted files of multiple types, including videos and audio files.

Key Features of Stellar Photo Recovery:

• Recover deleted photos, audio, and video files deleted due to accidental deletion, corruption, formatting, human error, virus attacks, etc.
• Recover permanently deleted multimedia files of various formats, including JPEG, RAW, TIFF, PNG, MP4, MOV, FLV, MKV, MP3, OGG, and many more.
• Compatible with Windows, Mac, Android, and iPhone devices.
• Allow you to preview the recoverable files after scanning the storage drive. 

Here’s how to recover photos from an SD card using this photo recovery software:

Step 1: Firstly, download and install the Stellar Photo Recovery software on your Windows/Mac device. Also, insert the SD card into your computer using a card reader.

Step 2: From the homepage, select the storage drive where your deleted photos were stored and click Scan to initiate the scanning process. 

Step 3: Wait till the scanning process is completed. After that, preview the recoverable files and choose the ones you need to restore.

Step 4: Lastly, click the Recover button to save selected photos at the desired location. 

Preventive Tips to Avoid Photo Loss on SD Cards

While the above-mentioned SD card recovery methods are effective to implement, it’s always better to avoid such photo loss scenarios. Here are some tips that you can consider to prevent losing photos from SD cards:

• Regular Backups: Regularly backup your SD card’s contents to another storage device or cloud storage to help you recover data when it gets deleted. 
• Safe Ejection: Always use the “Safely Remove Hardware” option before disconnecting your SD card from your computer or device to prevent data corruption.
• Avoid Overwriting: If you accidentally delete photos, stop using the SD card immediately to avoid overwriting the data, making recovery more difficult.
• Use Reliable SD Cards: Invest in high-quality SD cards from reputable manufacturers to reduce the risk of failure and data loss.

Wrapping Up

Recovering lost or deleted photos from an SD card using the aforementioned SD card recovery methods is quite easy to implement. Whether your photo is deleted due to accidental deletion, formatting, or file system corruption, there are numerous solutions available. By using built-in tools, third-party photo recovery software like Stellar Photo Recovery, etc. you can increase your chances of recovering your lost photos. Additionally, implementing preventive measures can help protect your photos from future loss, ensuring your precious memories are safe and secure.