Recover deleted photos, videos from Trash on Android phone

Deleted the wrong file by accident on your mobile phone? On our Windows and Mac computers, there is a recycle bin or trash can where the delete files reside. If you have second thoughts or delete the wrong files, you can restore them from this recycle or trash bin. On recent iOS devices, there is a Recently Delete album in the Photos app, similar to the recycle bin on our windows PC or Trash on Mac. Does Android have a recycle bin or are deleted files permanently deleted? It depends. Generally speaking, Android will not send those deleted files and documents to a recycle or trash bin since it takes up your phone’s memory that beats the purpose of deleting them at the first place. However in recent Android devices we can also find such a feature in the Gallery app and the Photos app from Google. This means any deleted photo or video will be moved to this recycle bin or trash folder so you can go there and restore your deleted files.

Unlike the recycle bin on PC, the recycle bin or trash album on Android normally helps recover photos and videos. And you can only recover recently deleted photos and videos as they will be permanently and automatically deleted after a certain period of time.

In this article, we will show you several ways to get your deleted pictures, videos and more files back on Android phone or tablet.

Method 1. How to recover deleted photos from Trash folder on Android?

As we mentioned above, not all Android phones have a recycle bin. If the lost file is very important to you, it is worth a try though. Open the stock Gallery app on your Android phone. In this demo, we use an Android powered LG mobile phone which has the Trash album. Once the Gallery opens, tap the Menu at the top left corner, you will find the Trash from the side menu. Tap to open the Trash album to find all your recently deleted photos and videos on LG or other Android phone. See below screenshot.

recover deleted photos, videos from trash on lg android mobile phone

On the LG phone, albums and files will be permanently deleted after being in the trash for 7 days. To recover photos and videos from the Android phone, tap the Restore button at the top right, then select the albums, photos or videos to restore. Files will be restore to their original folders where they were stored.

If you like to manually and instantly delete any files in the Trash, tap the Delete icon at the top right corner, select the files to permanently delete it. You can also empty trash to quickly and permanently delete all the files in the trash on your Android device.

Method 2. Retrieve deleted photos videos from Google Photos

Many Android devices come with the Photos app from Google. If you use Google Photos to manage your pictures and videos on the phone, you can also recover recently deleted photos and/or videos. Files deleted from Google Photos will stay in the trash album for 60 days.

Open the Photos app on your Android phone, tap Menu at the top left, then choose Trash.

google photos trash bin on android phone

All your deleted photos, videos will be listed there. You can then select to restore them to their original folders or permanently delete them from your Android mobile.