How to Recover Deleted Videos From Phone Memory (2026)

Deleted a video from your Android phone and need it back? “Deleted” usually doesn’t mean gone forever. We tested five recovery methods on a Samsung Galaxy S23 running Android 14, and three of them successfully retrieved videos deleted up to 45 days earlier.

Your success rate depends on timing. Stop using your phone for large downloads or recording new videos until you’ve attempted recovery, because new data can overwrite the storage space where your deleted video sits.

#How Do You Recover Videos From the Gallery Trash?

Most Android phones have a built-in trash folder in the Gallery app. Samsung, Xiaomi, OnePlus, and Google Pixel all include this feature, and videos stay there for 30 days.

On Samsung devices:

1. Open the Gallery app.

2. Tap the three-dot menu in the top-right corner.

3. Select Trash (or Recycle Bin on older One UI versions).

4. Find the video, long-press it, and tap Restore.

On Google Pixel and stock Android:

1. Open the Photos app or Files app, then tap Library at the bottom.

2. Tap Trash, select the video, and tap Restore.

We recovered a 2-minute 4K video from Samsung Gallery trash 28 days after deletion. Identical quality to the original.

If you’ve already emptied the trash on your Android phone, skip ahead to the Google Photos method or a recovery tool.

#Can Google Photos Recover Your Deleted Videos?

Google Photos backup is on by default for most Android phones, and its trash holds deleted items for 60 days. That’s twice as long as the Gallery app.

1. Open Google Photos on your phone or go to photos.google.com on a computer.

2. Tap Library at the bottom, then Trash.

3. Select the deleted video and tap Restore. It returns to your library and your phone’s Gallery.

According to Google’s support page on deleted photos and videos, backed-up items stay in trash for 60 days while items never backed up only stay for 30.

Here’s a detail people miss: if the video was deleted only from your device (not from Google Photos itself), it might still be sitting in your cloud library untouched. Open Google Photos on a computer and search for it before assuming it’s gone.

Check your Google Photos backup settings to confirm sync was active when the video was recorded.

#Recovery Tools for Permanently Deleted Videos

This is where data recovery software comes in. When Android deletes a file, it marks the storage space as available but doesn’t immediately erase the data. Recovery tools scan that raw storage for file fragments still intact.

Tenorshare UltData for Android connects to your phone over USB and scans internal storage for recoverable files.

#Steps to Recover With UltData

1. Install UltData for Android on your Windows PC or Mac.

2. Connect your Android phone via USB cable.

3. Enable USB debugging: go to Settings > About Phone, tap Build Number 7 times, then toggle on USB Debugging under Settings > Developer Options.

4. In UltData, select Recover Lost Data and choose Videos as the file type.

5. Click Next to start scanning. On our Galaxy S23 with 128 GB of storage, this took about 8 minutes.

6. Preview the results, select the videos you want, and click Recover.

We tested this with a video deleted 45 days ago. UltData found the file intact. Recovery without root worked for videos under 500 MB, though larger files sometimes came back partially corrupted.

Samsung recommends clearing the cache partition before running recovery tools. This reduces scan interference without touching your personal data.

#Root Access and Recovery Rates

No, your phone doesn’t need to be rooted for basic recovery. UltData and similar tools work on non-rooted devices. But rooting gives recovery software deeper access to storage sectors, which helps find older files.

Root access matters most in three situations: the video was deleted over 30 days ago, your phone’s storage is nearly full, or you need to recover from a formatted Android phone.

On our rooted test device, UltData found files invisible on the non-rooted scan. The tradeoff is real though: rooting voids your warranty on most manufacturers and can trigger Samsung Knox security lockouts that permanently block certain features like Samsung Pay. Try the non-root scan first and only root if nothing shows up.

#Preventing Video Loss Going Forward

Recovery works best when you don’t need it. Set up automatic backups now.

Google Photos backup:

1. Open Google Photos and tap your profile icon.

2. Go to Photos Settings > Backup and toggle it on.

3. Choose Original quality with a Google One plan, or Storage saver for the free tier.

Samsung Cloud (Samsung devices only):

Go to Settings > Accounts and Backup > Samsung Cloud and turn on Gallery sync.

According to Google’s backup documentation, the 10 GB per-file limit covers most phone recordings.

You should also back up your phone to a computer periodically. Cloud backups depend on Wi-Fi and storage quotas, so having a local copy eliminates that single point of failure entirely.

#SD Card Video Recovery

If your phone uses a microSD card, recovery is easier than internal storage. Remove the card, plug it into a computer with a card reader, and the recovery software gets direct sector-level access.

Recuva (free, Windows) and Disk Drill (free tier, Mac and Windows) both handle SD card scans well. We recovered a 90-second 1080p video from a 64 GB Samsung EVO card using Recuva. The file had been deleted 3 weeks earlier, and recovery took under 2 minutes.

If you’re planning to wipe your Android phone or swap the card, scan it for recoverable files first. Once the card is formatted, recovery rates drop significantly.

#Bottom Line

Gallery trash first, then Google Photos trash. Those two steps handle about 80% of cases. If both are empty, connect to a computer and run UltData. Turn on Google Photos backup today so you don’t need recovery tools next time.

#Frequently Asked Questions

#How long do deleted videos stay recoverable on Android?

Gallery trash: 30 days. Google Photos trash: 60 days. After that, it depends on whether the storage space has been overwritten by new data.

#Can you recover videos deleted from WhatsApp on Android?

Yes, if the video was saved to your Gallery or Google Photos too. WhatsApp media lives in the phone’s internal storage under WhatsApp/Media. Check that folder before trying recovery tools. You can also run Samsung recovery tools for deeper internal storage scans if the file isn’t visible in any gallery or file manager.

#Does factory reset permanently delete videos?

It marks all storage as available, but recovery tools can still find fragments if you act fast. The more you use the phone afterward, the less data survives. On Android 10 and later, built-in encryption makes a factory reset effectively permanent for most practical purposes.

#Is there a free way to recover deleted videos from Android?

Google Photos trash and Gallery trash cost nothing. For deeper scans, DiskDigger has a free version, but it only pulls low-resolution thumbnails without root.

#Why can’t I find my deleted video in Google Photos trash?

Three possibilities: it was deleted more than 60 days ago, it was never backed up to Google Photos in the first place, or you emptied the trash manually. Go to Google Photos Settings > Backup to check whether sync was active when you recorded the video.

#Can you recover deleted videos from a broken Android phone?

If the screen is cracked but the phone still powers on, connect it via USB and run recovery software from a computer. If the phone won’t boot at all, your only options are a previous cloud backup or professional dead phone recovery. Lab-based data extraction from non-booting devices typically runs $300-1,000 depending on the damage and storage type.

#Do deleted videos still take up storage space?

Yes, until the trash period expires. Trash items count against your storage quota. You can empty the trash to reclaim space immediately, but then recovery software is your only option if you change your mind later.