If you have accidentally deleted your photos, documents, videos or other files on your phone, don't fret. You have many options for retrieving all your lost or deleted data whether your device is rooted or not. To still have a chance of recovery however, you need to avoid turning off your device or saving any other files. Switch off your Wi-Fi and data connections to prevent any updates from automatically installing before you've recovered your lost files.

Recovering for Android phones that are not rooted

  • First, ensure that the deleted files are missing in your photo app Trash section, which is where deleted files from your gallery are automatically saved before permanently being emptied.
  • Mount your phone to a computer and launch a file recovery app.
  • However, if the particular file you are in search of was saved on your SD card memory, then using a Micro SD Card Adapter can help connect your microSD through USB.
  • Install a Recuva app (paid or free version will do), which acts as a software for recovering files. Other alternatives include programs such as Coolmuster and for rooted devices the Wondershare Dr. Fone, which is also compatible with PC or Mac devices.
NOTE: It is worth mentioning that you may need to format your memory card to NTFS or FAT32, for most of these programs to properly perform. Thus, if the format of your SD card is unrecognizable then, transfer all the data to your PC or any other external storage. Once you are done,format your SD card to FAT32 and then move your files back to it then proceed with the process.While running Recuva, ensure you first select the kind file you wish to recover, that is either, Documents, Pictures, Music, Videos and so on. It also provides an option to specify the location to restore the file from as well as the folder from which to perform the recovery process. However, Recuva only provides locations that it is capable of recovering files from, so just follow the program's instructions.Once you have recovered your lost files, store them on a different storage device other than the location they were originally saved. This helps prevent storage conflicts or even interfering the whole recover process. You can however transfer them back to your device later on, when they fully retrieved and you have them backed up.For lost files that were stored on the phone's internal storage however, the process is different. You need to first enable the developer options on your Android phone, head to the Settings >> About Phone >> Build Number, tap the option at least seven times till you see a notification that "You are now a developer".Go back to Settings main menu and look for the Developer Options section, find USB debugging then enable it. Apps such as the Wondershare Dr Fone can now be used in the scanning of your device.

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What's my model number?

There are several ways to locate your model number:

Option 1
On your device, go to Settings, then "About device" and scroll down to "Model number"
Option 2
Often times you can view the model number inside the device, by removing the battery
Option 3
Using Samsung's model/serial number location tool

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