How to Recover Deleted Photos From SD Card in 2025

One of the worst things is losing valuable photos stored on your SD card, especially if you’ve sweated for hours to snap them. This can happen for any reason, ranging from removal by mistake, formatting, corruption, to virus attacks. 

But here the most crucial question is, “Can you recover deleted photos from SD card​, and if yes, how?” Don’t worry, though. This post will address any questions you have about when recovery is viable with or without software and how to recover deleted photos from SD card!

Part 1: Estimate Your Chances of SD Card Photo Recovery

If you’re contemplating whether can you recover deleted photos from SD card​, the answer depends on certain variables. When you erase pictures from SD cards by mistake or intentionally, they’re not gone right away. You can recover erased photos from SD card​ with a recovery tool until new data overwrites them. 

But how quickly this happens depends on your memory card’s size and how often it’s used. For example, if you format a 32 GB SD card and then fill it with 32 GB of new files, the old data is almost certainly lost. However, even if it’s overwritten, you can recover photos from SD card for free​ with a backup. But if the device is physically damaged, you’ll likely need a professional photo recovery from SD card.

Part 2: How to Recover Deleted/Lost Photos From SD Card With Software?

A professional data recovery software like Tenorshare 4DDiG provides a high success rate in reclaiming pictures lost due to corruption, removal, formatting, etc. It’s ideal when you don’t have a backup and require selective photo recovery from SD card, meaning you want to retrieve pictures while leaving the rest behind. Here’s more info about this tool.

• The file retrieval tool can extract 2000+ file formats quickly, even RAW, image, audio, documents, videos, archives, etc.
• The app supports numerous SD card types, e.g, SDHC, SDXC, SDUC, microSD, from popular brands like SanDisk, Kingston, Lexar, etc.
• The photo retrieval software allows you to preview recovered images before you save them to your computer or cloud drive.
• It allows you to recover up to 2GB of photos from an SD card for free.
• No technical knowledge required.

Here’s how to recover deleted photos from SD card with this tool:

Step 1: Connect your SD card to your computer for access. Then, execute the recovery tool on the same computer. Select the SD card in the tool. Pick “Photo” as the file type to scan. Tap “Scan Selected File Types.” 

Step 2: Pause or stop the scan once you recover your desired pictures. Adjust filters and input keywords to find the exact matches.

Step 3: Preview the pictures in the “Photo” folder beneath the “Type” category or look for them beneath the “Path” category. 

Step 4: Hit “Recover” to export the reclaimed pictures to your computer or cloud drive. That’s how to recover photos from SD card.

Part 3: How to Recover Deleted/Lost Photos From SD Card Without Software?

If the pictures are overwritten or you don’t want to use the software, here’s how to recover lost photos from SD card​ in 4 ways. But not every method mentioned beneath might be suitable, so only pick one that’s compatible with your situation:

3.1 Check Your Backups

Even if your erased pictures are overwritten, if you have a backup, you can recover erased photos from SD card​. Therefore, check your backup sources. Look in cloud services like Google Photos, OneDrive, or Dropbox. You must’ve activated them before you lost the images. Also, check any computer backups or external hard drives you may have used to store your photos.

3.2 Show Hidden Files on the Card

Sometimes your memory card is set to be read-only, and you’re unable to access its files. So, you mistakenly believe that the files are gone from the card. But that’s not the case, and you can actually recover photos from SD card for free​ by unhiding your card to reveal its content with the Attrib command. Here’s how to recover photos from SD card by unhiding them:

Step 1: Plug your SD card into a computer for access. Then, search for “cmd” in the Windows search bar. Right-click “Command Prompt.”

Step 2: Then, execute it with admin privileges. Hit “Yes” when asked.

Step 3: Type the following command. Hit “Enter” afterward:

• [drive letter]:\>attrib -h -r -s /s /d *.* (Here, input the drive letter of your memory card).

Step 4: Your SD card files will appear on the SD card. That’s how to recover lost photos from SD card​ that were hidden before.

3.3 Repair the Card Using CHKDSK

If your SD card is corrupted, the pictures on it might seem lost to you. However, you can recover photos from SD card for free after fixing the corruption on the card with CHDKSK. It’s a Windows-embedded utility to repair corrupted file systems and bad sectors. Once the corruption is repaired, afterward, you can use the recovery tool to retrieve the files. Here’s how to recover lost photos from SD card​ by fixing it with CHKDSK:

Step 1: Plug your SD card into a computer for access. Then, search for “cmd” in the Windows search bar. Right-click “Command Prompt.”

Step 2: Then, execute it with admin privileges. Hit “Yes” when asked.

Step 3: Type the following command. Hit “Enter” afterward:

• chkdsk[drive letter]: /f (Here, input the drive letter of your memory card).

3.4 Use the Restore Previous Versions Feature

Another way to recover erased photos from SD card​ is by restoring them from their previous version. However, you must’ve activated the “File History” function beforehand. It will automatically back up your files to an external drive or network location at set intervals. 

Though, by default “File History” saves your computer files, you can place your memory card pictures into a folder, and then manually add the folder to the backup. Here’s how to recover photos from SD card with the Previous Version feature:

Step 1: Plug your SD card into a computer for access. Then, search for “con” in the Windows search bar. Then, execute “Control Panel.”

Step 2: Choose “System and Security.” Then, tap “Save backup copies of your files with File History.”

Step 3: Tap “Restore personal files.” Head to the folder where your memory card pictures were saved.

Step 4: Use the timeline to pick a backup. Choose the photos you want. Then, hit the green “Restore” button for photo recovery from SD card.

Conclusion

If you were wondering before whether can you recover deleted photos from SD card​, the answer is determined by the extent to which your data has been overwritten. It also depends on the frequency of card usage and whether you have a backup or not. 

You can learn how to recover deleted photos from SD card through a backup, by revealing hidden files, repairing the card with CHKDSK, or using File History. If these methods are not applicable, 4DDiG Data Recovery is a wonderful choice, too. It supports 2000+ file types and numerous SD card types, and allows selective photo recovery from SD card and preview before retrieving.