Best for: recovering permanently deleted photos without a backup.
Contents
Deleted photos on Android don't have to be gone forever. Depending on where your photos were stored and how long ago they were deleted, you may be able to recover them using a photo recovery app, a backup service, or an SD card recovery tool.
In this article, we compare 8 Android photo recovery apps that can help you recover deleted photos from Android phones, internal storage, or SD cards. Whether you need a free Android photo recovery app, want to recover deleted photos without root, or need to restore photos from an SD card, you'll find a suitable option here.
How We Test Android Photo Recovery Apps
To ensure fair comparisons, we test all Android photo recovery apps under the same conditions. We delete a set of photos from the same device or SD card and check if each app can detect and restore them. We evaluate each app based on recovery performance, scan time, root requirements, storage support, ease of use, and file preview capability. Results vary by device, storage type, Android version, time since deletion, and data overwrites, so recovery rates are based on tests rather than guarantees.
| Product Name | Rating | Platform | Price | Best for |
| Aiseesoft Android Data Recovery | 4.6/5 | Windows, Mac | Free / Pro Available | Recover permanently deleted photos without backup |
| DiskDigger Photo Recovery | 4.1/5 | Android, Windows | Free (IAP available) | Quick photo recovery without root |
| Google Photos | 4.2/5 | Android / Web / iOS | Free | Restoring recently deleted cloud‑backed photos |
| Recuva | 4.5/5 | Windows | Free / Pro Available | Deep scan recovery from SD card via PC |
| Dumpster | 4.1/5 | Android | Free but has in‑app purchases | Auto‑saving deleted files like a recycle bin |
| Photo Recovery by Blueberry | 3.9/5 | Android | Free | Recovery using multiple scan algorithms |
| DigDeep Image Recovery | 4.3/5 | Android | Free | Recover Android without rooting |
| Restore Image | 3.8/5 | Android | Free but has in‑app purchases | Simple and quick image recovery |
Best for: recovering permanently deleted photos without a backup.
FoneLab—Android Data Recovery is highly recommended here. With Android Data Recovery, you can easily recover deleted Android data, including contacts, text messages, photos, call history, videos, WhatsApp, WhatsApp attachments, audio, and so on. This Android photo recovery tool supports almost all Android devices, including Samsung, LG, HTC, Motorola, Sony, Xiaomi, Google Nexus, etc.
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Tips:
• For Android 2.3 and former versions: Go to "Settings" > "Applications" > "Development" > "USB debugging".
• For Android 3.0 - 4.1 versions: Enter "Settings" > "Developer options" > "USB debugging".
• For Android 4.2 or later versions, navigate to "Settings" > "About Phone" > Tap "Build number" for 7 times until you geta message showing "You are under developer mode". Return to "Settings" > Click "Developer options" >Allow "USB debugging".
Note: Gallery stores photos you captured with Android camera, transferred from computer or through Bluetooth, and screenshots you took while in Picture Library saves the cache images from apps, etc.
This software also provides its iOS version, iPhone photos recovery, which lets you recover deleted images from iPhone, iPad and iPod easily.
For more details about Android Data Recovery, you can watch the video below:
Best for: quickly recovering deleted photos on Android without root.
DiskDigger Photo Recovery is another popular photo recovery app for Android, supported by Defiant Technologies, LLC, and has more than 10 million downloads. It is a data recovery tool that helps users recover lost or deleted files, including photos, from various storage devices, such as hard drives, memory cards, and USB drives. It's available as a free app on both Android and Windows platforms. Besides getting back the deleted photos to the Android device, it also allows uploading and saving the recovered photos to Dropbox, Google Drive, or through email.
PROS
PROS
Best for: restoring recently deleted photos from a Google Photos backup.
Google Photos is a valuable data recovery tool for Android users. It offers a cloud-based backup and restoration service for photos and videos. If you have backed up your photos and videos to Google Photos, you can easily restore them from the app's "Trash" folder or by signing in to your Google account on a new device. When you enable backup and sync, Google Photos automatically uploads your media files to the cloud. If you accidentally delete a photo or video, you can often recover it from the Trash within 60 days, making it a handy tool for basic data recovery.
PROS
PROS
Best for: recovering deleted photos from an Android SD card using a Windows PC.
Recuva is a well-known data recovery tool developed by Piriform (the makers of CCleaner). It’s primarily designed for Windows PCs, but it can also be used to recover deleted files from Android devices, especially when the data is stored on external memory like SD cards. To use Recuva for Android, users need to connect their device (or its SD card) to a computer, allowing Recuva to scan and restore deleted files such as photos, videos, documents, and more.
PROS
PROS
Best for: restoring deleted files that were previously protected by its recycle-bin feature.
Dumpster Image & Video Restore is also one of the best Android photo recovery apps, with over 10 million downloads. The basic app is free, but it offers in-app purchases. Dumpster allows you to restore photos from Android as well as other files like music and videos. The photo recovery app for Android enables you to preview the images before recovering and allows simple recovery with one tap. It allows you to share and save your recovered files.
PROS
PROS
Best for: trying different scanning algorithms to find deleted photos on Android.
This is a great photo recovery app for Android with more than 5 million installs. It supports various algorithms to recover Android photos. The app is developed by Taste Blueberry PI. It allows recovering deleted photos from both phone memory and SD card. The Android photo recovery app offers different algorithms and solutions to enable you to easily recover photos from your Android.
PROS
PROS
Best for: recovering deleted images on Android without root.
It is a great image/photo recovery app developed by GreatStuffApps and has over 5 million downloads. DigDeep Image Recovery has the capability to scan and recover images both internal and external memory (SD card). It recovers images with formats jpg, jpeg and png. And the recovery speed is fast.
PROS
PROS
Best for: simple recovery of deleted JPG and PNG images on Android.
Restore Image is an easy-to-use Android photo recovery app developed by AlpacaSoft. It has over 5 million downloads and allows users to recover images from both the SD card and the phone memory very easily. The app has a simple and user-friendly interface, which makes it very easy to use.
PROS
PROS
Can I recover photos deleted a long time ago on Android?
It depends. Most photo recovery apps can only recover photos that haven’t been overwritten with new data. If the deleted photo was recently removed and the phone hasn’t been heavily used since, recovery is more likely. Apps like Google Photos may also store deleted images in the Trash for up to 60 days. And if your data has been deleted for a long time, there is still a good chance to recover it using a professional Photo Recovery App like FoneLab—Android Data Recovery.
Do I need to root my Android phone to recover deleted photos?
Not always. Many recovery apps like FoneLab—Android Data Recovery work without root access. But for some apps like Recuva, you have to root Android apps before the photos recovery.
Can photo recovery apps retrieve photos from my SD card?
Yes. Most recovery apps and desktop tools can scan SD cards for deleted photos. You’ll usually get better results by removing the SD card, connecting it to a PC, and using a recovery tool like FoneLab—Android Data Recovery.
Are photo recovery apps for Android free?
Some Android photo recovery apps are free, while others offer free scanning with paid recovery features or in-app purchases. Free apps can be useful for recently deleted photos, but professional recovery tools may provide more advanced scanning and support for different types of Android storage.
Will recovered photos lose quality?
Recovering a deleted photo does not normally reduce its original quality. If the recovery tool successfully retrieves the original file, the recovered image should retain its original resolution and quality. However, some apps may recover thumbnails, cached images, or partially damaged files instead of the original photo.
Can I recover deleted WhatsApp photos on Android?
Yes, but the recovery method depends on how the WhatsApp photos were stored. If they were included in a WhatsApp or Google Drive backup, restoring the backup may be the easiest option. If there is no backup, an Android data recovery tool may be able to find recoverable WhatsApp photos, depending on the device and whether the deleted data has been overwritten.
Conclusion
In this article, we mainly show you the top 8 photo recovery apps for Android. From simple on-device apps like Restore Image and Dumpster to more advanced PC-based tools like Recuva, each option comes with its own strengths and limitations. The best choice depends on factors such as where the photos were stored (internal memory or SD card), whether the device is rooted, and how recently the data was deleted. Among all these tools, I recommend FoneLab—Android Data Recovery as the best, which ensures a high photo recovery success rate. If you have any other advice, please leave it below.
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The best Android Data Recovery software to recover deleted files like SMS, contacts, call logs, documents, etc. from Android phone/SD card/tablet on Windows/Mac.
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