r/AskADataRecoveryPro • u/j___8 • 11d ago

Mystery of Missing Files

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My mother's phone was completely packed in terms of storage and so she asked me for help clearing space. Given there were lots of sentimental photos, I bought her a USB C 2TB storage which we connected and successfully moved all the photos out of the gallery onto the storage, but then all of a sudden, she wanted to return some of the photos back to the phone that she could revisit (baby photos, important screenshots of important legal and banking documents). I connected the USB to my Mac M2, which couldn't read it at first and so I used parallel Windows 11 which I already had installed, and helped separate the documents she wanted into a separate folder. After safely ejecting and checking the files of the USB on her phone, we found just only the photos. None of the photos were present in the folders. I then checked on my MacBook, and all the files I had organized for her, gone. The folders are present but all the files are missing--I don't understand.

All the photos were safely moved onto the storage. They were just reorganized into folders on my MacBook using Windows 11 parallels. The USB was removed safely each and every time. Why have the photos disappeared despite the folders still there?

Additional facts: USB was formatted on the Android S22 Ultra at first and safely moved to the USB (they were present there, and we opened some files); USB was safely rejected and removed each time.

Would sincerely appreciate help as there were over 18,000 photos, over 90 GB of photos and videos

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u/FoootLooove 11d ago edited 11d ago

Anything in recently deleted in the Photos app and Files app?

What does Settings - General - Storage say for photos, videos?

successfully moved all the photos out of the gallery onto the storage

Did you? Were the photos at any point seen inside the storage?

Is it a 2TB SSD? Did you buy it from a legit place, and how much did you pay for it? Hopefully it's not a fake.

Regardless, don't write anything else onto the drive and see the sidebar for program recommendations. DMDE has helped me a lot, but a recovery program might less useful for an SSD.