How do I get my pictures back

Question

How do I get my pictures back

Anonymous

All my pictures in my laptop are gone. Gone from the laptop and gone from one drive. How do I get them back? Years of pictures, how is that even possible? I didn’t even wanted one drive, but they pretty much force you to have it and then after awhile they just delete everything apparently. Is just broke my heart. All the pictures from the kids. These companies are just horrible

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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9 additional answers

Answer 1

... my pictures was in the pictures folder. I checked one drive, nothing is there, nothing on recycling either.

Hi Cl 24:

It would be helpful if you could tell us your Windows operating system and computer model. Also, is there anything unusual you can recall that has happened to your system recently (e.g., an error message at boot-up or prompt to repair your Windows operating system)? I'm not sure how your all your photos could have disappeared unless you accidentally deleted them or performed some sort of system recovery that removed all your third-party apps and personal files.

Did you use File Explorer to search for all photo files in all locations (e.g., by searching C:\Users\ for *.jpg) in case your photos were accidentally dragged or moved to a different location?

Is there software you use to view and/or manage your pictures (e.g., Adobe Photoshop or the Windows Photos app built in to some Windows OSs)? If so, just confirm that you've launched this software and it cannot locate your photos.

Do you perform regular backups of your personal data files so that you can restore important data files, documents and photos if they are damaged by malware or accidentally deleted? (see footnote below)

If you are absolutely certain that all your photos have been wiped off your hard drive and you have no data backups that you can use to restore your missing photos then you still might be able to recover those "deleted" photos with data recovery software - <removed by moderator>

IMPORTANT: The more you use your computer the greater the chance you will write a new file to your hard drive that overwrites your "deleted" files, so the sooner you try your data recovery the better. If your missing photos are especially important to you I would immediately contact a local computer shop and ask what they charge for professional data recovery services.

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This won't help you now but you should always have an emergency backup plan in place. I use disk imaging software called Macrium Reflect Free v8.0 *** to create emergency recovery media (a bootable USB stick) and the occasional full disk image of my hard drive that I save on a removable 1 TB USB backup drive in case I ever have to perform an emergency rollback of my entire system to a previous date. I also perform a weekly backup of my all my personal data I store in C:\Users<myusername> (which includes C:\Users<myusername>\Documents and C:\Users<myusername>\Pictures) to the same external backup drive using an old utility called Karen's Replicator so I can quickly copy and paste any personal data back to my hard drive if it's accidentally deleted.

*** NOTE: Official support for Macrium Reflect Free v8.0 ended on 01-Jan-2024 (i.e., there will be no more feature changes or security patches) but Macrium has allowed users to continue using Macrium Reflect Free v8.0 after that date. There are many other free disk imaging programs like EaseUS Todo Backup and Paragon Backup & Recovery Free that might also suit your needs - see the June 2023 TechRepublic article Top 5 Free & Reliable Hard Disk Drive Cloning Software for more information.

Dell Inspiron 15 5584 * 64-bit Win 10 Pro v22H2 build 19045.4894 * Firefox v130.0.1 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.24080.9-1.1.24080.9 * Malwarebytes Premium v5.1.10.127-1.0.5021 * Macrium Reflect Free v8.0.7783 * Microsoft Office Home and Business 2019 C2R Version 2408 / Build 17928.20156

Answer 2

I don’t think that something happened. I can’t recall anything. I just don’t use this laptop often because I have a work one. Last time that I turn it on was around 9 months ago. The laptop is a Microsoft surface 2. And I have window 10. Thank you for taking your time to reply. When I posted this message I was seriously distraught. I’m taking it to a shop because I didn’t understand half of what you said so that’s a sign that I should hand it to someone that does

Answer 3

Anonymous

Thank you but nothing is on file explorer. Over 10 years of pictures.

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Answer 4

Hi Cl 24 :

What is your Windows operating system, do you use a Microsoft Office product (e.g., Microsoft 365, Microsoft Office Home & Student 2021, etc.), and were these photos stores in your personal Documents folder (e.g., C:\Users<yourusername>\Documents\Pictures) and/or attached to emails? Please note that you posted your question in the Windows Vista board of this forum, and support for that operating system ended in April 2017.

You might find some helpful information in Will Fastie's 17-Jun-2024 article OneDrive and File Explorer in the free edition of the AskWoody.com newsletter (Issue 21.25.F) about problems he encountered with OneDrive syncing using Windows 11’s File Explorer, and what he did to solve the problem. Here's an excerpt from that article:

"A final issue, and one that is nearly impossible to deal with, is that all Microsoft applications (and many others) keep folders in Documents and expect them to be there. By turning off sync, I forced all those folders and their files into the cloud. That’s a performance hit; today’s Internet connectivity is fast, but it’s not yet as fast as the SSD that is my C: drive.

So, reluctantly, I turned “sync” back on for Documents and Pictures*. For the future, I’ll need to keep an eye on all apps to make sure they are storing their files where I want them, not where Microsoft does*."

NOTE: A discussion about that article is posted in the AskWoody.com forum at OneDrive and File Explorer.

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EDIT:

If you have a Microsoft Account you can sign in to OneDrive from your browser at https://onedrive.live.com/login/ (or https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/onedrive/online-cloud-storage) and view any files that have been synced from your computer to your personal OneDrive cloud storage. You might find your missing photos there.

Dell Inspiron 15 5584 * 64-bit Win 10 Pro v22H2 build 19045.4894 * Firefox v130.0.1 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.24080.9-1.1.24080.9 * Malwarebytes Premium v5.1.10.127-1.0.5021 * Macrium Reflect Free v8.0.7783 * Microsoft Office Home and Business 2019 C2R Version 2408 / Build 17928.20156

Answer 5

You are not forced to buy/use O365, there are other options.

OneDrive is not a backup, it’s a cloud location of your data.

The default installation of Office 365 and its OneDrive component uploads all the contents of the PC \My Documents\ folders to OneDrive, (syncs) and there will be a OneDrive folder in File Explorer containing cached copy of all the OneDrive content. And in Word etc the default Save location is set to OneDrive.

No Docs/data is stored on the local PC

You cannot remove OneDrive on a retail O365

File Explorer, check the Contents of that folder

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How do I get my pictures back

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