I tried moving photos and videos from my Android phone's internal storage to a 64GB SanDisk Extreme Pro microSD card using the built-in file manager. The first transfer from a messaging app folder only moved some files, but those files still opened normally. I then moved the Camera folder into a deeper folder on the SD card. I used the phone briefly during the transfer, and there was no failure notification, so I assumed it had completed.
The phone's storage decreased from about 126GB to 105GB, but afterward the Camera folder's photos showed as zero bytes and the videos were missing or corrupted. I immediately removed the card and have avoided using it except for recovery scans. Recuva found nothing, while PhotoRec recovered some messaging-app files and a few camera photos, but the recovered videos still cannot be played. The camera folder had reportedly contained around 116GB of data, even though the SD card is only 64GB. I'm especially hoping to recover the videos because they contain important memories. Is there anything else I can try?
3 Answers
Stop writing to the card and avoid repeatedly scanning it. If the videos are important, make a sector-by-sector image of the card first and run recovery tools against the image rather than the original. PhotoRec is often better than ordinary undelete tools for fragmented media, but it may only recover playable files if enough of each file remains. A professional data-recovery service is the safest remaining option, though even they cannot restore data that was never successfully copied or has already been overwritten.
The transfer probably was not actually successful just because the phone’s free space changed or the files appeared in a folder. The card could have reported incorrect free space, filled during the move, or developed filesystem errors. Check the card’s real capacity and health only after making an image; testing or formatting it now could destroy more recoverable data. Also check the phone’s trash, recently deleted items, cloud backups, and the original Camera folder in internal storage before assuming everything is gone.
The biggest warning sign is the capacity mismatch: a 64GB card cannot hold anything close to 116GB. If the transfer destination filled up, was faulty, or had a damaged filesystem, the file manager may have created zero-byte entries or lost the original data during the move. Fake or failing cards can also appear to accept files before silently overwriting or corrupting them. Recovery is possible only if the original data blocks still exist, so the outlook for the videos is unfortunately not great.
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