I regularly back up my iOS photos to my Windows 10 laptop, organizing them into monthly folders like '2025-05'. Today, while transferring photos, my file explorer crashed. After restarting, I discovered that the '2025-05' folder was completely missing! It's not in the recycling bin, and I had already deleted the photos from my phone. I really don't want to lose all these photos. I've checked for hidden items and the recycle bin, but no luck. Can anyone suggest ways to recover this folder or prevent similar issues in the future? I'm really at a loss here!
5 Answers
Just a heads-up, it’s risky to only have one copy of your important photos. Consider using an external drive or cloud storage for backups to keep them safe in the future.
Next time, make sure to use the 'copy' function instead of 'move'. Once you're sure the files are safely copied, then you can delete them from your device. That way, if something goes wrong, you won’t lose everything.
If the files are really gone, and your drive had TRIM enabled, they might be permanently deleted. It might be tough to retrieve them now.
How long ago did you delete the files? Also, is your phone syncing with iCloud? You might be able to recover them from there.
Have you checked out immich? It’s a great way to back up your photos effectively in the future.
I totally get what you mean! I did the same thing once. It’s frustrating. But just to clarify, I did use 'copy', and it was the entire folder that vanished. So, I’m not sure what might have caused that either!