How do I recover a deleted photo folder on Android?

Last reviewed: October 1, 2026 · Markdown version

A deleted album or folder comes back picture by picture, from the bin of the app you deleted it with — and only within that app's window. Every restore procedure we read, from Samsung and from Google, has you select photos or files and tap Restore; none of them describes restoring a folder as a folder. So the job is: find the right bin, select everything that was in the folder, and do it before the clock runs out. The general tour of Android's bins is on our recycle-bin page; this one is about photos.

Deleted in Samsung's Gallery

Samsung's current page puts the window at 30 days: "Deleted items will remain in the Bin for 30 days. After that point, they will automatically be permanently deleted." To bring them back: Gallery › Menu › Recycle bin › Edit, select the pictures, then Restore or Restore All. The same page says that on these phones "The recycle bin function cannot be turned off" (Delete and restore files using the Trash feature in Samsung apps, Samsung CA, read 1 October 2026).

Older Galaxy software was different. Samsung Ireland's recovery page still carries the earlier rule — "To use Recycle bin, you should have turned on the Recycle bin before you deleted photos" — with the switch under the Gallery's Settings (How to recover a deleted photo from your Galaxy phone recycle bin, read 1 October 2026). If your phone is on that older software and the bin was off, the pictures did not go to a bin.

Deleted in Google Photos

Google's page: "Photos and videos in the trash are permanently deleted after 30 days." Restore from Collections › Trash: touch and hold an item, select the rest, tap Restore. Google is the one vendor that says where restored pictures land — back in "Albums that it was in", the "Google Photos library" and the "Phone's gallery app" (Restore recently deleted photos & videos, Android, read 1 October 2026). Samsung's CA page above gives the restore steps but is silent on whether pictures go back into the album they came from, so check where they reappear before deleting anything else.

The two vendors disagree about Google's window

Samsung Ireland's page also describes Google Photos, and says its items "will be permanently deleted after 60 days in Recycle bin". Google's own pages today say 30 days, both on the restore page above and on its deletion page (Delete photos & videos, Android, read 1 October 2026). Go by the app's own vendor, and treat a second-hand number as out of date until shown otherwise.

Deleted in a file manager

If you removed the folder with Files by Google rather than a gallery, Google's page gives the same 30 days — "Files remain in Trash for 30 days and then are automatically deleted" — with one exception that catches people: "Files deleted from "Junk files" card will be permanently deleted" (Move files to Trash & restore files from Trash, read 1 October 2026). On a Galaxy with One UI 6, Samsung's CA page above says My Files › Recycle bin shows items deleted from My Files, Gallery and Voice Recorder together.

Two more places to look

The memory card. Google warns that "Deleted photos and videos might stay on a removable memory card" (Google's deletion page above). If the folder lived on a card, browse the card in a file manager before giving up.
A backup made before the delete. If you deleted in Samsung's Gallery and Google Photos backup was on beforehand, search the Google Photos library itself as well as its Trash — worth a minute, though neither vendor's page promises a copy will be there.

Past the window there is no documented way back: "Photos and videos that were permanently deleted can't be restored" (Google's deletion page above). That sentence is the best argument for keeping a second copy before tidying anything.