Losing important files from your Android is always a depressing experience. Today, we'll talk about how to recover deleted files and take your first steps with Recuva for Android. It’s free, No rooting needed. Only one thing to remember: act fast.
Note: Deleted files remain on a memory card only until they get overwritten by new data. New operations on your device like sending messages, taking photos, etc. can generate new data and overwrite the files. So, use the device as little as possible.
Best Data Recovery for Mac and Windows
Fail to Recover Android Data with Recuva? Try This!
- Recover files from Android, or other internal/external hard drive
- Recover 200+ types of file: video, audio, document, image, etc.
- Find back files lost due to different reasons: formatting, deletion, OS upgrade, etc.
- Use both quick and deep scan to find the most files
- Repair broken videos, support batch repair
- Preview files before recovery
- Filter files to find and recover wanted files quickly
- Recover to local drive or Cloud (Dropbox, OneDrive, GoogleDrive, pCloud, Box)
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Free Download
4 Basic Things You Need to Know about Recuva for Android?
What is Recuva
Recuva is a free windows data recovery software developed by Piriform. Also the developer of CCleaner and Defraggler. It works well on Windows, also as effective in recovering data from USB drives, camcorders or mobile phones.
Chosen as the best free data recovery software, Recuva is appealing to users for offering a lot of useful features:
- Easy to Use
Recuva has a very handy interface, you can get started instantly with its "Start Wizard". Scan for a certain file name or file type.
- Free and Safe to use
The software is completely safe to own and use, include no spyware, malicious threats, etc.
- Support Hundreds of File Types
Restores documents, images, video, music, email, anything.
- Two Powerful File Scanning Method
Regular recovery: Quick scan your android memory card and searches for files that Recuva can recover.
Deep Scan: Deep Scan to look for more deeply-buried files. Pause at any time and it will show you the instant results Recuva has found.
- Support Popular Files Systems
Supports FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, exFAT, NTFS, NTFS5, NTFS + EFS file systems.
- Portable Version
Portable version available, this will make sure you will not overwrite any files during the installation of Recuva.
- Restore-and-securely-delete Functionality
Recuva also has the special ability to securely delete files and make sure it's erased once and cannot be recovered using other programs.
- Multiple editions
Recuva is available in both Free and Professional (paid) versions. The free version is recommended because it is enough for use in most cases.
Recuva Free Download: https://www.ccleaner.com/recuva/download
Recuva Pro Download https://secure.ccleaner.com/502/?scope=checkout&id=ozo9FToj34
Recuva Portable Download https://www.ccleaner.com/recuva/builds
Does Recuva Work on Android Phones
When talking about Recuva for Android, we take it as something like a Recuva apk that can run directly on Android phones. But, there is no official Recuva app for android. The ones that show when you searching for "Recuva Android" are sites that offer downloads for other apps with a misleading name. Even, there isn’t Recuva for macOS version, Recuva is only available on Windows.
However, Recuva can restore files from both internal and external drive or card, in other words, Recuva can recover lost or deleted data from Android phones by running the program on Windows.
What Kind of Data Can Recuva Recover from Android Phone?
Recuva supports recovery on hundreds of file types that lost under different situations:
- Recover permanently deleted files on Android.
- Recovery from damaged or format factory. If you formatted the SD card. or format factory your Android phones. Recuva can still find your files on it. especially if the drive has not used since.
- Recover deleted emails on Android.
- Recover deleted music along with lyric and track data.
- Recuva can rebuild unsaved Word, Excel, PPT, etc. documents from their temporary files.
- Recover files even if your Phone or screen broken.
- File lost due to an Android update.
Where is The File Stored on Android Devices?
As Recuva runs on a computer we have first understand where the files located on our phone. In Android, there are two places to store the files: internal memory or external memory.
Internal memory
Internal memory is the hard drive of your Android phone. It can’t removed, to scan data on the internal memory, you have to connect your device to the computer for scanning.
External Memory
External memory is the SD card or memory card you plug in your device to store data. You can scan data on SD card by connecting your Phone to the computer or access it with a card reader.
Recuva doesn't recognize my phone
If the data you lost is on the internal memory, and Recuva can't see your phone, you can use DiskDigger for Android we introduced below to get the files back, but If the file was on the memory card or SD card, I suggest using a card reader and recover it with the help of Recuva which will be safer and easier. If neither DiskDigger nor Recuva works to recover your lost files on Android phone, you can try Cisdem Data Recovery for Mac or Windows.
How to Use Recuva for Android Files Recovery
Now, let’s take a look at how to use Recuva to recover lost or deleted files on Android.
- Connect the Android SD Card to your Windows PC using a card reader.
- Get the Recuva app.
Download Piriform’s Recuva onto your Windows PC. The free is recommended. Then install and run the program on your Windows PC until the Recuva Wizard appears.
- Selet a file type to recover Android files using Recuva.
The first wizard window will ask what file types Recuva should look for. Check the circle to select and click Next to continue.
- Select the file location.
Next, you are asked where the files were located. Choose your microSD or Android phone’s library and click “Next”. 
- Start the scanning process.
Now we come to the last page of the wizard. There is a tickbox to “Enable Deep Scan," which by default is unticked. Enabling the Deep Scan will take much time(in our case it takes 2 hours). but deep scan can increase the chance of recovering certain files. We recommend you check the “Enable Deep Scan”. In our test, the deep scan recovered more than 800 recoverable files than the standard scan. Click "Start" to begin the scan.
- Wait for the scanning process.
Wait for Recuva to run the full scan of your phone’s memory card, be patient if the status bar runs slowly.
- Select recoverable Android files that found by Recuva.
Once the scan completed, Recuva will list what it has found. All found files will be marked in 3 different colors.
Green: File in excellent condition and very likely to recovered.
Orange: File has partially overwritten only partially recoverable.
Red: File is completely overwritten, unrecoverable.
- Recover lost files on your Androd phone.
If you find the files you need, check the box in front of the file and click “Recover”. Choose where to save the data. That’s it.
Also you can check the video tutorial
Is There Any Alternative Recuva Software for Android?
Yes, there is.
As there is no Android version of Recuva if you want to recover files directly on Android. you can use Recuva alternative app for android.
There are many data recovery app on the Android market. Today, we’d like to go with DiskDigger. In our test, this app gives the best recovering rate. Many android data recovery apps need activated root access while rooting in this app is not mandatory. What’s more, it has fewer ads compared with the other free apps.
It has a free and paid version. Free version works for photos and video recovery; you only have to pay if you want to recover other types of files.
How to Use DiskDigger (The Best Alternative Recuva for Android)
- First, head to the Google Play Store in your phone.
Search DiskDigger and download the app. Install the app DiskDigger from the Play Store. 
- Choose your scan.
A Full Scan is only available for phones that are rooted. If your phone isn’t rooted, select Basic Scan.
- Find your phone’s internal storage.
This is normally the /data partition. Tap it. tap Scan Device and the app will starts scanning immediately. 
- After scanning it will show you a thumbnail grid of everything it finds. When you see the photo you want to recover select it and hit save.
- The app will then ask you where you want to save the photo. Choose the DCIM folder. Click “OK” and you’re done.
See the Video Guide of DiskDigger for Android
Avoiding Android Data Loss
Data recovery on any device is never 100% successful, to avoid pains suffering from data loss, we should be careful about data saving and have a good habit of doing backup:
- Get a Dropbox account, and get in the habit of backing up.
- Save files to SD card on your Android phone.
- Backing up your files on your PC and an external hard drive.
Whenever we lost our data, we can still get them back from the backup, without paying for data recovery software or service.
Do you use Recuva to recover your lost files on Android? If so, what're your experiences with it? Are there other apps you have found that work just as well or better? Share your stories in the comments section below.
Rosa has worked in Mac software industry for more than eight years. She believes that the purpose of software is to make life better and work more productively. In addition to writing, Rosa is also an avid runner.
Jennifer Smith
Honestly Recuva is a reliable data recovery tool that can be trusted. I use both its mobile version and desktop version. When Recuva's computer version can't deal with my data loss successfully, I would always try Cisdem Data Recovery, which never let me down.