Deleted does not mean gone
Deleting a photo or formatting a card clears the index — not the data. Media Rescue reads the raw bytes, finds every file that is still there, and repairs the ones that come back broken.
Scan and results are free · One free sample photo and video · Nothing uploaded · No account.
The deleted file is still on the card because deleting only cleared its entry in the index. It stays recoverable until something is written on top of it. Take the card out, or stop taking photos on the phone. Every new file written lowers the odds of the one you want coming back.
Deleting is bookkeeping, not erasing.
On the FAT and exFAT file systems every camera card uses, deleting a file removes its directory entry and marks the space free. The photo's own bytes are untouched, sitting exactly where they were.
Media Rescue scans the raw bytes for the signatures that begin each kind of file, then measures each one by walking its own internal structure — never by guessing "until the next signature", which welds two files together.
A file half-overwritten before you scanned is recovered as far as it survived, then given a valid ending so it opens and shows that part — instead of refusing to open at all.
Six things, and it is honest about all of them.
Deleted files, quick-formatted cards, directories that went unreadable. No file list is needed — only the bytes.
Results arrive grouped by kind with a count for each, and every file marked intact or repairable before you open it.
A recovered file that will not open gets its video index or its image markers rebuilt from the surviving data itself.
The photo displays and the video plays inside the app, on your own screen, before any purchase is asked for.
Scanning, recovery and repair all run on the phone. No upload, no server, no account, no sign-in.
Attach a card reader over USB‑OTG and the app reads its raw sectors — read‑only, never writing a single byte to your card.
Each format measured by its own structure, not guessed at.
Said here rather than after you install it.
The card holding your only copy is not a place to take chances.
Free to scan. Free to look. Free to try.
Scanning a card, seeing every file found with its size and condition, and opening one photo and one video in full cost nothing. A subscription unlocks recovering and saving everything else.
The order is deliberate: not every file can be brought back, and asking someone to pay before they see the result earns refunds and one-star reviews. Here the proof arrives first.
The ones worth answering before you install anything.
On the FAT and exFAT file systems every camera card uses, deleting a file clears its directory entry and marks its space as free. The photo's actual bytes are left exactly where they were until something else is written over them. Media Rescue ignores the file table entirely and scans the raw bytes for the signatures that begin each kind of file.
A quick format rewrites the file table and leaves the data itself alone, so yes — that is one of the cases signature scanning handles well. A full format that overwrites every sector genuinely destroys the data, and no software can bring it back.
Stop writing to that card. Take it out of the camera, or stop taking photos on the phone. Every new file written can land on top of the one you want back. Recovery odds fall with every minute the card stays in use.
No. The scan, the recovery and the repair all run on your phone. There is no server, no account and no sign-in. The app works with the network switched off.
Scanning a card, seeing every file found with its size and condition, and opening one photo and one video in full are free. A subscription unlocks recovering and saving everything else. You always see the results before you are asked to pay.
Because that is all that survived. Something was written over the rest of the file before you ran the scan. The repair engine gives the file a valid ending so it opens and shows the part that is still there, rather than refusing to open at all. The app labels these as partial before you open them.
Media Rescue repairs that too. If the file is not deleted and you only need it fixed, Video Repair is the focused tool for exactly that job.
It helps a great deal. With a USB‑OTG reader the app reads the card's raw sectors directly, which is where deleted files actually live. Without one you can still scan a card image or backup file.