Accidentally deleted some photos that you weren’t supposed to? Or maybe your camera’s SD card has become corrupted, leading to all your photos becoming inaccessible. Whatever the case, photo recovery software is created to tackle the seemingly endless ways photos can become lost or deleted. Our team of data recovery experts has tried and tested the best photo recovery apps on the net, and the culmination of their insights and findings has been collected into the article below.
Our editorial team independently assesses each data recovery solution to produce accurate, high-quality content. Discover more about our testing process.
Why We Picked These Photo Recovery Tools Over the Rest
Given the staggering amount of photo recovery software online, we had to go into this with a very specific list of criteria to keep in mind. This helped us weed out the good from the bad. Here’s what we prioritized:
- Recovery results. Particularly, how well the software can recover photos from storage media, such as SD cards, cameras, phones, and internal or external drives. This includes the presence of any extra tools that help with photo recovery and how well the software can recognize and recover common photo formats like JPG and PNG, but also those that are RAW.
- Ability to handle different situations. Recovering deleted photos is a prerequisite, but how well does it work when you need to recover photos from a formatted card? Or even a card that has become corrupted? We look at things like how it scans (is it non-invasive?), what scan modes are performed, and whether or not you can back up logically corrupt cards in the app.
- The balance between usability and technical prowess. Sure, a high-end data recovery tool intended for recovery experts can recover your data, but not everyone knows how to use these apps. A poor user interface (UI) makes an already-frustrating situation worse, and could even lead to mistakes, whereas a super simple UI without capable recovery features can result in losing valuable data.
- Cross-platform compatibility. Software that is available on multiple operating systems or supports recovery from cross-platform file systems is ranked higher, given it has wider use-cases compared to single-platform or outdated options.
- Long-term support. No one wants to pay for a solution that’s only viable until the next major operating system (OS) update. We prioritized actively developed tools that receive regular updates over stagnant ones that are either abandoned or rarely updated.
- Identifying common deal-breakers. We stood clear of apps with misleading claims, poor recovery rates, and limited format support, in favor of those with real-world, user-proven recovery cases across a wide range of scenarios.
With these criteria in mind, we tested dozens of tools and narrowed the list down to the following options.
Top 9 Photo Recovery Software (Free & Paid)
We’ve followed the same structured approach for breaking down each image recovery software tool. We’ll start at the pros and cons for each, a brief summary, and then a deeper breakdown of our findings.
1. Disk Drill Photo Recovery (Windows & Mac)
✅ Pros:
- Beginner-friendly user interface
- RAW photo recovery
- Supports 101 image file formats
- Advanced Camera Recovery for digital cameras and drones
- Extensive knowledge base with tutorials
- Recovers images from iPhone/Android devices (Disk Drill for Mac)
📛 Cons:
- Can’t fix corrupted photos or images.
Disk Drill is a flexible image recovery program that can be used to perform deleted photo recovery with just a few clicks. Available on both Windows and macOS, it supports all major Windows (FAT/exFAT/NTFS/ReFS) and macOS (HFS/HFS+, APFS) file systems, as well as those that appear as RAW.
It features multiple powerful scanning algorithms that are automatically executed in the optimal order to deliver the best data recovery results possible. As such, Disk Drill delivers professional performance in a beginner-friendly package.
🖼️ Photo recovery capabilities:
- Disk Drill can recover virtually all photo file formats you may come across from any storage device, including JPG, PNG, HEIC, TIFF, and most major RAW types from Canon, Nikon, Sony, GoPro, and DJI cameras. RAW recovery is particularly important in situations where standard file system recovery is not possible, and you need to opt for a deeper, signature-based scan.
- Combines file system-aware scans with advanced file carving, allowing the recovery of photos from healthy drives, formatted cards, corrupted partitions, and even RAW or unmountable storage.
- Includes an Advanced Camera Recovery module that helps facilitate recovery from camera memory cards by locating image files when the folder structure is lost, the card is reformatted in-camera, or photos are fragmented across the storage device. As a bonus, it can even reconstruct fragmented video files.
- Files can be previewed before recovery to confirm each photo is intact and recoverable.
- Includes built-in filter options that let users refine scan results by file type, file size, and last date modified to find photos easier.
🗣️ What users say:
David left a review on TrustPilot highlighting how Disk Drill performs in a real-world situation:
“Disk Drill by CleverFiles did for me what other software couldn’t; restore deleted precious drone footages. And the bonus, filenames were also restored in the process. This software does what it is supposed to and does it well. Honestly, one of the best software purchases I have ever made.”
Feedback like this is useful to understand what Disk Drill can do in a real-world setting, and speaks positively to its ability to locate lost photos that other tools miss, while keeping the recovery process straightforward.
💰 Pricing:
- Disk Drill Free – Lets you scan and preview data, and offers unlimited access to extra tools. On Windows, users can recover up to 100 MB for free.
- Disk Drill PRO – $89.00 for unlimited access to the application.
Our team has published a full, in-depth review of Disk Drill, where you can learn more.
2. R-Studio (Windows, Mac, and Linux)
✅ Pros:
- Powerful recovery features
- Support for Windows, macOS, and Linux
- Can recover remote locations
- Familiar File Explorer-style interface
📛 Cons:
- Not intended for casual users
- Expensive to unlock all features
R-Studio is a professional-grade deleted photo recovery software solution with enough features to satisfy the needs of data recovery experts who recover lost and deleted photos and other files for living. Unlike consumer-focused tools, it prioritizes granular control and high-level diagnostics over each of use. Its rich feature set makes it suitable for complex recovery scenarios where simpler tools fall short.
Because of its depth and flexibility, R-Studio is best suited for users who already understand file systems and storage structures, or who are willing to invest the time to learn.
🖼️ Photo recovery capabilities:
- R-Studio excels in scanning and recovering photos from a wide range of storage devices, including hard drives, memory cards, USB drives, and more.
- Supports recovery from formatted, damaged, or partially corrupted file systems, including FAT/exFAT, NTFS, HFS+, APFS, ext2/3/4, and others across Windows, macOS, and Linux.
- Scans are highly customizable, allowing users to fine-tune recovery parameters for complex data loss situations.
- RAW photo recovery is available via signature-based scans, allowing for recovery even when file system metadata is missing or corrupted.
- Let’s you preview recoverable files prior to recovery to confirm integrity.
- Logically unstable drives and memory cards can be backed up to a drive image to maximize recovery results.
🗣️ What users say:
William posted a review on Capterra, which adequately describes recovery with R-Studio:
“One of the most amazing features of this software is the ability to reconstruct failed RAID arrays. You can images the individual drives, then build the virtual array in the software. Once done, you can recovery files from the old array without it being intact. This alone makes this software invaluable, but it also routinely outperforms nearly any other software we compare it to. It has a slight learning curve, and it takes a little longer than most of our other recovery software options. But it works better than most, so we are ok with that.”
This echoes a sentiment shared by many R-Studio users, that its array of advanced features makes it an invaluable tool in certain data recovery situations, even despite its steep learning curve.
💰 Pricing:
- Free version – Recover files smaller than 256 KB
- R-Studio FAT (Windows only) – $49.99 for a lifetime license
- R-Studio NTFS (Windows only) – $59.99 for a lifetime license
- R-Studio – $79.99 for a lifetime license
- R-Studio T80+ – $80.00 for a temporary license
- R-Studio Corporate – $179.99 for a lifetime license
- R-Studio Technician – $899.00 for a lifetime license
See our full, hands-on review of R-Studio for a more detailed analysis of our testing.
3. PhotoRec (Windows, Mac & Linux)
✅ Pros:
- Completely unlimited and free picture recovery
- Great performance
- Supports a wide range of file signatures
📛 Cons:
- Can’t preview recoverable files
- Not suitable for beginners
- Signature-based recovery only
PhotoRec is free picture recovery software best known for its deep, signature-based scanning capabilities. Although primarily a text-based tool, it does ship with a GUI version (Windows only) called qPhotoRec, making it more approachable (but not perfect) for less technical users.
It prioritizes recovery power over ease of use, recognizing an expansive database of file signatures. One caveat is that it doesn’t utilize file system metadata, so it relies solely on signature-based recovery. Even so, it’s completely free and unrestricted – an attractive quality for many.
🖼️ Photo recovery capabilities:
- PhotoRec can recover hundreds of file signatures across more than 500 file variants from hard drives, memory cards, and other storage devices.
- Ensures a safe scan and photo recovery process that uses read-only access to avoid data corruption.
- Excellent at recovering data from formatted, corrupted, or severely damaged file systems where file system pointers are unusable.
- qPhotoRec adds a GUI version of the otherwise difficult-to-use text-based recovery interface.
- Operates in read-only mode to avoid modifying data during scanning or recovery, causing it to become unusable.
- Ignores file system metadata, allowing it to recover data regardless of what file system the drive is using.
🗣️ What users say:
Here’s a comment from u/disturbed_android of the r/datarecovery subreddit on PhotoRec:
“PhotoRec is a good carver. If you can live with the limitations of a carver, and in case of for example a SD card containing photos I don’t see why not, assuming you don’t need original filenames + folder structure, it’s fine.”
While this comment highlights one of PhotoRec’s key strengths (its ability to use file carving when file system-based recovery isn’t viable), it also makes clear that this approach can be a limitation in some cases.
💰 Pricing:
- PhotoRec is completely free and open-source.
If you want to learn more about the application, check out our PhotoRec review for additional insights.
4. Recuva (Windows)
✅ Pros:
- Clean user interface
- Fast scans
- Recovers an unlimited amount of data for free
📛 Cons:
- Sub-par recovery performance
- Limited customer support
- No major updates since 2022
Recuva provides users with basic file recovery capabilities and support for most common file types. It’s a lightweight photo recovery tool, and is primarily designed for simple data loss situations, like accidentally deleted files on healthy drives. For this reason, paired with its very straightforward user interface and unlimited free recovery, many users personally designate it as the best free photo recovery app for them.
In addition to performing picture recovery, Recuva can securely delete sensitive photos and other data using military-standard deletion techniques to make it absolutely impossible for anyone to ever retrieve them back – not even with the most advanced photo recovery tools out there.
🖼️ Photo recovery capabilities:
- With Recuva, you can recover photos from internal and external storage devices like hard drives and SD cards from digital cameras, among others.
- Includes an optional Deep Scan option to allow Recuva to find your photos with more advanced scanning options if standard scans don’t produce the results you need.
- Allows users to preview recoverable data before writing it to a safe location.
- Supports recovery of common image formats like JPG, PNG, GIF, BMP, and TIFF, making it suitable for everyday photo recovery tasks.
- Best suited for simple deletion scenarios on intact file systems, but less so on heavily corrupted or reformatted storage devices.
🗣️ What users say:
Here’s a pretty fair summary from u/77xak on r/datarecovery:
“Recuva isn’t malware, but it is a mediocre undelete software that often gives inferior results compared to anything decent. People only try it because it’s free, it fails to solve a lot of common situations. There are even other free tools that are better, like R-Photo already mentioned.”
This was under a thread questioning Recuva’s safety (of which it’s undeniably safe) and efficacy. It’s a fairly shared consensus in the community that Recuva is very limited in terms of recovery scope, capable of handling only the most basic of data loss scenarios. Even though it does a fine job when its used within scope, there is other photo recovery software that’s free.
💰 Pricing:
- Recuva Free – Available without Professional features
- Recuva Professional – $24.95 per year
We dive deeper into what Recuva can and cannot do in our Recuva review.
5. Remo Recover (Windows & Mac)
✅ Pros:
- User-friendly, step-by-step recovery wizard
- Can recover photos from formatted, corrupted, or lost partitions
- Supports an array of file format signatures
- 24/6 live chat support
📛 Cons:
- 1 GB free recovery is only available in a separate, hard-to-find, Windows-exclusive version
- Cannot create byte-to-byte backups
- Struggles with complex RAID configurations
Remo Recover offers photo recovery from a wide range of data loss situations, even more than before with version 6.0. It’s more than capable of recovering photos that have been deleted accidentally, and can even handle photo recovery in cases where the drive has been formatted or the memory card corrupted. Overall, it’s a pretty standard, easy-to-use recovery option with everything you need to recover your data in most data loss scenarios, producing commendable results, particularly with certain RAW formats.
🖼️ Photo recovery capabilities:
- Supports file system and carving-based photo recovery from internal and external hard drives, SSDs, USB drives, memory cards, and digital camera storage.
- The quality of recovery results were spotty, with some difficulty recovering JPG, TIFF, and BMP, but great performance with formats like CR3, MRW, RAW, and SR2.
- Can handle recovery from formatted, deleted, or corrupted partitions, even in severe data loss scenarios.
- Includes a built-in preview feature, but the number of file formats it can preview is limited.
- When the partition isn’t visible, you can choose to scan the physical disk directly.
🗣️ What users say:
A review from Jim posted to TrustPilot speaks to an oft-forgotten feature of Remo Recover, the technical support:
“One thing that surprised me, other than really being able to recover my files, was the personal proactive support that they provided. One does not expect it with a package purchased off the internet… But it was a happy surprise and I felt in “good hands”
Hands-on support is, indeed, rare to have as part of a data recovery package. In addition to being able to recover your photos, having technical support available to you in stressful times can be a very welcome benefit.
💰 Pricing:
- Remo Recovery Free Edition (Windows only) – Recover up to 1 GB of data for free.
- Remo Recover – Scan and preview files for free. Upgrade for $69.97 per month (or $199.95 for a lifetime license)
6. Stellar Photo Recovery (Windows & Mac)
✅ Pros:
- Three-step recovery process
- Supports many image and video file formats
- Offers several ways to preview scan results
📛 Cons:
- The least expensive version is rather limited
- Slower scan speed
Stellar Photo Recovery is a purpose-built software to recover deleted photos, videos, and audio files from SD cards (Mini, Micro, SDHC, and SDXC), USB flash drives, hard drives, and other storage devices. It boasts a three-step recovery process that even complete beginners can complete without reading or watching a tutorial beforehand. The premium version of this photo recovery app can repair corrupted photos and videos, a feature that’s definitely worth paying for regardless of whether you’re a professional photographer or just a hobbyist.
🖼️ Photo recovery capabilities:
- Use Stellar Photo Recovery to scan and find all the common image formats, from JPG, PNG, GIF, to BMP and more.
- What’s more, it also excels at restoring lost RAW image files from popular camera brands like Sony, Canon, Nikon, Samsung, and others.
- Its versatility also extends to drone and action cameras like DJI and GoPro.
- Can repair corrupted photos and videos with certain editions, helping maximize usable recovery results.
- Create byte-to-byte disk images of logically corrupt or unstable drives and memory cards.
🗣️ What users say:
Ankit wrote a review on TrustPilot:
“I am excited to share my thoughts on Stellar Photo Recovery Software. After days of trying and exploring the tool to recover my photos, I am happy to say that this software has exceeded my expectations in every way. I was able to recover my deleted photos and it helped me to streamline my workflow.”
The company’s TrustPilot is filled with reviews from happy customers who also got their deleted photos back, with many of them also raving about the great customer support offered by Stellar.
💰 Pricing:
- Stellar Photo Recovery Free – Free previews.
- Stellar Photo Recovery Standard – $59.99 per year
- Stellar Photo Recovery Professional – $79.99 per year
- Stellar Photo Recovery Premium – $149.99 per year
- Stellar Photo Recovery Technician – $199.99 per year
Take a look at our full findings of the full application in our Stellar Data Recovery review.
7. AnyRecover Photo Recovery (Windows & Mac)
✅ Pros:
- Decently priced
- Incredibly easy to use
- Includes versions for both Mac and Windows
- Supports iOS and Android recovery
📛 Cons:
- Free version only allows scanning
- Unable to create disk images
- No reliable preview function in free version
- UI includes spam-like pop-ups
AnyRecover Photo Recovery is an outstanding photo retrieval program that specializes in getting back lost and deleted media files from a wide variety of devices, internal and external alike. It is available for both Windows and Mac and works with a healthy repertoire of storage devices and data loss scenarios. It has a few downsides, however, including no proper previews or recovery in the free version, and several pop-ups throughout the application that make it annoying to use at times.
🖼️ Photo recovery capabilities:
- Uses file system and carving based scanning, allowing for recovery in both simple and complex data loss situations
- Supports an impressive range of pictures, graphics, audio, and video files, and it was developed with some big brands in mind, including Sony, Canon, GoPro, Nikon, and more
- Includes advanced functionalities like an AI-powered photo restoration feature to fix blurry images.
- Before recovery, you can also preview all the photos AnyRecover scanned so you know which images you want to restore (keep in mind, however, the preview function is not free).
- Useful grid view for quickly seeing a small preview of found photos.
🗣️ What users say:
Connor shared their experience on TrustPilot:
“I lost all my photos doing a transfer on my macbook and than found anyrecover software. I booted it up and easily selected the drive that deleted them on and the software almost instantly found all my 8,000 photos. The app makes it nice and simple to be able to just drag and copy all the files back onto another hard drive. Would definitely recommend.”
Other users shared similar feedback with their success recovering photos using AnyRecover Photo Recovery, even in mass. There’s also common praise for the program’s UI, praising it for its easy recovery process.
💰 Pricing:
- AnyRecover Data Recovery – From $79.99 per month to $159.99 for a lifetime license.
You can learn more about the entire program in our AnyRecover review.
8. Tenorshare 4DDiG (Windows & Mac)
✅ Pros:
- Explore results while the scan progresses
- Easy-to-use interface with guided recovery
- Create disk images of corrupted drives
- Repairs corrupted photos and videos
📛 Cons:
- Full previews require a paid license
- Subscription and perpetual licenses are costly
- Mixed user experiences with support and refund handling
Tenorshare 4DDiG is a general-purpose data recovery tool available on Windows and macOS that doubles as a good solution for recovering photos in a range of common scenarios, including accidental deletion, formatting, partition loss, and system crashes. It utilizes deep and quick scan modes combined into one for a streamlined process without being burdened by the technicalities.
🖼️ Photo recovery capabilities:
- Includes support for a vast database of photo formats.
- Recovers lost photos and footage from computers, security cameras, external HDD/SSDs, USB drives, SD/CF cards, and digital cameras.
- Preview and recover data as the scan progresses in real-time
- Includes basic repair functionality to restore corrupted photos and videos
- Full, file-by-file previews are available in the full version of the software
🗣️ What users say:
User ryoryo posted their experience on TrustPilot:
“I use notebook PC. It contains Micro SD Slot. So I save a lot of permanent files. One day I added a USB HDD. And it formatted. But unfortunate, I formatted Micro SD. I confused about the accident. Then I searched a product for recovery. And looked at a 4DDiG. Soon I used it to the Micro SD. Luckly over 95% of files recovered.”
This is one of the more glowing reviews regarding the software. While many were able to recover their photos, just like ryoryo, there’s a lot of other users that express concern over recovered files being unusable. Furthermore, there is mixed feedback regarding the company’s 30-day money back guarantee, with some users not receiving the refunds they were promised.
💰 Pricing:
- Tenorshare 4DDiG for Windows – From $89.95 per month to $119.95 for a lifetime license.
- Tenorshare 4DDiG for Mac – From $89.95 per month to $169.95 for a lifetime license.
For a fuller look at the software and what it’s capable of, check out our full Tenorshare 4DDiG review.
9. CardRecovery (Windows)
✅ Pros:
- Limited to read-only operations
- Step-by-step recovery wizard
- Free photo recovery software trial available
📛 Cons:
- Outdated user interface
- Limited file format support
- Difficult recovery process
As its name suggests, CardRecovery is a deleted photo recovery application whose main purpose is to recover lost, deleted, corrupted, or formatted photos from various memory cards, including all types of SD cards, CF (Compact Flash) cards, xD-Picture cards, and others. At its heart is the so-called SmartScan technology, which can quickly locate and restore lost photos without moving, deleting, or otherwise modifying other data and potentially causing additional data loss.
🖼️ Photo recovery capabilities:
- Built specifically for recovering photos from memory cards, including SD, SDHC, SDXC, and CF cards that have been used in cameras.
- All the pictures it finds during a scan can be previewed before recovery to allow you to choose only the ones you want to recover.
- Retrieves and displays all photo metadata in real-time during a scan, including the camera settings, shooting time, and the camera model used to take the photo.
- Incorporated in its algorithm is the capability to not just recover common image formats, but also RAW formats like Fuji RAF, Nikon NEF, Canon CRW CR2, and many more.
- Users have the option of choosing specific camera profiles for better searchability.
🗣️ What users say:
CardRecovery user Ela shared their experience on TrustPilot:
“There were many very important files in my SD card. However, my SD card crashed and all the files were lost one day. I was very upset about this. I have tried many methods to restore my files . Only Cardrecovery helps me do that and all my files are restored. Many thanks.”
Given CardRecovery is a relatively niche program in comparison to others on this list, its users often highlight the tool’s simplicity and focus on memory cards, particularly for photo recovery.
💰 Pricing:
- CardRecovery Free Trial – Scan and preview files.
- CardRecovery – $39.95
We did a high-level breakdown of the software in our CardRecovery review.
Best Photo Recovery App Options Side by Side
Keeping all of the above information at the forefront of your mind can be challenging. We’ve collected the most important points of the best deleted photo recovery software in the table below to make comparing them easier.
| Disk Drill | R-Studio | PhotoRec | Recuva | Remo Recover | Stellar Photo Recovery | AnyRecover | Tenoshare 4DDiG | CardRecovery | |
| Usability | Excellent | Good | Limited | Good | Good | Good | Good | Good | Limited |
| Trial recovery limit | 100 MB (Windows only) + Free scans and previews | Can only recover files less than 256 KB in size | Unlimited | Unlimited | 1 GB (separate version) | Scan only | Scan and limited preview | Scan and limited preview | Scan only |
| Preview recoverable data | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | Limited | Limited | ✔ |
| Data protection tools | Advanced Camera Recovery, S.M.A.R.T. data analysis, Recovery Vault, and disk imaging | Disk imaging | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | Disk imaging | ✘ | Disk imaging | ✘ |
| OS support | Windows & Mac | Windows, Mac & Linux | Windows, Mac & Linux | Windows | Windows & Mac | Windows & Mac | Windows & Mac | Windows & Mac | Windows |
| Lowest price | $89 lifetime license (Windows + macOS) | $79.99 | Free | $24.95/year | $69.97/month | $59.99/year | $79.99/month | $89.95/month | $39.95 |
Photo Recovery Software We Tested but Didn’t Include
As we mentioned earlier in this article, there is a lot of software out there. There are some tools that we feel deserve an honorable mention, even if they didn’t make the list of the best deleted photo recovery apps. We’ve included them below, along with our reasons why they didn’t make the cut.
- MiniTool Data Recovery – MiniTool Data Recovery is an easy-to-use recovery tool, geared towards beginners. It supports many common file types and offers a free tier with limited recovery. However, slower scan speeds, inconsistent previews, and weaker performance on RAW partitions and non-NTFS file systems kept it from ranking in this list. We touch on this more in our MiniTool Data Recovery review.
- EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard – EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard has a clean interface and solid performance, with helpful filters and built-in photo and video repair tools. While it’s user-friendly, it has a high pricing with little to offer with the trial, as seen in our EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard review.
- TestDisk – TestDisk is an open-source recovery utility designed primarily for repairing partitions and restoring boot sectors rather than recovering individual files. It excels at diagnosing logically damaged or RAW disks and runs without installation. That said, our TestDisk review reveals its command-line interface, multi-step workflow, and inability to recover files with deleted file system records makes it unsuitable for most casual photo recovery users.
- DMDE – DMDE is a technically advanced data recovery tool that offers strong low-level disk utilities, RAID reconstruction, and custom file signature support across multiple operating systems. Despite its capable recovery engine and affordable license, its outdated interface, limited preview functionality, and weaker multimedia recovery experience prevented it from being a top pick for photo-based recovery. See our DMDE review for more information.
Conclusion
Based on our team’s hands-on testing across common photo loss scenarios, both simple and complex, Disk Drill stands out as the best photo recovery software overall. It’s a good balance between a user-friendly interface and a powerful recovery engine, including advanced features typically reserved for far more technical tools. In practical use, it delivers consistent photo recovery results, strong RAW format support, reliable previews, and specialized features like Advanced Camera Recovery for cameras and drones.
That said, the other tools on this list still have clear strengths. Professional-grade options like R-Studio excel in advanced recovery situations, free tools like PhotoRec are valuable when budget is the priority, and simpler apps can be sufficient for basic, one-off deletions. Choosing the right photo recovery tool ultimately depends on your experience level and the complexity of your data loss, but for most users, Disk Drill offers everything needed for the best overall experience and results.
