How to Recover Disappearing Photos and Audio Files from LOST.DIR on SD Card

Many users find a folder, namely LOST.DIR, on the SD card of Android mobile phone, which is sometimes of huge size and contains files with random names. Should we delete the LOST.DIR folder in order to make some free space? Probably not, if you have ever found your phones, videos or audio files disappeared from phone SD card all of a sudden. With great chance, your lost media files and documents are moved to the LOST.DIR folder due to some reasons.

Why Are Files in LOST.DIR?

This is usually a consequence of abnormal file transferring or writing from/to the SD card in Android handset. For example, the SD card is suddenly disconnected when the files are transferring, so the system saves a copy of the files to LOST.DIR folder and will try to recover them at next boot up. However, more often than not, we may have to restore files from LOST.DIR by ourselves. 

Recover Disappearing Photos and Files from LOST.DIR 

Step 1. Install ES File Explorer to your phone.

Step 2. Open ES file explorer and go to SD card.

Step 3. Find and open LOST.DIR folder.

Step 4. Long press on any file then click Select all.

Step 5. click Rename in the bottom of the screen. You'll get: Batch Rename

Step 6. Input a new name: choose any name e.g: Image
            Start number: write 1 or 01
            Rename extension name: write jpg
            Click ok

Step 7. Try open these renamed files. If some of them don't open, then try batch renaming them as video or audio files with the extension of mp4 or mp3.

Tips: You'll lose the original file names, but you can auto-tag and rename audio/song files with free tools like MusicBee.

Recover Lost Photos and Files from SD Card without LOST.DIR

Due to the complicated causes of file loss, the solution above may work for some people but not for others. In this case, you can try to restore photos, videos, audio and documents files with another method.

Android SD File Recovery Software

 iReparo Android SD Card Recovery is the best and most safe recovery app for SD storage files. Please download the tool to your computer and have a try for free with step-by-step guide.

Note: Root is required.

Direct Download

Download on Cnet

Features:

• Retrieve photos, videos and audio files from Android phone SD card
• Recover media files from SD card on almost all Android smartphones
• Restore files deleted or hidden from your SD card
• 100% safe and risk-free with no alteration to your phone or your data 

Easy Steps for Android SD Card Recovery

1. Run the recovery program and choose Multimedia.

2. Select the file types and formats for scan. It is suggested to leave them by default if you are not sure.

3. Connect your phone to PC, and follow on-screen instruction to allow the program recognize your phone.

4. Preview the files that the recovery program finds out. Then select the photos, videos or audio files and click Recover button.