Deleted Camera folder under DCIM

[Javablood]

When I was transferring photos from my Samsung S21 5G while connected to my desktop, I accidently deleted my camera folder, located under Internal Storage>DCIM. I thought I had the photos on the phone highlighted yet unfortunately the camera folder was highlighted when I pushed the delete button.

I searched online and everywhere I saw that I am supposed to have a recycle bin, yet I do not. I have a trash folder, yet the camera folder is not in there. I looked in Gallery, I looked in My Files and the camea folder is nowhere to be found.

Does anyone have any positive suggestions or answers? Thank you.

[LongHiker]

@Javablood I'm afraid that even if Trash was enabled in Gallery, when you deleted the files using your PC those files wouldn't show up in Gallery trash anyway. 

Did you have OneDrive or Google Photo backup enabled? If so, you should be able to recover them from the cloud. 

[Javablood]

Google backup was/is enabled and I am there, yet I do not see the 'camera' folder. Would that be there or just all the individual photos? Thanks

[LongHiker]

The Google backup won't backup your photos. You have to enable that in Google Photos.

[realaud]

@LongHiker I beg to differ with you.  The backup of photos is included in the Google backup and always has been across all brands of Android devices (even if one doesn't know it) since forever. You have to specifically disable it, as it is on by default.  I have a nephew who lost his phone and did not know Google was backing up his photos, and when he purchased a new phone, he was quite surprised to find out that all his photos had been restored to the phone after he set it up an logged into his Google account.  Many people are unaware of the backup unless/until they get a notification from Google that they are running out of (free) space and are prompted to manage their storage or buy more.  The backup to OneDrive you have to specifically enable in the Gallery settings.

[LongHiker]

It uses Google Photo.

[realaud]

Yes, but it is enabled by default. Its done that way because many people don't think about backup until they lost all their photos. This (supposedly) prevents that angst. Although they still have not made it easy to retrieve those photos to transfer elsewhere.  They appear to be more focused on getting the user to purchase their photo books, which is why the auto backup is not entirely altruistic.

[LongHiker]

Sorry but it is not. This is from my Flip 6.

[realaud]

I do not want to argue with you, nor hijack this thread any longer, but I will say that in at least 20 years, I have nevr once turned that setting on--it's always been on by default for me regardless of carrier or phone brand.

[LongHiker]

@realaud 90+% of the people Open Google Photos and automatically click to give Google Photos the permissions. Or they use Smart Switch to move to a new phone where they have already given permission. It seems to be automatic but it isn't. 

I didn't use Smart Switch on my Flip 6 and I only have it minimally set up. It is a good device for me to check defaults, etc.