Recover files after Mystery Reset

[userZ199FBf7zX]

The other day, when I went to use my phone it gave me a page focused on accepting terms and conditions.  I was unable, via restart, turn off and start, etc. to clear that page.  It also didn’t reference T&C’s for an app.  Long story short, it was the terms and conditions for initializing a new phone; in other words, my phone had been reset. 

After nearly a year’s use without issues, I don’t have any idea what caused the phone to reset.  My best guess is that it was 3-4 days after an OS upgrade, but I would have expected it to fail then immediately after the upgrade. 

At any rate, I also discovered that my backups were incomplete.  Samsung Notes was not backed up via Google or Samsung and more recent photos were not backed up.  So, my question is whether or not either can be recovered with file recovery software or some other means.  I tried Recuva; however, I don’t think it sees the phone as a drive.  There’s a fair bit of sotware listed on line that claims to be able to recover files if the phone is rooted.  I have no idea whether or not they really work and also have never rooted a phone. 

Please give me some advice on this.  How might I try to recover the Samsung Note files and the photos? 

[jezzalynn]

I haven't tried this one before 9jpy because I it won't work for what I need i to buy ice heard good things about Dr fone it's on the Google play store. There's on specifically to recover lost data on phone. But if you look for it on store he cautious because I believe I is part of a group of apps with wondershare and they all do different things? But the recovering lost data is definitely called Dr fone

[NEEMAN_ZACCAI]

So it's like this, usually when you delete something it's in the trash and can be restored. When you delete something permanently from the trash, it can be recovered only if you stop using the device emediatly. It will remain in a temporary memory space only until it's over written. So it would be possible to use a PC or laptop and a piece of software to restore it, but it's not guaranteed to be there. Test disk is very straightforward and easy to choose device, partition type, type of data to search for.

[userZ199FBf7zX]

When I discovered what happened, I put the phone into airplane mode and after trying to "read" the phone as a drive, it has been turned off.  

The problem is, the few apps that can see the phone seem unable to read anything except content created AFTER the reset.

Android or Samsung seem to lock out the rest of the internal memory.  Have you found a way around that problem? 

[userZ199FBf7zX]

Dr. Fone can only see files CREATED after the reset.  

If anyone knows of a tool that will deep scan all unused space, after a reset, without rooting the phone please let me know.  

Also, if rooting is required, does the Samsung Reset deliberately wipe all internal storage during a reset?  If so, does anyone know whether that's really recoverable?

Thanks!

[jezzalynn]

You can try an app called what's removed? I think.im not sure but I think it might be able to recover deleted things before it was installed.

[userZ199FBf7zX]

On a different forum, someone suggested that Samsung/Android overwrite (deliberately wipe) the internal storage on a factory reset.  

Does anyone know if that is true for an S21?  

[jezzalynn]

I definitely just remember reading this in a terms an agreement with my phone company. They can manually send "software updates that may affect/erase any data stored on the device." At their discretion. I wouldn't put it past either samsng or android to have the ABILITY to. But I'm not sure they actually would do that. Mostly because they'd just have to fix it afterwards right?

[bill-e]

Yes, a reset is just that, a reset, and everything is wiped/overwritten as one would want to do if they needed to reset their phone.  The's no way to recover that data from the phone unfortunately.