I recently installed and ran the Norton Clean, Junk Removal program on my Samsung tablet. After reviewing the files Norton Clean suggested to remove, I allowed the program to continue with the sweep. Upon further inspection, I found that all of the photos in my photo gallery that I had sorted into albums have been deleted! I see now, that many others have experienced a similar issue with this product. How can I recover these photos? Help!
Deleted by me for further research.
I Installed Norton Clean today on my android phone and selected some file which I thought would be helpful to clean - Norton Clean erased my stored pictures. How do I recover them?????
Please see this thread. https://community.norton.com/en/forums/norton-clean-junk-removal
If peterweb has connections to the developers of this app, I hope that this issue can be expressed and addressed in future updates.
I have already noted this thread to my contacts.
I have spent days on end moving through various options for recovery of my pictures and it's not looking good folks. I sincerely hope that this issue can be resolved, but it may be too late for me. If peterweb has connections to the developers of this app, I hope that this issue can be expressed and addressed in future updates.
For those who it is not too late to recover their special pictures or files, I sincerely hope that this thread will not be closed by a moderator before we together finalize a real (and free) solution.
Just an FYI. Admins will only close a thread if it inappropriate. The only other way threads get locked is if there is no post for 30 days.
First of all, I refuse to pay money to fix this issue. I've talked with Norton global support team and they are certainly no help... If you have had a similar situation as I, do not waste your time with chatting or calling global support. The global team said that because this app is "free" we must turn to the support of this forum.
I'd really appreciate everyone's support in finding a solution to this really frustrating issue. Hopefully by the end of this thread, there will be an answer.
Seccondly, there is absolutely no available App within the Google Play Store that can retrieve lost data on an un-rooted Android machine. Don't believe the hype. I would be happy if anyone here can prove me wrong :)
All of my precious photos that Norton Clean Junk Removal deleted from my device had been archived into new albums that I created within the Gallery app. All of my photos that were not archived into new albums from within the Gallery app were not removed by Norton.
Like others in this modern age, I am sceptical of giving a giant and vulnerable company like Google cloud access to my private data. I therefore, did not have my pictures auto synced to the Google cloud and unfortunately, like many people, I got lazy and had not backed up my pictures in a few months. Wedding pictures, baby pictures, puppy pictures... All ostensibly gone forever.
I looked through Norton's list of targeted "junk" before removal and deselected any items I wanted to keep AND I deselected any files that I didn't recognize. I noticed that there was a large Gallery app cache that was targeted. I deselected this because I assumed any cache within the Gaallery app contained settings I wanted to keep.
BEWARE!!! If you're reading this is probably too late but, I also saw that Norton targeted to delete everything within my Downloads folder. Many users keep nearly everything that they download in this location.
Nowhere within Norton's junk list did I see anything resembling pictures. It seems like other users (on this forum and across the web) have posted this identical issue dating back over a year. How can a well respected company such as Symantec not have fixed this issue or come up with a solution for users who have fallen victim to this destructive app.
Not everyone knows that file recovery on modern Android devices requires Rooted Access (voiding your device warranty) and incredibly technical skills to recover lost or deleted files. Again, if anyone here can prove me wrong, I will be very happy!
My hope... that someone within this forum can prove me wrong and provide a real solution. A solution that doesn't require me to pay for an App or Root my device (voiding my device warranty). A solution that will remain in this thread for future reference.
For those who it is not too late to recover their special pictures or files, I sincerely hope that this thread will not be closed by a moderator before we together finalize a real (and free) solution.
I imagine that other users, such as myself, are paying consumers to Symantec for their other paid services. If we cannot find help from this forum, our good faith in Symantec will be gone forever, just like the pictures deleted from so many different people's lives.
If Symantec cannot act within best practices, I will cancel my 15 year long membership to their company because of a mismanaged and supposedly "free" app.
I have not added any new files to my device, I went to airplane mode, and my device will be left completely untouched until I find a legitimate and free solution from THIS support forum.
God speed and good luck everyone!
Were all the lost photos stored in the default location on your device, or did you create a your own folder to store your photos?
Another user found a way to recover lost data. See this post. https://community.norton.com/en/comment/7020481#comment-7020481