Is It Possible to Recover Files from SD Card in Android? 4 Methods You Should Know
Last Updated on September 20, 2025 by Yulia Ilina
When you need to factory reset your Android phone but accidentally formatted the SD card, what should you do to recover lost files from a formatted SD card in Android? If you have already installed some data recovery apps on your Android phone, you can simply choose it or the default one to restore the files from the formatted SD card. To avoid data being overwritten, you can find 3 simple ways to get back the lost files.
Part 1: How to Retrieve Files from a Formatted SD Card in Android
When you need to retrieve formatted SD card files in an Android phone on the go, DiskDigger Pro is the versatile choice you should try. It enables you to recover and undelete lost images, photos, music, and others from both your memory card and internal memory. It enables you to upload the recovered files from Dropbox, Google Drive, or through email.
Step 1: Go to Play Store to download, you can install DiskDigger Pro on your Android devices. Launch the application and tap the START BASIC PHOTO SCAN button to scan the lost files from the SD card.
Step 2: Once the scanning is complete, you can view and select the lost data in a list. Just preview and choose the thumbnails you wish to restore and tap the Recover selected files button.
Step 3: You will be directed to choose the storage location for the recovered files. You can easily save the files in cloud storage such as Dropbox and Google Drive or your phone’s internal storage.
Part 2: 2 Free Ways to Recover Files from Formatted Android SD Card
If you do not want to overwrite the files within the SD card, you can restore the data from formatted SD cards via a computer for free. Here are 2 easy ways to use the command line of Windows and the Time Machine of Mac to get back the deleted files in a few clicks.
How to Recover Files from a Formatted SD Card on a Windows for Free
Step 1: Connect your SD card to a computer and make sure the computer can detect it. Press the Windows + R keys to launch the Run dialogue. After that, you can type cmd to run the Command Prompt app.
Step 2: Enter chkdsk J: /j in Command Prompt and press the Enter key. If the drive letter is F, you can replace it with F: /f in the command line. Type Y and press the Enter key again to continue the process.
Step 3: After that, you can type J and press the Enter key again. Then you can type J:\attrib -h -r -s /s /d *.* before pressing the Enter key. The files will be saved in a newly created folder on the SD memory card.
How to Restore Data from a Formatted SD Card on a Mac for Free
Step 1: Just follow the same process to connect the formatted SD card to your MacBook. You should make sure that you have a backup of the deleted files from the SD card with Time Machine.
Step 2: Click the Apple menu and choose the System Settings option. Select the Time Machine option from the list. If it is in the upper right corner of your Mac, choose the Browse Time Machine Backups option.
Step 3: Choose the backup with the lost data of the formatted SD card, which you want to recover, you can simply click the Restore button to restore the data from the formatted SD card of your Android device easily.
Part 3: The Ultimate Way to Recover Files After Formatting SD Card
Is there a professional data recovery to restore files from a formatted SD card of your Android phone? Data Recovery is one of the most reliable software to retrieve files from formatted SD cards with advanced algorithms. It enables you to recover multiple file formats, including photos, emails, documents, audio, and videos. Moreover, it has a Deep Scan mode that is capable of restoring the hard drive and recovering files due to hard drive issues.
1. Recover deleted or lost data from formatted SD cards, memory cards, etc.
2. Retrieve multiple file formats, including photos, videos, music, and more.
3. Provide a higher success rate to retrieve the lost files compares to others.
4. Preview and select the desired scanned files from the formatted SD cards.
Step 1: Make sure you have connected the SD card or the Android phone to your computer. Download and install Data Recovery on your computer, you can launch the program and locate the formatted SD card available under the Removable Drives menu.
Step 2: To start the scanning process for the deleted files from the SD card, you can choose the lost data type and disk drive. Tick the Check all file types option and select the SD card from the Removable Drives before clicking the Scan button.
Step 3: Once the scanning process is done, you can search and preview the lost files. It enables you to search for the name and the path of the deleted or lost files via the Filter button. Just click the Recover button to restore the lost files from the formatted SD card.
Conclusion
If you have formatted the SD card of your Android device by accident, here are 4 workable ways to help you out. Make sure you have installed some professional data recovery or even root the Android to get back the lost files. Of course, you can use the command lines to recover formatted SD cards for free. To have a higher success rate, Data Recovery is the desired data recovery you should download and try.