How to Recover Deleted Videos and Photos from Your Canon Camera

Canon Photo Recovery: Dos and Don’ts

The steps you take immediately after deleting photos or videos from your Canon camera can affect whether they can be recovered. Before you try to recover deleted photos or videos from your Canon camera, take a moment to review these important dos and don’ts:

DO Identify the Cause of Data Loss

Not every case of data loss on a Canon camera has the same cause, and your chances of getting your photos or videos back largely depend on what happened to the memory card:

As the table shows, most Canon camera data loss cases fall into one of two categories:

• Problems you can usually solve yourself. These include accidental deletion, accidental formatting, logical memory card corruption, and most cases of camera malfunction. If the memory card is still recognized by your computer, data recovery software often provides an excellent chance of restoring your photos and videos.
• Problems that require professional recovery. If the memory card has suffered physical damage or isn’t detected by any device, software is unlikely to help. Professional recovery labs use specialized equipment to repair damaged cards and read data directly from the memory chips when necessary.

DON’T Write Any New Data to the Canon Memory Card

As soon as you realize that you’ve lost important photos or videos, stop using your Canon camera immediately. Your lost data is most likely still located on the memory card, and your main job at this point is to prevent the data from becoming overwritten, which would make its recovery impossible.

DO Remove the Memory Card from Your Canon Digital Camera

As soon as you notice that your photos or videos are missing, remove the memory card from your Canon camera. This helps prevent deleted files from becoming overwritten and avoids additional changes to the card while you prepare for recovery.

You’ll also need to remove the card because most Canon cameras connect to a computer using Media Transfer Protocol (MTP), which doesn’t provide the low-level access that data recovery software needs to scan the memory card. A dedicated memory card reader offers much more reliable results.

If your computer has a built-in card reader, simply insert the memory card. Otherwise, use a compatible external reader that supports your card type, whether it’s SD, microSD, CompactFlash (CF), CFast, or CFexpress, depending on your Canon camera model.

DON’T Format the Canon Memory Card

If Windows asks you to format your Canon memory card, don’t do it until you’ve recovered your files. This message usually appears because the card has become corrupted or Windows can’t read its file system. As you can see from our table, a Quick Format lowers your chances of recovery because it removes the file system information, while a Full Format usually overwrites the entire card, making photo and video recovery impossible.

DO Select Suitable Data Recovery Software

To recover deleted photos/videos from your Canon camera, you’ll need to use reliable data recovery software. With so many options available on the market, it can be overwhelming to choose the right one. Here are some factors to consider when selecting the best software for your needs:

• OS compatibility: You need to select data recovery software that’s compatible with your specific version of Windows, such as Windows 11, Windows 10, Windows 8, or Windows 7.
• File system/format support: The software should support the specific file formats used by your Canon camera (e.g., CR2/CR3/CRW for raw images, JPEG or HEIF for compressed images, and MP4 + HEVC, MP4 + H.264, or just plain MP4 for videos).
• User-friendliness: Look for software with an intuitive user interface that makes the recovery process free of any hassle.
• Performance: High recovery rates are very important for successful data recovery. Read in-depth reviews and testimonials to gauge the software’s effectiveness.
• Value: While some data recovery software may be free or free to try (great for testing recovery capabilities before paying!), others come at a price. It’s crucial to weigh the benefits and features of the software against the cost to make sure that you’re getting the best value for your money.

These are some of the criteria we at Pandora Recovery use when evaluating the best Canon data recovery software applications by conducting our signature multi-day tests that accurately simulate real-world data loss conditions. The choice of the two applications described below is based on our tests, but there are far more applications you can choose from. You can also take a look at our rankings of the best data recovery software for SD and SDHC cards.

How to Retrieve Deleted Photos and Videos from Canon Camera

With the basics covered, you can start recovering your deleted Canon photos and videos. The methods below cover the most common data loss scenarios, so pick the one that matches what happened to your Canon memory card.

Method 1: Use Disk Drill to Recover Files Deleted from a Canon Camera’s SD Card

Data recovery software usually offers the best chance of restoring deleted photos and videos from a Canon camera. For this guide, we’ll use Disk Drill, one of the most reliable recovery tools for Windows and macOS. It works with virtually all Canon memory cards and supports common photo and video formats, including JPG, CR2, CR3, MP4, and MOV.

What’s more, it can scan even memory cards that don’t have any file system at all (are raw) using its powerful signature scanner. In our testing, it delivered excellent recovery results and proved easy to use (see our full review for more details). If your memory card appears unstable, Disk Drill also lets you create a disk image first, so you can recover your files from the copy instead of the original card.

Here is how to recover photos and videos from Canon SD card using Disk Drill:

1. Download Disk Drill from its official website. The application is free to download, and it lets you scan an unlimited number of files.
2. Install the application on your Windows computer. You can then connect your Canon SD card.
3. Launch Disk Drill and scan your Canon memory card. To do that, select the SD card from the list of available storage devices and click the Search for lost data button.
4. If you’re recovering data from a camera memory card, Disk Drill may ask you to choose a recovery mode. For videos, you can try Advanced Camera Recovery, which is designed for fragmented video files. For photos, mixed file types, or general data recovery, Universal Scan is usually the better choice. Wait until Disk Drill finishes scanning, or view the scan results while the scan continues.
5. Click Review found items or select Videos or Photos category.
6. Use the search box and filters to locate the photos and videos you want to restore. Preview each file before recovery to confirm it’s intact. Then, select the files, click Recover.
7. Pick a suitable location for your Canon photos and/or videos and click Next.

Method 2: Repair a Damaged Partition Table With TestDisk

Our second recommendation for Canon memory card data recovery is TestDisk, an open-source application capable of fixing broken partition tables to recover lost partitions and more. Despite its unintuitive command-line user interface, this application has proven to be a powerful tool for data recovery after various formatting and file system management mishaps.

TestDisk can even technically recover an unlimited number of files from FAT/FAT32, exFAT, NTFS, and ext2 filesystems, but we can’t recommend it as a Canon memory card undelete tool because it doesn’t have any signature scanning capabilities (that’s why it scored so poorly when we reviewed it).

1. Download TestDisk from its official website and unpack the downloaded archive.
2. Launch the application and press Enter to create a new log file (useful when something goes wrong and you need to diagnose what).
3. Select your Canon memory card and press Enter.
4. Choose the detected partition table type (TestDisk usually selects the correct option automatically).
5. Select Analyze and press Enter.
6. Run Quick Search to look for lost partitions.
7. Review the results. If your missing partition appears, follow the prompts to write the corrected partition table. Only use Write after you’ve confirmed that all expected partitions are present and their contents are correct. If anything looks wrong, stop and recover your files first instead of modifying the partition table.
8. If Quick Search doesn’t find the partition, run Deeper Search and check the results again.

If TestDisk can’t restore the partition, don’t continue making changes to the card. At that point, it’s usually better to switch to dedicated recovery software or, if the card has physical issues, contact a professional data recovery service.

Method 3: Contact a Data Recovery Service

If your Canon camera memory card is physically damaged or files are valuable, we recommend reaching out to a professional data recovery service. Data recovery experts have specialized tools and equipment at their disposal, allowing them to recover data even from devices that are unrecognizable by Windows.

Before you choose a service, keep these points in mind:

• Expect an initial evaluation. Most reputable recovery labs offer a free or low-cost inspection before providing a recovery quote.
• Recovery isn’t cheap. Recovery cost typically starts at around $300 and can exceed $1,000 for severe physical damage or complex cases.
• Look for a “no data, no fee” policy. Many providers only charge if they successfully recover your files.
• Choose a company with camera media experience. Check customer reviews, ask about their experience with SD cards, and avoid services that promise guaranteed recovery before examining the card.

Fortunately, SD card recovery software is enough for most Canon camera data loss situations. Professional recovery services are generally needed only for more challenging cases.