What to do right now
- Check the Recycle Bin and the store or cloud service you got the music from.
- If the files were only on that drive, stop copying new files to it and scan it for audio files.
- Save the results to another disk, and repair MP3 or WAV files that skip or will not play.
Step by step
Check the Recycle Bin
Open the Recycle Bin, sort by date deleted and look for the folder or the tracks. A deleted folder appears as a single item, so restoring it brings back everything inside with its structure.
Check your music accounts
Music bought from an online store can usually be downloaded again from your account. Tracks synced to a cloud folder may be in that service's online bin. Offline downloads from streaming apps are tied to the app, so download them again inside the app rather than trying to recover the files.
Stop copying to the drive
Music collections are large, so copying even one album back can overwrite deleted tracks. Avoid saving anything to that drive, and for a USB stick or SD card, remove it from the player or phone until you scan it.
Scan with Deleted file recovery
In FileFix Ultimate, open Deleted file recovery, choose the drive and start the scan. Filter the results for audio types such as MP3, WAV, FLAC, OGG and M4A. If the folder name survived, search for it to find the whole album at once.
Check and save the results
Prefer results that keep their names and folders and those marked verified. Select what you need and save it to a different physical disk, then play a few tracks from the start and the end to make sure they are complete.
Repair tracks that skip
If an MP3 skips, stops early or shows a wrong length, open Damaged file repair and repair it into a new copy. It removes broken frames and corrects the ID3 and Xing information. For a WAV that will not play, the repair corrects the header and the size fields.
Names, folders and tags come from different places
File names and the album folder structure are stored in the file system, not inside the audio file. When the file record still exists, the scan brings them back exactly. When it is gone, signature search can still find the audio data, but the track is given a generic name and lands outside any folder.
Tags such as artist, album and title are a different matter, because they are stored inside the file. An MP3 often keeps its ID3 tag at the start, so a track recovered by signature may still show its artist and title in your music player if the beginning was intact. Do not count on it, though: older ID3v1 tags sit at the very end, and a track that was cut short loses them.
Why some recovered tracks are shorter or skip
MP3 files are a long chain of small frames. If part of the chain is missing or overwritten, players may stop at the gap, jump ahead or report a strange duration. Removing the broken frames usually lets the rest play, but the missing part of the song cannot be recreated.
Lossless formats behave differently. A FLAC or WAV file that is missing its end may play up to the point of damage, while damage in the header can stop it from opening at all. WAV repair can fix the header and size, but FLAC, OGG and M4A files are found and recovered rather than repaired, so a damaged one needs another copy.
Memory cards, players and phones
Music on an SD card or USB stick usually recovers well, because these have no TRIM and deleted files stay until new ones are copied in. Connect the card with a card reader and scan it directly.
A phone's internal storage is a different case. Modern phones encrypt it and usually do not appear as a normal drive on Windows, so a PC scan cannot read deleted files there. Check the phone's own trash folder and any cloud backup instead.
When recovery will not work
- The music was on an SSD with TRIM, and the space was cleared soon after deletion.
- Many new files were copied to the same drive afterwards and overwrote the tracks.
- The files were protected downloads from a streaming app, which only play inside that app.
- The music was in a phone's encrypted internal storage, which a PC scan cannot read.
How FileFix Ultimate helps
- Restores deleted tracks with their names and album folders from NTFS, FAT32 and exFAT records.
- Finds MP3, WAV, FLAC, OGG and M4A files by signature when the records are gone.
- Repairs MP3 files with broken frames and WAV files with wrong headers into new copies.
- Free for personal use with no limit on how many tracks you save, read-only, and fully offline.
FileFix Ultimate is free for personal use, works offline and never writes to the drive you are recovering from. Business use needs a one-year licence per PC. Check the signature before you run it.
Frequently asked questions
Can I get a whole deleted music folder back with its structure?
Yes, when the file records still exist, because the folder tree comes from them. Search for the folder name in the results and save it together with its contents.
Why are the recovered songs called file numbers instead of titles?
They were found by signature, so their names were not stored with them. If the tags inside survived, your music player may still show the artist and title, which helps you rename them.
A recovered MP3 plays but stops halfway.
Part of the file is missing or overwritten. MP3 repair can remove the broken frames so the track plays to the end of what remains, but the missing section cannot be restored.
Can I recover music from an old MP3 player?
If Windows shows the player as a normal drive letter, you can usually scan it like a USB stick. Players that connect only as a media device do not offer that access to recovery tools.
Are FLAC files harder to recover than MP3?
Not in principle; both are recognised by signature. FLAC files are larger, though, so they are more likely to be fragmented, which can lead to partial results.