What to do right now
- Do not save new files to the drive the video was on.
- Check easy places first: the Recycle Bin, cloud storage and the original on your phone.
- Scan with a recovery tool, save to another disk and play the result to check it.
Step by step
Check the easy places
Look in the Recycle Bin, the OneDrive or Google Drive bin, the recently deleted album on your phone and any copy you sent through a messenger. A surviving copy is the fastest and most complete option.
Stop using the drive
Videos are large, so even one new download can overwrite a good part of a deleted one. Stop saving to that drive.
Scan with FileFix Ultimate
Run the portable ZIP from another disk and scan the drive the video was on. If NTFS, FAT32 or exFAT records survive, it comes back with its name and folder.
Filter by type and size
Filter for MP4, MOV, MKV and AVI and check the size. A result much smaller than the original is only partly there.
Save to another disk and play
Save it and play it. If it stops halfway or shows scenes from another video, read the video repair guide.
SSDs and hard drives are different
On hard drives, USB sticks and SD cards, deleted videos often remain until overwritten. An SSD with TRIM clears the blocks soon after deletion, so videos deleted from a laptop's drive C: are often hard to recover.
When file records survive, a video stored in several pieces can be put back together in order. When it is found by signature alone, the pieces are unknown, so the beginning may be fine while the rest is broken.
Recovered videos that will not play
Many MP4 files keep their index (the moov box) at the end, so if the end is overwritten, the file will not play even though the start of the data is there. From version 1.0.4, the index can be rebuilt using a normal video from the same device as a reference, making the remaining part playable.
When recovery will not work
- Time has passed since deletion on an SSD with TRIM.
- New files have been saved where the video was.
- The video was only streamed and never saved as a file on the PC.
How FileFix Ultimate helps
- Finds deleted videos on NTFS, FAT32 and exFAT with their names and folders.
- Finds MP4, MOV, MKV and AVI by signature when records are gone.
- Checks the structure of recovered videos and flags a missing index or truncation.
- From version 1.0.4, repairs interrupted or truncated MP4 and MOV files into new files.
FileFix Ultimate is free, works offline and never writes to the drive you are recovering from. Check the signature before you run it.
Frequently asked questions
Can videos be recovered after emptying the Recycle Bin?
On a hard drive or external drive, often yes, until they are overwritten. On an SSD with TRIM it is difficult.
The recovered video only plays the beginning.
The rest was overwritten or stored in pieces elsewhere. Only the surviving part can be played.
Can multi-gigabyte videos be recovered for free?
Yes. FileFix Ultimate has no recovery size limit.