What to do right now
- Do not make new recordings. They go straight into the space of the deleted one.
- Connect the recorder to the PC and see whether it appears with a drive letter.
- If it does, scan it with FileFix Ultimate and save the WAV or MP3 files to the PC.
Step by step
Stop recording
Recorders write into free space in order. A new recording right after the deletion is likely to reuse that space.
Check how it connects
If the recorder appears in File Explorer as a drive such as E:, it can be scanned directly. If it uses a card, take the card out and use a card reader. A device that appears only by name, like a phone, cannot be scanned directly.
Check the PC side too
If you copied the recording to the PC and deleted it there, check the Recycle Bin and scan the drive that held the folder.
Scan and filter
Scan the drive with deleted file recovery and filter for WAV and MP3. When file records survive, recordings return with their original names, which often include the date.
Save to another disk and play
Save to another disk on the PC and play the file. If it will not play or the length looks wrong, try the damaged recording repair guide.
Phone recordings are different
Smartphones do not expose their storage to the PC as a drive, so PC recovery software cannot scan a phone's internal memory. For phone recordings, check the recorder app's trash, cloud backups and any copy on the PC.
If you backed up call recordings or voice memos to the PC and then deleted them there, they can be recovered from that PC drive like normal files.
If the power died while recording
When a recording never finishes because the battery ran out, the length fields in the WAV header stay at zero or a wrong value, so the file will not play or shows zero seconds. The audio data is still inside, so fixing the header often makes it playable again.
When recovery will not work
- New recordings after the deletion overwrote the space.
- The device does not appear as a drive, so its memory cannot be read directly.
- The recorder manages its memory in its own format or with encryption.
How FileFix Ultimate helps
- Finds deleted WAV and MP3 files on FAT32 recorders and cards with their names.
- Finds WAV, MP3 and FLAC by signature when records are gone.
- From version 1.0.4, fixes damaged WAV headers and drops broken MP3 frames into a new file.
- Never writes to the recorder's memory.
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 files deleted on a voice recorder be recovered?
Often, if the recorder shows up as a drive on the PC and nothing new has been recorded since.
Does this work for phone recordings?
A phone's internal memory cannot be scanned directly from a PC. Check copies on the PC and cloud backups.
The recovered recording shows 0 seconds.
The recording did not end normally, so the header is wrong. Damaged recording repair can often fix it.