Recover Deleted or Corrupt Photos: Tools Compared
Two different disasters bring readers to this page, and they need different tools. In the first, photos are gone — deleted, or on a card that was formatted or is failing. In the second, the photos are there but broken — files that will not open, images or videos damaged in transfer or by a bad card. Recovery software addresses the first disaster; repair software addresses the second. ExifToolGui does neither — it views and edits metadata in files that exist and open — and this page says so plainly before comparing the tools that do. It lives in the Workflows & Buying Guides hub with the backup workflow that prevents most of these cases, plus the card reader guide for the reader-versus-card diagnosis. The metadata side is on the download page.
First rules, before any tool
- Stop using the card or drive. New data written over deleted files is what makes them unrecoverable; every photo taken on a card with deletions still on it lowers the odds.
- Work on a copy where you can. Recovery belongs on an image or duplicate of the medium, not on the only original, whenever the tool allows it.
- Save recovered files somewhere else. Never recover onto the same card or drive you are recovering from.
- Expect partial results. No tool can guarantee recovery: overwritten data may be unrecoverable, and a physically dead card may need a laboratory, not software. Any page that promises otherwise is selling, not informing.
Recovery vs repair: the distinction that picks the tool
Recovery tools scan storage for files that were deleted or lost — photos on a formatted card, a vanished folder — and reconstruct what the medium still holds. Repair tools take a file you already have, which exists but is corrupt, and rebuild it into something that opens: the category example in this comparison is EaseUS Fixo, which repairs corrupt photo and video files. The disasters feel similar (‘my photos won’t open’) and the tools are not interchangeable: running recovery on a corrupt-but-present file finds nothing to recover, and running repair on a deleted file finds nothing to repair. Diagnose which disaster you have — files missing, or files present but broken — and the table below narrows to the right row.
The tools compared
| Tool | Job | Use it when | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| EaseUS Data Recovery | Recovery of deleted or lost files, including photos | Files are deleted, a card was formatted, or a folder vanished | EaseUS Data Recovery |
| EaseUS Fixo | Repair of corrupt photo and video files | Files exist but will not open, or play/open damaged | EaseUS Fixo |
| Stellar Photo Recovery | Photo-focused recovery of deleted or lost photos | The loss is a photo library or card and you want a photo-specialist recovery tool | Stellar Photo Recovery |
| Wondershare Recoverit | Recovery of deleted or lost files, including photos | Files are deleted or lost and you are comparing recovery options | Recoverit |
Some links on this page are affiliate links — see our affiliate disclosure. Compare more than one recovery tool against your actual card before paying for anything: reputable recovery tools let you scan and preview what was found first, and the scan result — not the marketing — is the evidence that your files are still there to be recovered.
Triage order matters as much as tool choice. Before any recovery scan, rule out the cheap explanations: try the card in a second reader and with a different cable, because a card that fails in one reader and reads in another was never a recovery case at all — the isolation routine is in the card reader guide. Only when the card fails everywhere, or files are genuinely missing, does the scan begin; and only when the scan’s preview shows your files do you have evidence that recovery is possible and a basis for choosing between the tools in the table.
After recovery: rebuild the metadata, then the backup
Recovered files often return with wounds metadata tools can actually address: file names that are generic, timestamps from the recovery process rather than the shoot, descriptive fields stripped along the way. That is ExifToolGui’s legitimate role in this story — after recovery, on the recovered copies, verify what capture dates survive, repair the ones that demonstrably do not (using evidence from neighbouring files, never guesses presented as fact), and re-apply credits and keywords. Then close the loop with Back Up the Photo Library You Just Cleaned: the recovered, re-documented library should immediately become a backed-up library, because a second loss after a lucky recovery is the one outcome nobody should accept.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can recovery software guarantee my photos back?
No, and distrust any tool that guarantees it. Recovery depends on the deleted data not having been overwritten and the medium still being readable. Overwritten data may be unrecoverable, and results are routinely partial — some files whole, some damaged, some gone.
My photos exist but will not open. Recovery or repair?
Repair. A present-but-corrupt file is a repair case (the Fixo row in the table). Recovery tools are for files that are deleted or lost. If the files are missing entirely, that is the recovery case.
Can ExifToolGui recover or repair photos?
No. ExifToolGui views and edits metadata in files that exist and open. Its role here is after recovery: checking and repairing metadata on the recovered copies, and documenting the library properly this time.
Prevention beats every row of that table: keep the Workflows hub bookmarked, and make the backup workflow your next read if this page was a close call rather than a catastrophe.