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If you’ve accidentally deleted a photo or some other file, you’re probably looking for the recycle bin on your Samsung Galaxy phone to see if you can retrieve it from the trash. There’s good and bad news here. The good? Samsung Galaxy phones do have a recycle bin. The bad news is you need to have turned it on first.
To activate the recycle bin, so that you can recover photos or other stuff that you might have accidentally deleted, do the following:
Once you’ve switched on the Recycle bin, any files that are deleted from your phone will now sit in there for 30 days, after which time they are permanently deleted.
That’s great for recovering photos, videos and files that you may have accidentally deleted, but it does come with a downside and that’s storage capacity. If you’re having to clear files off your phone because you’ve run out of storage, they’re just going to build up in your Recycle bin, not clearing any space at all.
If you do need to clear space, make sure to go into the bin and permanently delete any files that you no longer need, or else you’re going to run out of storage space and not be able to take any new photos, record videos or install apps.
If you haven’t already switched on the Recycle bin and you’re trying to recover a deleted file, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to retrieve it. There are some file recovery apps that may be able to rescue a deleted file, but in my experience, they’re more miss than hit. Sorry.
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It’s worth noting that Samsung also maintains a separate recycle bin specifically for photos and videos within the Gallery app. This works independently of the My Files app’s recycle bin, and is often enabled by default on newer Galaxy devices.
To check or access this:
Deleted images and videos in this recycle bin are also retained for 30 days before being automatically removed. This is often the first place to look for accidentally deleted pictures.
If you’re worried about the recycle bin eating up valuable storage, Samsung doesn’t let you set a custom storage limit, but you can proactively manage it:
This is especially handy if you frequently delete large videos or documents, which can quietly fill up your storage over time.
If you don’t have the recycle bin turned on and lose a file, one potential lifeline is a cloud service you might already be using. Google Photos, Microsoft OneDrive, or Dropbox, for example, often have their own trash or deleted items folders, retaining files for a set period (usually 30-60 days).
If your photos are automatically synced to Google Photos:
It won’t help with files in your phone’s local storage, but it’s a useful habit to have cloud backup enabled for key files.
This article was update on the 28th of May 2025 with additional info.
