Urgent: I tried to clear space on my phone uploaded them to onedrive over 100 photos. The phone synced it deleted photos from the cloud

A E Johnson 0 Reputation points
2026-08-07T21:09:41.0266667+00:00

I needed to free space on my phone. Thinking this was a safe way to preserve my photos and videos, I uploaded them to the cloud. I guess since the photos and videos are no longer on my phone, they were deleted from the cloud. They are not in the recycling bin; I did not even know this was a thing. I am very upset as these photos are have my mother on them who has passed away. My thought is they would be safe here. I really need those photos back!

How is this even a issue. Cloud storage is suppose to be for storage so people don't have carry around all this precious data with the risk of losing it on a phone that could be wiped out. Why does the sync to one drive even do this?

Microsoft 365 and Office | OneDrive | For home | Android

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  1. Xavier-D 11,425 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2026-08-08T06:49:20.11+00:00

    Hello A E Johnson

    I’m very sorry to hear that these photos included precious memories of your mother. I understand how upsetting this must be.

    Could you tell us exactly which recovery solutions you have already tried? Also, were you using OneDrive Camera Backup or Samsung Gallery sync with OneDrive? This will help us avoid repeating steps and determine what happened.

    In the meantime, please check the following:

    1. Sign in to the OneDrive website using the same Microsoft account used on your phone, then check My files, Photos, and Recycle bin.
    2. Check your phone’s Gallery Trash/Recycle Bin, Google Photos Trash, and Files app for any remaining local copies.
    3. If you have an active Microsoft 365 subscription, open OneDrive on the web and select Settings > Options > Restore your OneDrive. Choose a point immediately before the photos disappeared. This feature can undo OneDrive file activity from within the previous 30 days.

    If the photos are still missing after these checks, please contact Microsoft Support for further assistance:

    Please note that this is a user-to-user support forum. Moderators and contributors, including external Microsoft employees, are not allowed to directly interfere with Microsoft product features or access back-end systems. Our role is limited solely to providing technical guidance on reported incidents, requests, or ideas.  

    1. Open a website link - Contact - Microsoft Support 
    2. In the box below "We're here to help", type Microsoft 365, click "Get Help", and then click "Contact Support" below. 
    3. In this section, you will need to sign in to your Microsoft account. 
    4. Select "Microsoft 365 and Office" under Products & Services, select "Technical Support" as the category, and click to confirm 
    5. You can select " Chat with a support agent in your web browser " to access the chat window. 

    Provide the approximate deletion date, photo dates or filenames, the affected Microsoft account, and your Android device model so they can investigate further.

    I hope you can get your photos back, have a nice day.

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