7 Methods to Recover Unsaved Videos

Whether you have the videos on your phone or computer, losing them can be painful. You may have recorded some precious moments or created a video to represent a project but accidentally lost it due to carelessness or technical problems. If you are wondering how to recover unsaved videos, our guide is ideal for you. There are many ways to retrieve your unsaved videos, but the most common methods are listed below:

Table of Contents

1. Check the Recycle Bin/Trash

The first thing you should do when you realize that you have lost a video is to check Recycle Bin or the Trash on your computer or mobile. People sometimes accidentally delete their videos, and they end up in Trash without them realizing it. If this is the case, you can find them there and restore them to the original location.

2. Use a Data Recovery Tool to Recover Unsaved Videos

If the video is not in Recycle Bin (you emptied it, perhaps) you can try using a data recovery tool to retrieve it. Many data recovery tools are available on the market, and you can choose one that suits your needs. Most of these tools work by scanning your computer for lost or deleted files and then recovering them. The following guide demonstrates using the Disk Drill Data recovery tool.

Download Disk Drill it and install it on your computer.
Run it, then allow it access to your local storage.
Choose the storage device where your deleted movies were previously stored.
Proceed to search for lost data on the bottom right to start scanning your computer.
Disk Drill displays the files that were found as the scanning operation continues. To view them, go to the top right and select Review found items.
If it has already found your videos, you can stop the scanning process by pressing the “Stop” button in the top left corner. Select the video files you wish to recover with a “check” on their left.
You can begin the recovery process by pressing the Recover button on the bottom left. When prompted, choose where you want them recovered. The software will notify you about the completion of the operation when it’s done.
It will also offer a preview of the recovered data in explorer if you select this option. Select the option and look through the subfolders to find your unsaved videos there.

3. Check Your Cloud Backup

If you have been backing up your videos to the cloud, you may be able to find the lost or unsaved ones in your online backup. You can check your cloud backup account and see if the video is there. If it is, you can download it and save it on your computer.

4. Recover Unsaved Videos from Smartphones

External storage is no longer supported on most modern smartphones. As a result, you can’t simply stick their SD card into your PC to retrieve unsaved videos easily. Instead, you’ll have to look for those specializing in extracting data from your smartphone’s internal memory. You can use a third-party app to recover unsaved videos on smartphones. Here is how to do it using FoneLab Android Data Recovery (no affiliation).

Install FoneLab Android Data Recovery after downloading it.
Connect your smartphone to your computer. Windows may require additional drivers to be installed if you’ve never connected it.
If the program doesn’t respond immediately, proceed to Android Data Recovery.
Follow the on-screen instructions to turn on USB debugging mode on your smartphone.
You need to know what kind of files you want to recover to do so. In your case, choose videos; however, you can also recover text messages, call logs, and other types of data.
Select “Next” on the bottom right. This will allow FoneLab Android Data Recovery to communicate freely with your smartphone and extract data from it. You’ll also need to give the program permission to retrieve any specific file you want to recover.
Soon, files that were previously missing will reappear in the app interface. Stop scanning when you’ve found what you’re looking for.
Choose the videos by tapping on them and selecting Recover from the bottom right.
Simply click the icon in the upper left corner of your screen. Select where you want your files recovered on the PC, and they will be restored shortly.

5. Restore Unsaved Videos on Smartphones Without a PC

If you prefer a more all-in-one approach, DiskDigger only requires your smartphone to run, but you’ll need root access for it to recover lost videos.

Install it on your phone by visiting the DiskDigger Google Play page and downloading it.
If your device isn’t rooted, run the program and select Basic Scan. If it is, choose Full Scan instead. You’ll be able to pick the storage partition you want to scan in the second instance. In most situations, internally stored data will appear as “/data,” while externally stored data (such as SD cards) will appear as “/mnt/DEVICE_TYPE” (for example, “/mnt/sdcard”).
The rest of the procedure is straightforward. First, pick the type of files you wish to retrieve. You must also permit it via a Superuser request window on a rooted device.
DiskDigger will soon begin displaying the files it discovered. Choose the ones you wish to retrieve by tapping on them.
Choose where you want to save your files by pressing the “Recover button” in the top toolbar.

6. Instructions for Recovery of Unsaved Videos on Mac (Cloud/QuickTime)

There are a few options available if you are looking for a way to recover unsaved videos on a Mac. The first option is to use the Time Machine backup system with macOS. If you have been regularly backing up your Mac using Time Machine, you should be able to restore any unsaved videos from your most recent backup. To do this:

Open the Time Machine app and select the “Browse Backups” option.
Locate the folder where your unsaved videos were stored and select the files you want to restore.
Press the “Restore” button to save the selected files to your Mac.

Restoration of Unsaved Video Files on Mac (Quick Time)

In this case, go to /Users/[username]/Library/Containers/com.apple.QuickTimePlayerX/Data/Autosave Information. Then:

Select Unsaved QuickTime Player Document.qtpxcomposition from the drop-down menu.
Find where that option is listed, and select it to bring up a box with a list of bifurcated file names. The .m4a audio recording can be found by right-clicking on the file name.

These are the only methods that work for recovering unsaved QuickTime movies. If you’ve deleted the QuickTime videos, repeat method 2 to see if it works. You can also use the Disk Drill in particular to recover unsaved videos on Mac. The steps to restore videos are the same as the Windows method.

7. Use Data or Video Recovery Service

There are also many video recovery services that you can use to retrieve your lost video. These services usually have a team of experts experienced in recovering lost or deleted videos. We explain this in our guide on the way data recovery centers function.