Hey guys, my mom just got a new phone today and tried to transfer her data, but things went south. Somehow, she ended up deleting everything 
. I checked the trash, but it was cleared, and now we’re all super sad because her old phone had 7 years’ worth of our family photos. Is there any way to get them back, or are they gone for good?
You can contact a data recovery service; they might be able to recover the photos. For the best results, turn off the phone immediately and don’t use it anymore. Also, check if the photos were synced to Google Photos or another cloud service—they might be there.
Are the pics saved on an online account, like a Google account?
I don’t think so… she never set that up.
Whelp. And that’s why you back things up. Seriously, you should automate the backup process so you’re covered when stuff like this happens.
That doesn’t really help them recover their data though.
I know, but I just wish we had thought about backups earlier. Thanks for the suggestions, everyone!