Photos have disappeared from my Canon T3i.

[Dprabhu1]

Hello,
I bought a new Canon T3i and used it for the forts time in Paris in July. Now I'm downloading the photos onto my computer only to see that the pictures have disappeared. Can you please help?

[cicopo · Accepted solution]

I doubt it's the camera & as long as you stop using the card until you've run a recovery program on it YES get another card so you can keep shooting. It's always a good idea to have extra cards on hand. Here's the link to a free recovery program Transcend supplies.

http://www.transcend-info.com/support/DlCenter/DLSoftware.asp?SID=4

[cale_kat]

Are some of the flash drives missing files?

[Dprabhu1]

Yes. But I think they never got copied from the camera at all because they weren't there in the camera to begin with. Also another strange thing. The files that I copied onto the flash drives from the camera are now missing from the camera, but are intact in the flash drive. So there's something between the camera and the SD card, I think..

[cale_kat]

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@Dprabhu1 wrote:
Yes. But I think they never got copied from the camera at all because they weren't there in the camera to begin with. Also another strange thing. The files that I copied onto the flash drives from the camera are now missing from the camera, but are intact in the flash drive. So there's something between the camera and the SD card, I think..

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I know that the process has been frustrating, I wish I could offer more help, but from the sound of things, you still have your photos. That's good!

BTW, you wrote, "... they weren't there in the camera to begin with." Where were they to begin with?

[Dprabhu1]

:):) apologies for the confusion. what I meant is when I clicked them, they were in the camera because I could see them in the camera display. But during copying files into the flash drives, I realized they were not in the camera. I copied all the other files into the flash drives. That was fine. This morning I found that some of the files that I copied into the flash drives were missing from the camera. Something like about image number 0240 to image number 0410.

[cale_kat]

Would it be possible to read the SD card your camera first saved files to on a different device? Many laptops have SD drives. Simple card readers are available almost everywhere, at a large pharmacy chain, for example.

I think you should protect your pictures soon. Saving them to 5 flash drives may be technically uncomplicated but if they were my files, I'd move them to a hard drive or upload them to a cloud storage space ASAP. Flash drives are generally reliable but you are adding risk by spreading your photos over 5 drives. Unless you can afford to lose some of your pics, I would try to keep them together on your most reliable drive.

It is very unusual for files to be "forgotten" by a camera. If the photographer formats the SD card, as is generally the case after the successful transfer of files from the source disk to the destination folder, the files will at the least be hidden and at the worst, be lost. So, do not format your SD card. Even files that don't show up can often times be recovered.

Good luck.

[Dprabhu1]

Ok. I will check to see if I can see the contents of the SD card on my laptop directly. I will transfer the pictures into my external hard disk soon.
Two questions: Do you think I should continue using the SD card or buy another one? The one I have is Transcend 32 GB.
Do you think the camera is defective? Should I return it to get another one?

[cicopo · Accepted solution]

I doubt it's the camera & as long as you stop using the card until you've run a recovery program on it YES get another card so you can keep shooting. It's always a good idea to have extra cards on hand. Here's the link to a free recovery program Transcend supplies.

http://www.transcend-info.com/support/DlCenter/DLSoftware.asp?SID=4

[Dprabhu1]

Thank you very much! I'll try that.

[Dprabhu1]

Thank you very much for your help cicopo. I used the recovery tool you mentioned and got my photos back. I am so happy.

[cale_kat · Accepted solution]

In the future, I advise that you transfer the files from the camera (either by USB connection with the camera or by a device that will read your SD card) directly to the computer drive. Once confirmed that the files are in a single folder, you can feel safe about transfering them to a storage device, like a flash drive, so that they can be conveniently carried about. The original files should remain on the computer drive.

I think you should get another SD card because from where I'm sitting, I'm not sure what's going on with your card or camera. It might be necessary to replace your card and it might be necessary to repair your camera. I have no idea. First things first. Protect your pictures.