How to Recover Deleted Travel Videos From a Memory Card

If, like me, you’ve accidentally deleted videos from a memory card, or cleared some space and later realized that you removed something you still needed, you might think there isn’t much you can do. I thought the same at first, but deleted videos can often still be recovered. In this guide, I’ll show you how to recover deleted videos from a memory card without any hassle which is also included in my post Ultimate Checklist for Digital Nomads: Essential Tips for a Smooth, Productive Life on the Go.

Recover Deleted Travel Videos

Before you start memory card video recovery, stop using the SD card immediately. Don’t record new videos, take photos, format the card, or save anything new to it. The more you use the card, the greater the risk that your deleted videos will be overwritten and become much harder, or even impossible to recover. If you’re still traveling, remove the SD card you deleted the videos from and buy a new one for the rest of your trip. Once you get home and have time, you can focus on recovering the deleted videos.

Method 1. Check Trash or Recycle Bin

Let’s start with the easiest option. If you deleted the videos while your memory card was connected to your computer, check Trash on Mac or Recycle Bin on Windows before you install any recovery software. This method won’t work if you deleted the videos directly from your camera, since they won’t be sent to your computer’s bin.

On a Mac, files deleted from an SD card through Finder may remain in Trash. Keep the card connected, or reconnect the SD, open Trash, find your videos, right-click them, and select Put Back.

On Windows, things work a little differently. Files deleted directly from removable storage may bypass the Recycle Bin, so don’t be surprised if your videos aren’t there. It’s still worth checking, but if you can’t find them, move on to the next method.

Method 2. Recover Deleted Travel Videos With Data Recovery Software

Video recovery from a memory card isn’t always as straightforward as recovering photos or documents. Cameras often write long recordings to different areas of the card rather than keeping the entire video in one continuous block. After deletion, recovery software has to do more than simply locate the data. It also needs to identify the correct pieces and rebuild them into a playable video. This became a problem when I tried several recovery tools: some of them found my deleted videos, but the recovered files showed a black screen instead of the actual footage.

That’s why I decided to go through different recommendations and discussions, and I saw some users recommend Disk Drill. After trying it myself, Disk Drill turned out to be the most suitable memory card video recovery software for this job. I liked that this program is really easy to use. The interface is clear, so even if this is your first time using recovery software, you don’t have to spend much time figuring out where to start. Also, the tool is available for both Windows and macOS.

Disk Drill has a built-in Advanced Camera Recovery (ACR) feature specifically designed to reconstruct fragmented footage and piece separate parts of a video back together. It also works with different types of memory cards, including full-size SD, microSD, and microSDXC cards.

Here’s how to use it:

  1. Download Disk Drill to your computer from the official website and install it. Do not install it on the SD card you plan to scan, as new data could overwrite the deleted videos.
  2. Connect the SD card to your computer. You can use a built-in SD card slot or an external card reader.
  3. Open Disk Drill and select Advanced Camera Recovery from the left sidebar.
  1. Find and select your SD card from the list of available storage devices.
  2. Check the scan settings on the right. If you know your camera model and the correct values, you can adjust Camera type, Cluster size, and Cluster start accordingly. If you don’t know them, simply leave the settings on Auto.
  3. Click Search for lost data to start the scan and wait while Disk Drill searches the card for recoverable footage.
  1. When the scan is complete, click Review found items to view the results.
  1. Use the preview option to identify the travel videos you want to recover.
  2. Select the videos you need and click Recover.
  1. Choose a folder on your computer or another storage device as the recovery destination. Do not save the videos back to the SD card you just scanned.
  2. Click Next to finish the recovery and save the selected videos to your chosen location.

Note: If you lost your videos after formatting the SD card in your camera, data recovery software may still be able to recover them. However, some cameras can trigger SD_ERASE during formatting, which tells the card to erase the affected memory blocks. If SD_ERASE has already cleared those blocks, the videos may no longer be recoverable.

Recover Corrupted Video Files From SD Card

Sometimes a video can become damaged during recording or saving, before you’ve deleted it. In such cases, a recovery program may successfully restore the file, but the recovered video may still be unplayable or partially corrupted. That’s why your next step is to repair the video itself.

There are several ways to do this. You can download a desktop video repair program or try one of the many online video repair tools that work directly in your browser. Some online tools are free, so they can be a convenient option if you don’t want to install additional software. Here are a few ways to fix damaged videos using free desktop software.

Method 1. Repair the Video With VLC Media Player

VLC Media Player is free, open-source, and available for Windows and macOS. You may already use VLC to play videos, but it also has a few useful features that can help with damaged videos. There are two ways you can try to repair your travel video with VLC.

Option 1. Use VLC’s Built-In AVI Repair

VLC has a built-in option for damaged or incomplete AVI files. If your recovered video uses another format, make a copy first and change the copy’s extension to AVI.

  1. Download and install VLC Media Player if you don’t already have it.
  2. Make a copy of the damaged video to keep the original file unchanged.
  3. Rename the copied file and change its extension to .avi.
  4. Open VLC and go to Tools > Preferences.
  1. Open the Input/Codecs tab.
  1. Find Damaged or incomplete AVI file and select Always fix.
  1. Click Save.
  2. Open the renamed AVI file in VLC and check whether it now plays correctly.

If the video still doesn’t work, try re-encoding it instead.

Option 2. Re-encode the Video With VLC

Re-encoding takes the video data VLC can still read and writes it into a new file. This may fix playback problems caused by minor damage to the original file structure.

  1. Open VLC Media Player.
  2. Go to Media > Convert/Save.
  1. Click Add and choose the damaged video.
  1. Click Convert/Save.
  2. Under Profile, select a suitable video format and codec.
  1. Click Browse, choose where to save the new video, and give it a different filename so you don’t replace the original.
  2. Click Start and wait for VLC to create the new file.
  3. Open the new video and check whether it plays correctly.

Method 2. Repair the Video With Untrunc GUI

If VLC doesn’t help, you can try Untrunc GUI. It’s a free video repair tool available for Windows that uses a healthy video as a reference to reconstruct a damaged file. This can work well for camera footage if you have another working clip recorded with the same camera and similar recording settings.

  1. Download Untrunc GUI and extract the downloaded archive.
  2. Open untrunc-gui.exe.
  3. Click Reference file and choose a healthy video recorded with the same camera and settings as the damaged one.
  1. Click Truncated file and select the damaged video file you want to repair.
  1. Click Repair.
  2. Wait for the repair process to finish.
  3. Once the repair is complete, open the repaired video and check whether it plays correctly.

Bonus: Tips to Prevent Losing Travel Videos in the Future

Recovering lost travel videos is possible in many cases, but it’s much easier to prevent the problem in the first place. A few simple habits can help protect your footage, especially when you’re traveling and can’t recreate the same moments later.

  • Enable automatic camera backups. Check whether your camera supports automatic backup through its companion app. Some cameras can upload footage directly to cloud storage, giving you another copy without having to transfer every video manually.
  • Transfer important videos wirelessly. If your camera supports Wi-Fi or Bluetooth transfers, use its mobile app to copy important clips to your phone. This is an easy way to create a backup while you’re still on the trip.
  • Record to two memory cards. If your camera has dual card slots, check whether it supports simultaneous recording. With this mode enabled, the same footage is saved to both cards, so if you accidentally delete a video from one card, you’ll still have a copy on the other.
  • Back up your videos during the trip. Don’t wait until you get home. If possible, copy your footage to a laptop, portable drive, or cloud storage every few days. Just make sure the copied videos open correctly before you delete anything from the SD card.
  • Use automatic cloud backup on your phone. If you transfer travel videos to your smartphone, enable automatic backup to a cloud service. This gives you another copy even if you later delete the original video from your memory card.
  • Carry spare memory cards. Instead of deleting older footage when your SD card gets full, swap it for an empty card. You can sort through your videos later, when you’ve already made backups and are less likely to delete something important by mistake.

Conclusion

As you can see, recovering deleted videos from an SD card can be easier than it may seem, as long as the deleted data hasn’t already been cleared by SD_ERASE or overwritten with new files. The most important things are to act quickly, stop using the memory card until you’ve recovered your footage, and choose the right recovery software for the job. If you need a more detailed walkthrough of SD card video recovery or want to explore other recovery scenarios, you can find more information here.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I recover videos deleted directly from my camera?

Yes. If you haven’t recorded anything new after deleting the videos and the deleted data hasn’t been overwritten, you may still be able to recover them. Remove the SD card from the camera, connect it to your computer, and scan it with data recovery software.

Can I recover deleted travel videos without software?

Sometimes. If you deleted the videos while the SD card was connected to a Mac, check Trash first. You may also be able to restore them from a backup if you previously copied the footage to another device or cloud storage. Otherwise, videos deleted directly from a camera will require data recovery software.

Why are my recovered videos corrupted or unplayable?

Camera videos can be stored in multiple fragments across a memory card. Recovery software may sometimes retrieve the data without reconstructing the complete video correctly. The original file may also have been partially overwritten or damaged. In these cases, you can try a video repair tool such as VLC or Untrunc GUI.

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