[General Questions and Answers] Akaweb1:
Hi guys,

I am normally a very tech savvy person and can figure stuff out... but I need help or at least pushed in the right direction. I'll give you as much information as I can and I apologize if this is too long but I am desperate.

My phone is a Galaxy A52 with Android Ver 13 OS (Not Rooted). My phone is out of space and my SD card was not being used. I used ES File Explorer and moved the files to the SD card.

The Process was: I selected the files within the ES File Explorer app, clicked the 3 vertical dots on the bottom right, selected "Move to", the box popped up to show the current folder, I used the "back" arrow on the top left to go up a menu and was able to see "/storage/1280-0006/" , I selected that and it showed my SD card contents. I selected "Create a folder", typed in " MOM " (without quotes), entered into that folder and selected ok. It showed the files being moved. After the move was completed, It DID show the files in that folder (Inside the ES File Explorer app). I proceeded to do the same for a few more moves. Roughly 30gbs of data.

This was not a new SD card... Its been in my phone for years, I just never used it to my advantage until now since I needed the space. I did access the SD card before and I did have other files on it that I could access. So I know the card is good.

Before using ES File Explorer for the recent moves, I know I had 8gbs of data used on the 512gb size SD card. Now it is showing 39gb used.

This was all in preparation of filming the Eclipse a few days ago... I go about my day and film videos... and all was fine.

Later that day, I go back to move more files and noticed I can not find the files I moved before. After a few days of searching... I noticed other files where missing in other directories. I don't know when they went missing, All I know is that I know for sure something was there.

I did experience this once before and forgot not to use "ES File Explorer" app to move files to the SD card... but I was able to get those files back, I just cant remember how I did it. Unfortunately, I was in a rush and just forgot not to use that program. I Only remembered Not to use that program when the files were not being shown and that I needed to perform a "Copy to" first and then delete manually.

So... With not knowing what truly happened to those files, I proceeded to the data recovery route. I connected the phone to the computer and able to see the SD card. I see the folders (MOM) that I created but not the actual files within.... It shows blank... (not an access denied... just nothing there). The properties of the folder in the Windows OS shows 0kb in those folders. I took the SD card out of the phone and popped it into a computer directly with the same results. I tried using "Samsung's My Files" app, "File Manager+", "X-plore", "Files", and a few other programs that showed the same thing. Some apps gave me more access than others but still nothing that can tell me if the files are actually there. I looked for the ".nomedia" file with in the directory and that's not listed. I tried to scan with some file recovery tools... quick scans did not show anything and the long scan was going to take over 200 hours to complete. I couldn't complete that while on vacation because I only had two days left. I just got back today and figured to research more.

I have a feeling it has something to do with the "reading" permissions to see the file names themselves and it has something to do with the google security with SD cards. I am suspecting that some sort of security was enabled before the move, the contents were moved and was able to be seen because of the cached security credential/token/thing, but when that security refreshed I lost access because the external devices as the SD card can not be used with the security??? IDK It makes sense in my head.

So... I did a test copy back to the local phone storage but nothing appeared. Which is expected because I couldn't see it with the current access that I had.

Bottom line... Since there is more space taken on the SD card now, I am thinking the data is still there and I just don't have access to see it. My question... Has anyone experienced this? How do I gain access? How can I strip the android permissions or force default permissions on a specific folder? What programs are available that can do this? Using Linux or Mac or Windows is not a problem... or even boot into android safe mode... I just want these files back. :( Please help!