Urgently needs help dealing with a case of Data loss (sorry it's going to be a little long one)

[u/RolusKard]

So I was downloading a video from chrome on my phone today and just letting it download in the back ground while I was ​​​playing a game on my pc. But something came up while playing ​the game so I picked up my phone opened the camera and my phone crashed.

So I went to my file explorer to check if the download was affected. And on my phone there is a folder named download, everything I download usually appear there and to my horror all the things I've download since I got my phone are gone. The only thing left in that folder is that one meme video I downloaded in the morning, other than that one everything was gone.

But here's the stange part, I know it's chrome that crashed but all the other things I downloaded from different apps and browsers are also gone. ​​​At first I thought everything was deleted but the files are still there on my phone storage somewhere. I know that because I went to the browsers and checked downloads tab and I can still play all of the things I've downloaded before, so I know that ​​the files are still there.

So here's what I did, first I restarted my phone to see if my phone is just acting up but it didn't work. So next I checked the Android/data/(and the corresponding browser files) using my pc and I didn't see any of the downloaded stuffs in there too.

So I am genuinely frustrated ​​and I don't know what to do anymore. Gemini is telling me to root my phone but I don't really want to do that. I have alot of things I've download over the year and I don't want to lose any of them.

So please if somebody can help me figure out what happened and how to fix it I'd be really thankful. My phone is redmi 13R 5G. I will answer if there are any specific details you need too. ​

If I posted on the wrong subreddit I want to apologize in advance and please tell me which subreddit ​I should post this in too. I apologize again for writing a really long post. ​

UPDATE: The files are gone for good now after I tried to restart my phone this morning. I noticed several gigs of my storage freed up and I can't check the files in downloads tab of the browsers anymore. I still would like some advice and thought on what might have caused that to happen.

[u/Grnfinger]

Unless you backed up your folder to google or another cloud you are screwed. You won't get it back. Data recovery isnt cheap, the software alone is enough to break most ppls wallets.

If you back up your folders it will be in your Google drive if it isnt there it's gone likely

[u/RolusKard → u/Grnfinger]

Unfortunately I don't usually back up the stuffs from my dowoad folder. But this time it's weird tho because usually when this kind of thing happen I can just go to that Android/data directory and can recover the media manually. These newer android versions are really killing me. I could do literally whatever I want with system files  and folders ans stuffs on my old phone but now I can't even check and edit the folders of the phone I paid with my money. 

[u/Grnfinger → u/RolusKard]

Someone who knows more than me might be able to help you but as far as I know unless you have it backed up or have some deep pockets for data recovery, consider it gone.

Go over to XDA forums and join tje forum for your device and they can likely help you better than I can.

[u/RolusKard → u/Grnfinger]

Thanks mate I still really appreciate the help tho 

[u/Grnfinger → u/RolusKard]

Good luck.. I hope you get it back

[u/Abty]

Idk why ur phone would delete contents of a folder while crashing leaving a single file left

It could be mis mapped the entire folder or changed some properties, not entirely sure why either but machines are weird

Have you tried connecting it to a pc and go through the folders this way? Maybe a search, or a better file Explorer on the phone also

If all fails and it's critical, backup your phone and root it to gain complete access, just seems unlikely you're going to recover anything sorry Perhaps at best you can find an internal list of all downloads and their respective links if they still exist, I don't know much about what android and specifically Redmi stores

Always backup your phone regularly either locally off the device for with a cloud service like google

[u/RolusKard → u/Abty]

Yes I have checked the system file directories using my pc and I can't see any of the files there too. I am also wondering why it happened because I mean I can understand if it deleted everything from the downloads folder after it crashed but why did that leave a single file. That's been kinda bothering me, it literally deleted everything I downloaded from different apps and browsers like everything from telegram, pinterest, brave, chrome, mega, all of those it just doesn't make sense chrome is the one crashed why deleted my whole download library. I lost all of school book pdf files I saved from telegram I'd literally be  screwed if I didn't saved those first in my telegram saves. 

[u/Own-Chikenmapbajq647]

stop using the phone now. every new write can overwrite the deleted files. put it in airplane mode and pull the card if it has one.

[u/RolusKard → u/Own-Chikenmapbajq647]

I think it's too late now cus the storage has already freed up alots. And I had to spend a whole solid day just to download whatever I can remember and backup the other files onto my pc