GoPro Video Recovery Guide

Imagine returning from your vacation, where you’ve filmed your wildest adventures with an action-focused GoPro camera, only to realize all your footage is missing. Is there anything as frustrating as that?

Believe it or not, such scenarios are far more common than you’d think. Users regularly encounter SD card corruption or lose vital videos from their favorite moments when using GoPro cameras.

However, these issues are still resolvable, and if you stick with us, we’ll show you how to recover deleted videos on GoPro devices. We’ll showcase four GoPro video recovery methods, show you the best GoPro recovery software, and teach you how to recover deleted GoPro videos with CMD.

How GoPro Videos Can Get Lost/Deleted

There are plenty of errors that can cause GoPro data loss. Some of these include:

• Wrong file deletion
• Accidental formatting
• Incorrect SD card removal
• Video corruption
• Physical damage

Now that you know the typical culprits behind lost and deleted GoPro videos, you can avoid them in the future and prevent additional mistakes.

Things to Do Before Recovering Videos From GoPro

Before you can recover deleted GoPro footage, there are a few tasks you need to check off and ensure you don’t lose additional videos. They include the following:

• Stop using your GoPro device – While you can almost always recover deleted GoPro files, overwriting the space they leave poses a severe challenge for even the most capable GoPro recovery software, so you should immediately leave the device alone.
• Take out the SD card – Accidentally deleting a GoPro video means you won’t be able to use the device further without an additional SD card, as the original one should be immediately removed from the camera and inserted into an SD card reader and then into a computer.
• Avoid the formatting popup – Once you plug your SD card into the computer, you’ll most likely see a message mentioning corruption and calling for the formatting of the storage device. Do NOT format the SD card, as it’ll significantly decrease your GoPro video recovery chances.
• Create a disk image of the SD card – If you suspect the SD card will soon die or your chances of recovery seem low, you should create a disk image of the SD card to replicate its contents. That’ll allow you to contact professional data recovery services if at-home recovery fails.

Having prepared for GoPro file recovery, you can finally move on to the following section of the article – how to recover deleted videos from GoPro devices.

How to Recover GoPro Videos

Now that we know why and how GoPro videos can disappear and what you need to do to prepare for GoPro video recovery, we can finally move on to the GoPro data recovery itself.

Below is a list of solutions, including professional GoPro recovery software, the Windows File Recovery app, a CMD command, and the company’s repair service. Let’s dive into these and see when to use which one.

Knowing when each solution is most effective will help you apply an appropriate fix for your scenario. With that out of the way, let’s move on to the GoPro video recovery methods themselves.

Recover Deleted GoPro Videos Using GoPro Recovery Software

Moreover, Recoverit has a built-in photo and video repair feature, allowing users to quickly and efficiently retrieve deleted GoPro videos and fix broken or corrupted footage. Its user-friendly interface can significantly help your GoPro video recovery efforts.

Here’s how you too can try this fantastic GoPro recovery software at home and retrieve deleted GoPro videos by yourself:

1. Launch the app, select Hard Drives and Locations, and click on your GoPro camera or SD card.

   

2. The app will automatically launch a deep scan of your GoPro camera or SD card.

   

3. Use the app’s built-in file filters to point the app toward GoPro SD card recovery.

   

4. Add keywords to look for and specifically recover deleted GoPro footage.

   

5. Verify the file’s integrity and check for corruption by clicking the Preview button next to a GoPro video before recovering it.

   

6. Once you know which deleted GoPro videos to recover, select them and tap the Recover button.

   

Recover Deleted Videos on GoPro Via Windows File Recovery

Free tools for GoPro video recovery are also an option, and the Windows File Recovery app from the Microsoft Store is one of these utilities. Through this method, you can recover deleted GoPro videos for free.

Here’s how to use it:

1. Open the Microsoft Store app, search for Windows File Recovery, and click the Get button.

   

2. Once it’s installed, tap Open, and you’ll see a Command Prompt window with a few examples of how to use Windows File Recovery.

   

3. Type in the following command to recover deleted GoPro footage and tap Enter: winfr .: .: extensive /n gopro

   This command uses Windows File Recovery’s extensive mode on the storage device with the letter “J,” applies a filter to search for GoPro videos, and recovers data to disk drive “D.”

   

   Note: You should change “J:” to the drive letter of your GoPro SD card and “D:” to the drive letter of your recovery destination.

Recover Deleted Videos From GoPro Using Attrib in CMD

The Command Prompt tool on Windows can also recover deleted GoPro videos without the Windows File Recovery app. It has a powerful command called “attrib,” and it can help you recover deleted GoPro videos for free. Here’s how you can use it:

1. Hit the Windows key, search for CMD, right-click on Command Prompt, and choose the Run as administrator option.

   

2. Type in the following command and hit Enter on your keyboard.
   attrib -h -r -s /s /d/ J:\.

   

Note: You’ll need to replace J with the drive letter of your GoPro’s SD card. The attrib command will then attempt to fix your corrupted or hidden GoPro videos.

Recover Deleted Files From GoPro Using GoPro Plus

GoPro, the company, offers a cloud storage feature called GoPro Plus, which automatically uploads clips to the cloud. If you have a GoPro Plus plan, you can follow these steps to retrieve deleted GoPro videos and download them in batches:

1. Get the GoPro Quik app. Alternatively, log in with your credentials on the company’s website.
2. Open the Quik app and go to > Media > Cloud, or find the footage you deleted from the SD card on the website.

   

3. Select the clips and download them to your device.

Note: This method only works for users with a GoPro Plus subscription. If you aren’t one of them, this method of GoPro data recovery won’t work for you.

Tips: How to Prevent File Loss on Your GoPro in the Future?

While accidents can happen and everyone makes mistakes, you can learn from these errors and prevent future issues by following these tips:

• Create regular backups of your vital GoPro videos and use multiple cloud storage services;
• Keep your OS, antivirus, and Quik app regularly updated;
• Frequently transfer GoPro footage to your storage device;
• Use a UPS device to prevent power failures from affecting your PC’s storage or interrupting vital GoPro video transfers;
• Regularly format your SD card to clear up bad sectors;
• Don’t use a single SD card for multiple GoPro devices;
• Don’t record footage with a low GoPro battery;
• Don’t pull out your SD card while still recording;
• Don’t drop your GoPro devices.

Armed with new knowledge, you can ensure that similar problems don’t happen to you again and that your GoPro clips remain safe and secure.

Conclusion

Despite being some of the most popular action-footage cameras, GoPro devices are prone to video loss, with users constantly losing their precious clips. These issues are often caused by video corruption, incorrect SD card removal, accidental deletion or formatting, and physical damage to the SD card.

However, the problems are also resolvable with various GoPro recovery software. Still, you must prepare your device by turning the GoPro camera off, removing the SD card, inserting it into the PC, skipping the formatting dialog, and creating a disk image of your SD card.

You can then use GoPro Plus to get deleted videos from the cloud. Alternatively, you can try CMD’s attrib or Windows File Recovery to recover deleted GoPro footage. However, a dedicated data recovery tool like Wondershare Recoverit works best for GoPro file recovery since it includes Enhanced Recovery and Corrupted Video Repair features, making it the top option.

Once you restore your lost or deleted videos, you can follow our tips to prevent these issues from happening again.