Cameras · Fujifilm high-speed photo card
Fujifilm burst sequence is incomplete
Can missing Fujifilm burst frames be recovered?
Short answer
Only if the frames were written to the card: shots still in the camera buffer when it stopped never reached the card and cannot be recovered, while deleted frames can. Use sequence numbers and timestamps to define the gap, then scan the card read-only for RAF or JPEG and check whether recovered frames fill that range.
The situation
A numbered RAF or JPEG burst has an internal gap.
The numbers jump, so something is missing between two frames that were saved. The important distinction is whether those frames ever reached the card at all: shots the camera held in its buffer when the burst ended were never written, and nothing on the card describes them.
01 / Diagnose
Work out what actually disappeared
High-speed shooting fills the camera buffer faster than the card can absorb it. If the battery died, the card was pulled or the burst was cut short, the tail of the sequence stayed in memory and vanished with the power. A deleted frame looks the same in the numbering, but only the deleted one still exists physically on the card.
Deleted files and unwritten buffer frames look similar in a sequence, but only written card data can be recovered.
Check the last known path, trash and backups without writing to the original device.
02 / Protect the source
Preserve the best recovery chance
- 1
Note the last frame number before the gap and the first one after it, together with their capture times, to define the missing range precisely.
- 2
Work out what ended the burst; a gap after a battery warning or a sudden stop usually means buffered frames, not deleted ones.
- 3
If deletion is plausible, keep the card out of the camera and scan it read-only for the burst format, RAF or JPEG.
- 4
Export the hits elsewhere and sort them by capture time to see whether any of them actually falls inside the gap you defined.
Do not fire another burst to test the camera; a fast sequence writes a lot of data quickly and lands exactly where deleted frames sit. Do not renumber the folder in camera either, because that makes the sequence evidence you are relying on useless.
03 / Choose the method
Match the tool to the source
For stable, readable exFAT, NTFS and FAT16/FAT32 or uncompressed IMG, DD, RAW and BIN images.
Unconfirmed exports are marked .UNVERIFIED.
Recovery software reads storage, so frames that never left the camera buffer are permanently lost and no scan will produce them. File Recovery Hero reads the exFAT card read-only and can return deleted frames that survive, but it cannot tell you in advance which kind of gap you have.
04 / Verify
Check the recovered content, not just its name
A recovery counts only if the exported frames carry capture times inside the gap and continue the sequence numbering. Frames that duplicate what you already have prove nothing. Each one should also develop or decode at full resolution, since a burst can return with individual frames cut short.
Keep the source until two verified copies exist. One working preview is not enough.
Sources and technical references
FAQ
Questions about this recovery case
Can Fujifilm high-speed photo card be recovered in this situation?+
The numbers jump, so something is missing between two frames that were saved. The important distinction is whether those frames ever reached the card at all: shots the camera held in its buffer when the burst ended were never written, and nothing on the card describes them. The result still depends on what remains readable on the source.
What should I avoid before scanning?+
Do not fire another burst to test the camera; a fast sequence writes a lot of data quickly and lands exactly where deleted frames sit.
Does scanning write to my memory card?+
Your memory card is only read. Nothing is saved to it.
How do I know whether the result is complete?+
A recovery counts only if the exported frames carry capture times inside the gap and continue the sequence numbering.