Photos & RAW · exFAT camera card
HEIC, HEIF and HIF photos: find after an import failure
Where are deleted HEIC, HEIF or HIF images after a failed import?
Short answer
First check the import target: destination folder, trash and the photo library or catalog path. Import tools that convert HIF or HEIC may also save files under new names or formats, so search by capture date as well. If the originals are truly gone from both sides, scan the untouched card read-only.
The situation
deleted HEIC, HEIF or HIF images is incomplete at the destination and no longer appears reliably on the source.
An import that converts is easy to misread: the pictures may already be at the destination under different names and in a different format. Before treating anything as lost, work out what the program did with each file and where it put the result.
01 / Diagnose
Work out what actually disappeared
Photo libraries often import HIF or HEIC files, convert them, add them to a catalog and clear the card afterwards. If that chain stopped halfway, some originals sit on the computer with new names, others are already gone from the card, and the catalog can list entries whose files never arrived.
Move, rename, catalog and delete-after-import steps can fail at different moments and leave source and destination in different states. For HEIC, HEIF and HIF photos, this matters because these images use an ISO-BMFF layout with item tables, metadata and encoded image payloads.
Check the last known path, trash and backups without writing to the original device.
02 / Protect the source
Preserve the best recovery chance
- 1
Keep the card out of the camera so that nothing new is written while the destination is still being searched.
- 2
Look in the destination folder, the trash and the photo library by capture date as well as by name, since conversion changes the extension.
- 3
Scan the card read-only for the whole HEIF family afterwards, and spare the original by working from an image of it where possible.
- 4
Export the recovered originals to a third drive and match them, frame by frame, against what the library already holds.
Do not run the import a second time and do not let the program delete after copying while pictures are still absent. Emptying the trash at the destination is just as costly, because the converted copies there may be the only version that ever arrived.
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.
A converted copy is not the original and cannot be turned back into one. If the pictures vanished on a Mac volume instead of on the card, Time Machine or the library trash is the way in; File Recovery Hero reads exFAT, NTFS and FAT16/FAT32 only, not APFS.
04 / Verify
Check the recovered content, not just its name
Count first, then look: every capture should exist exactly once, either as the original from the card or as the converted copy. Open a sample of both at full resolution and check that the capture times form the unbroken sequence the shoot produced.
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 exFAT camera card be recovered in this situation?+
An import that converts is easy to misread: the pictures may already be at the destination under different names and in a different format. Before treating anything as lost, work out what the program did with each file and where it put the result. The result still depends on what remains readable on the source.
What should I avoid before scanning?+
Do not run the import a second time and do not let the program delete after copying while pictures are still absent.
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?+
Count first, then look: every capture should exist exactly once, either as the original from the card or as the converted copy.