Photos & RAW · Sony exFAT card
Sony ARW RAW: find after an import failure
Where are deleted Sony ARW originals after a failed import?
Short answer
First check the import side: destination folder, trash, Imaging Edge or Lightroom catalog, and the second card slot if it recorded a copy. An interrupted import can leave ARW files missing at the target and already removed from the card. If they are truly gone, scan the unused card read-only.
The situation
deleted Sony ARW originals is incomplete at the destination and no longer appears reliably on the source.
A Sony workflow gives you more places to look than most. Imaging Edge, a Lightroom catalog, the download folder and the second card slot can each hold part of the shoot, so the frames are usually scattered rather than lost. Find out where each one went first.
01 / Diagnose
Work out what actually disappeared
An interrupted transfer leaves both sides out of step: files copied but never registered, catalog entries without files, or frames already deleted from the card although the copy never finished. If the body recorded to both slots, the second card can still hold the complete set that the import failed to secure.
Move, rename, catalog and delete-after-import steps can fail at different moments and leave source and destination in different states. For Sony ARW RAW, this matters because ARW is TIFF-derived and combines Sony metadata, previews and sensor data at separate offsets.
Check the last known path, trash and backups without writing to the original device.
02 / Protect the source
Preserve the best recovery chance
- 1
Leave the card in its case and check the second slot card first, because a parallel recording is the fastest complete source.
- 2
Search the destination folder, the trash and the Imaging Edge or Lightroom catalog by ARW file name and by capture date.
- 3
Only then connect the card read-only and scan it for ARW, so the freed entries survive the search untouched.
- 4
Export the recovered frames to a third drive and complete the destination set frame by frame instead of restarting the import.
Do not repeat the import while frames are missing and do not empty the trash at the destination. Deleting after copying is the option to switch off first, because it clears frames from the card on the assumption that the copy has succeeded.
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 card scan cannot help with frames that disappeared on the computer; there the trash, a snapshot or a backup is the route. File Recovery Hero reads exFAT, NTFS and FAT16/FAT32 volumes read-only and opens neither an APFS destination nor an encrypted drive.
04 / Verify
Check the recovered content, not just its name
Completeness comes from the numbering, quality from the converter. Every frame number of the session should exist once, each file should develop at full resolution, and copies taken from the second slot should match the originals in size and capture time.
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 Sony exFAT card be recovered in this situation?+
A Sony workflow gives you more places to look than most. Imaging Edge, a Lightroom catalog, the download folder and the second card slot can each hold part of the shoot, so the frames are usually scattered rather than lost. Find out where each one went first. The result still depends on what remains readable on the source.
What should I avoid before scanning?+
Do not repeat the import while frames are missing and do not empty the trash at the destination.
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?+
Completeness comes from the numbering, quality from the converter.