Android phone owners have already heard about LOST.DIR or even tried to find this directory. But many are not yet familiar with him. In a word, this is a system directory that will help you recover lost data from your phone. Due to the fact that users are not yet fully familiar with all the intricacies of the system, studying the properties and characteristics of LOST.DIR is quite an important point.
Why is the LOST.DIR folder needed on the SD card of an Android device?
What is the purpose of a directory?
What is this LOST.DIR folder? This is a system feature that helps Android users recover data when the system boots. It is very similar to the Recycle Bin in the Windows operating system. In most cases there is nothing in this directory. But if, while trying to save or move data, the phone suddenly turns off or forcibly removes the SD card, Android will place copies of the damaged documents in the LOST.DIR folder. This way, the next time you boot, the data can be restored and opened. After some period of use, it may turn out that the LOST.DIR directory on the flash drive takes up quite a lot of space.
Equipment setup
Good evening. Perhaps this will help someone. I read the comments on the topic. That concerns the unknown file format. I came across this once. They sent the book, but it didn’t have an extension. I tried all sorts of formats at random, even archives. Did not help. I decided that the file was broken, so I forgot about it, and it sat on my computer for several years. Then he caught my eye again. I tried my luck again, but already looked for answers online. This site helped me open-file.ru/articles/file-header. They tell you in detail how to determine the file format, substitute the correct extension and how to open it. Regarding the thumbnails folder. This is a database (usually a gallery). You don’t have to touch the folder, just delete the databases manually. The gallery will then create it again, but it will be smaller in size than the old one. There is still a moment, especially when the number of photos in folders is inadequately displayed through the gallery, or these folders are duplicated. You need to remove the databases. Then go to Settings - Applications - select All. Find a gallery. Click stop, then erase data. Also in the All list, find Multimedia Storage. Stop it, then click erase data. After this, reboot the phone. After rebooting when entering the gallery, the phone will say that there are no photos. Although they will be visible through the conductor. It is enough to take one photo for the phone to create the database again, all photos will appear in the gallery. One of the disadvantages is that the photos that you sent via Viber will be visible in the feed, but will not be opened, the file was not found, although it will be in the gallery. The photos that were sent to you will be opened. There is a comment from Ksenia here. I once had a similar problem on a push-button phone. Before this, everything was transferring normally. But one day I ran into a problem. Connected the card to the computer. Some folders were displayed with strange icons and symbols. When I tried to open it, a path error popped up. These folders couldn't even be deleted. But the most interesting thing is that through the phone the folder names were adequate and the photos were opened. At that time, there were no phones with Wi-Fi yet, the Internet was slow and it took a very long time to transmit such a volume via Bluetooth. I solved this problem easily. I just used a data recovery program and set it to quick scan. She saw these folders and restored them to her computer without any problems, along with the photos. That concerns programs for data recovery from memory cards of phones and cameras. Free program R.saver. Works without installation, small but quite powerful. Here is the official site rlab.ru/tools/Rsaver.html Alternatively, you can search the web for the paid program Hetman Partition Recovery. A quick scan restores a lot. With deep data there is even more of what is needed and what is not needed, so it is better to include a filter on what types of files to recover. These programs are almost equal in their ability to restore photos. As for recovering photos and other files from the phone’s memory, read online. These programs probably won't help. And do not forget that you need to restore not to a memory card, but to another medium (hard drive, flash drive, etc.). They will also help if you accidentally or intentionally deleted files. The main thing is not to delay this; the sooner you do it, the greater the chance of recovery. Good luck to everyone))))) I hope this is useful to someone...
What files are stored in LOST.DIR
Keep in mind that this contains renamed copies of unfinished data. Even if you find some strange names here, don't be surprised as these are just backup versions. Your data may end up in the LOST.DIR directory in the following situations:
- Forcibly removing the SD card from the Android phone, especially when transferring data;
- interrupting the process of copying photos, videos and other documents to the memory card or vice versa;
- sudden freezing or rebooting of the phone while shooting video or recording conversations;
- turning off or rebooting the device while reading or writing data.
The Android system uses these directories to temporarily store various documents and content. First of all, it stores temporary data for moving between PC and Android device. The directory serves as a backup if it is used when transferring between a computer and a smartphone when problems occur such as a disconnection when copying information, or if the SD card is unexpectedly removed. The documents themselves often contain only titles, which consist of numbers. The creation date is usually specified randomly, for example, 01/10/1980.
What does the folder store?
Lost.dir stores lost data. Elements (or parts thereof) whose recording was urgently stopped are sent here. For example, if, when transferring data from a computer to a smartphone, the USB is removed before the copying is completed, the selected items will not end up in the intended location. And they will be written to this directory.
Also, files in the Lost.dir directory may appear when Android, in the process of scanning files, identifies damaged and incomplete parts.
Losses also occur when the battery is suddenly disconnected or the smartphone malfunctions, in which it turns off or is rebooted without going through the standard procedure. Even if the smartphone is in standby mode, many programs are still functioning, for example:
- Processing instructions by the processor;
- sensors obtain information about the external environment;
- loading data into or unloading data from RAM;
- writing certain files to flash memory.
Is it possible to delete a folder?
Android device functionality does not require a directory. If, when viewing your memory card, you accidentally find this directory, you can safely delete it. If the directory appears in Android memory after transferring files incorrectly, try again to transfer data from PC to Android device or vice versa.
Restoring documents from a temporary copy folder is usually impossible without additional applications. Under certain circumstances, you can specify a final name, sort the data by size, and manually add the appropriate document extension. For example, sort the available data by size, and you can find your photos among them (if there are few of them). Copy the data that matches the size of the photos to another directory. Then rename them by adding ".jpg" at the end. in most cases, this method helps to recover small files.
Searching of decisions
I didn’t want to use ready-made solutions in the form of web services or programs, so I had the idea to write a console utility that would go through all the files and install extensions automatically. Python was chosen to write the utility. The search for suitable modules and libraries did not bring results for several reasons:
- Lack of developer support
- Unnecessary functionality
- Lack of support for new versions of Python
- Excessive code complexity
Of the many libraries, python-magic stood out (almost 1000 stars on GitHub), which is a wrapper of the libmagic library. But using it under Windows is impossible without a DLL for the Unix library. I was not happy with this option.
Safe removal of LOST.DIR
To delete a directory without any consequences, you first need to make sure that the last copying operations from or to your phone were completed successfully. Check the integrity of all your media - photos, music and videos. A correctly copied file has the correct name and extension. To delete a folder, you can use any file manager. Check the SD-Card directory and simply delete the LOST.DIR folder in the standard way. After rebooting the device or removing and connecting the SD card, the system will create the folder again, only there will be nothing in it.
Afterword
How to recover data from LOST.DIR? To recover lost or deleted data, you can use the appropriate program, one of which is Photo Recovery. This decision must be taken immediately as any delay in recovery may result in permanent data loss. Missing or damaged documents may be overwritten by others.
This tool will help you recover missing photos, videos and audio files if they are lost from LOST.DIR directory. It is designed with advanced technology that deeply scans the memory card and extracts all types of media. The software allows you to use document previews as a hint. It does not always manage to restore the contents of the document, but sometimes this function can play a decisive role.
To get started, install Stellar Phoenix Photo Recovery and launch the program. Click the "Recover Photos, Audio and Videos" tab to recover pictures, music and videos from any SD card, external USB drive or computer hard drive. Connect the media to your computer. Now select the desired drive to scan and then click “Scan”. If you want to customize recovery based on file types, click Pre-scan.
In Advanced Scan mode, you will have the option to scan according to resolution, such as photo, video, and audio, and you can also select a data volume range. These options reduce scanning time. After clicking the "Scan" button, the utility will show that a scan is in progress. File recovery will be presented in a tree structure on the left side of the window pane. After scanning, you can use the preview. Click the "Recover" button to save them to your computer. Select the desired location on your computer to save the recovered files.
How to delete a folder
First you need to enter the directory and make sure that there is no important information there that you don’t want to lose. After which it is possible to delete or clear the contents of Lost.Dir using the Android file manager.
But you can simplify the task and completely forget that there is a directory for storing garbage. Google Market has many utilities that track, incl. and for the state of Lost.Dir and those who delete its contents. For example, CCleaner.
The solution of the problem
Based on the above, I decided not to use third-party libraries and modules and solve the problem without them. After a short search for information on how to implement this task, the only correct way turned out to be determining the format by the file signature.
A file signature is a set of bytes that provides a definition of the file format. The signature looks like this in hexadecimal:
Fortunately, there are two good sites on the Internet that host a variety of signatures in different formats. The most common formats were targeted. As it turns out, some signatures are suitable for different file formats, such as the signature of Microsoft Office files. Based on this, in some cases it will be necessary to return a list of suitable file extensions.
Also, signatures often have an offset from the beginning of the file, for example, 3GP multimedia container files.
Listing data
In the form of a list of data, it was decided to use a JSON file, with a 'data' object, the value of which will be an array of objects of the following form:
Where: format - file format; offset - signature offset from the beginning of the file; signature - array of suitable signatures for the specified file format.
Writing a utility
Import the necessary modules:
Reading the list of data:
Great, the data list is loaded. Now we read the file as bytes. We will only read the first 32 bytes, since detecting common formats is no longer necessary, and reading a large file completely will take a long time.
If we output the file variable, we will see something similar to this:
Now the read bytes must be converted to hexadecimal:
Next, we create a list to which suitable formats will be added:
And now the most interesting part: we create a construction that will cyclically determine the file format until it has gone through all possible formats in the data list:
Regarding this line:
Since our bytes are represented as a string, and there are two characters per byte, we multiply the offset by 2 and add the number of spaces between the "bytes". And the only thing left for us is to display a list of suitable formats, which is represented by the out variable.
Unknown directory
Often, no attention is paid to it until its size begins to increase, taking up more and more space in memory. The question immediately arises: why is this object needed, is it really possible to clean it?
Imagine the situation: You were copying data from a flash drive to a disk, and then suddenly decided to remove the drive. Or you wanted to take out a card from your phone while your mobile gadget was running. If at this moment the system was performing some data exchange with the media, then to save the actions taken, a backup storage is created in the LOST.DIR folder on Android or Windows.
By the way, during the process of replacing the SIM, synchronization with the connected Google account is temporarily disabled. But when a new SIM card is installed, the previously saved numbers are automatically restored in a few seconds. This becomes possible thanks to LOST.DIR, where the necessary data is pre-recorded.
Initially, the catalog is not created, so not all users will be able to find it at home after reading this article. It will appear immediately after removing the memory card for the first time.
If we are talking about Windows and a USB flash drive, then such a folder appears in the following situations:
- Files were copied/moved and were interrupted by a user or system failure;
- The OS was accessing the drive (for example, some program was running from the drive), but Windows froze/restarted.
Where is? Often the object is created in the root of the disk, but the forums describe rare cases when the directory appears in nested elements.
The author recommends:
What is the .DIR file format used for?
File extension .dir
most often associated with the Adobe Director Project (DIR) file type and format.
Adobe (formerly Macromedia) Director is a commercial application for creating Shockwave content (part of Flash technology) and producing interactive media files for playback by the Adobe Shockwave Player. Each version of Adobe Director uses a proprietary binary format to store its project files, and the formats of different versions are not compatible with each other (that is, .dir
created by previous versions must be converted before use).
.dir file
is a Shockwave video or interactive web application project created using Adobe Director. This is a working file that is used to save the current state of work on the project. Before publication, the project must be released as a Shockwave video file (.dcr, Director Compressed Resource). DCR files are played by Adobe Shockwave Player and can be distributed and/or embedded in web pages.
In a completely different way, the .dir
also refers to directory names, specifically designating the "lost
.dir"
that is automatically created on the disk partitions of various Android devices.
The "lost .dir"
serves as a collection point for damaged, found, and lost files discovered during the file system's self-diagnosis and self-healing process.
Using special utilities, in most cases, data from the “lost .dir”
can be partially recovered.
In addition to this, the .dir
.dir"
pointer files that are automatically saved within each directory created during the installation process of many Microsoft software products.
These "mscreate .dir"
are hidden, zero-sized, and serve only as flags for installer-created directories that will be deleted if uninstalled.
Steel-Belted Radius Carrier, a commercial network security and RADIUS authentication system from Juniper Networks, uses the .dir
to indicate the Directed Realm Configuration (
.dir
) file type.
The DIR file is a text-based list of sectioned options that, using INI-like syntax, configure individual authentication and logging methods. .dir
file typically takes its name from the name of the area it configures.
Also, the .dir
used to denote the binary file format "ECOCLIMAP Database" (ECOCLIMAP Database,
.dir
).
ECOCLIMAP is a global landscape database that distinguishes many types of surfaces, ecosystems, vegetation, etc. and is used for climate and meteorological studies. binary .dir
stores raster data representing the surface area being covered at 1 km resolution. DIR files are always accompanied by corresponding header files (.hdr).
Finally, the .dir
also traditionally assigned to service text files that are used in the process of creating software packages for the GNU/Linux operating system in the Debian style (.deb).
.dir
file then serves as an indication for the packager to create an empty directory in accordance with the path specified in the file.
Satellite television in Belarus and Russia Using recording and timeshift on the GI S2138 receiver
1. Recording and time shift. 2. Playback.
The Galaxy Innovations GI S2138 satellite receiver allows you to record, playback and time shift the received TV and radio channels to an external USB drive. The current consumption of the USB drive must be less than 500 mA. USB flash drives have low current consumption and are suitable for use with a receiver without restrictions, but when choosing a USB hard drive, this limitation must be taken into account.
To use as an external USB drive, the media must be formatted with the NTFS or FAT32 file system.
Recording and time shift.
Insert the USB drive into the receiver port. There will be an automatic connection and configuration of the external drive. Press the REC button on the remote control to start recording the broadcast channel.
The recording time can be edited here using the Left - Right cursor buttons on the remote control.
If the channel has its own EPG (electronic program guide), then turning the recording on and off can be “linked” to a specific program. To do this, turn on EPG, select a broadcast or movie and press REC on the remote control.
Unknown directory
Often, no attention is paid to it until its size begins to increase, taking up more and more space in memory. The question immediately arises: why is this object needed, is it really possible to clean it?
Imagine the situation: You were copying data from a flash drive to a disk, and then suddenly decided to remove the drive. Or you wanted to take out a card from your phone while your mobile gadget was running. If at this moment the system was performing some data exchange with the media, then to save the actions taken, a backup storage is created in the LOST.DIR folder on Android or Windows.
By the way, during the process of replacing the SIM, synchronization with the connected Google account is temporarily disabled. But when a new SIM card is installed, the previously saved numbers are automatically restored in a few seconds. This becomes possible thanks to LOST.DIR, where the necessary data is pre-recorded.
Initially, the catalog is not created, so not all users will be able to find it at home after reading this article. It will appear immediately after removing the memory card for the first time.
If we are talking about Windows and a USB flash drive, then such a folder appears in the following situations:
- Files were copied/moved and were interrupted by a user or system failure;
- The OS was accessing the drive (for example, some program was running from the drive), but Windows froze/restarted.
Where is? Often the object is created in the root of the disk, but the forums describe rare cases when the directory appears in nested elements.
Recovery
What to do? To stop the constant loss of files from the LOST.DIR folder in your phone, you need to quickly recover the missing data before your Android smartphone storage space gets overfilled with some new data. Therefore, it is recommended to use any suitable LOST.DIR Android recovery tool. For example? Yodot Android Data Recover, Recuva applications are several programs that can help in most cases.
With the help of such services, you can recover all types of files - pictures, APK files, audio, video, and so on from your Android smartphone or tablet. The utility returns missing or deleted data from internal as well as external memory (MicroSD cards). Many applications can even restore system files of famous brands Sony, HTC, Samsung Micromax and so on. When synchronized with a computer, you can work on Windows 8, 7, Vista, XP, Windows Server 2003 and 2008 operating systems.
Is it possible to delete
You can delete a folder, but it is better not the directory itself, but its contents. Due to the fact that after some time it will be created automatically and will need to be erased again. Leaving it in place, you only need to clean it when necessary, for example, if there is not enough free space on the SD card.
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