How to Restore Disappeared My Pictures Folder on Windows

What can you do if you can’t find the picture that should be restored in the photo folder? And what’s worse, you can’t even find any tracks in the photo folder on your Windows. Usually, people restore their family or work photos to the photo folder. If you lose the photo folder, it means you won’t have any photos in it. It will be annoying and frustrating to lose a lot of important photos suddenly. If you want to restore the disappearing pictures folder on your Windows, patiently read below and try the following methods to restore your pictures folder.

What is the picture folder?

First of all, you need to know what the picture folder is. Generally, the default picture folder is an integral part of the User folder in Windows and is used as a storage location to save pictures, images, and screenshots for users. When you download and save some pictures on your Windows, it will be your default location to restore them. You can find most of the saved pictures in the pictures folder.

Why is my photo folder missing?

Before we try some methods to restore your pictures folder on your Windows, let’s figure out the reasons for the missing Pictures folder. Here are the most common reasons why your photo folder is missing.

You have logged into the wrong user account and cannot reach the correct picture folder.

You changed the location of the photo folder, but you forgot where it is.

The pictures folder was hidden after you updated your Windows.

You accidentally deleted the picture folder, and it was sent to the recycle bin.

Your photos folder was deleted permanently by mistake.

Your photos folder is lost due to a virus attack. 

How to Restore the Disappearing Pictures Folder

For the above reasons that cause you to lose your photo folder, we will list the effective ways to get them back quickly.

Restore the Pictures folder to Default Location

As we know, the default storage location for the Pictures folder is C:\Users\username\Pictures. If you can’t find it through this default location path, it’s likely that you changed this location. Therefore, if you need to view the Pictures folder again, you must move it back to its original location by following the steps:

• Press Windows+ R key combinations or start File Explorer to open the Run window.
• Type shell: My Pictures in the input box, and press Enter. Then you can open the Pictures folder wherever it is.
• Right-click any blank area in this folder or click the three-dot menu icon, and select Properties.
• In the Properties window, click Location on the toolbar to view the current location of the image folder.
• Click Restore Default to restore the folder to its original location.
• Finally, click OK to save your changes and restore your photo folder. If there is a pop-up warning, “The folder does not exist. Would you like to create it?” Just click Yes.So you can reach the pictures folder where it was originally located.

If you don’t want to restore it to its original location, you can click “Move” on the location page, and choose a preferred location > Select Folder to place the picture folder in a new location as you like.

Show Hidden pictures folder

Another reason why your Windows Pictures folder is missing is that you accidentally hide the folder. We need to find it to show the hidden pictures folder. Check the steps below.

• Open File Explorer in Windows.
• Type the folder, and then select Show Hidden Files and folders from the search results.
• Select the View option and under Advanced settings, select Show hidden files, folders, and drives, and click OK to apply this setting.

Restore the Pictures Folder from the Recycle Bin

If you accidentally delete folders from your Windows, they will be temporarily stored in the Recycle Bin. So, you still have a chance to get your picture folder back, as long as you do not empty the recycling bin. You can follow the simple steps to recover deleted files.

• Double-click to open the Recycle Bin icon on your desktop.
• Find the image folder > right-click it > select Restore.
• Then, the deleted image folder will be restored to its original location.

Restore the Pictures Folder with ONERECOVERY Data Recovery Tool

Unfortunately, you have tried the above methods to restore your photo folder, but failed. Or you just permanently delete the pictures folder on your Windows. Here you can try the last method to recover your missing pictures folder with a data recovery tool, such as ONERECOVERY software on your Windows. So you can follow step-by-step instructions to restore the picture folder.

• Download and launch ONERECOVERY on your Windows.

• Select a location to start data recovery.
• Let the data recovery tool scan the data store that contains the lost or deleted image folder.
• Preview the recoverable data to see if it is what you want.
• Once you have verified the accuracy of the result, click ‘Recover’ button and download it on your device.

As a professional data recovery software, ONERECOVERY helps you recover valuable data for any data loss reasons such as accidental deletions, hardware failures, software crashes and virus attacks. With a 95% high recovery rate and a simple interface, you can feel free to enjoy a great data recovery experience.

Closing Thoughts

All in all, if you have the same problem that you can’t find your picture folders on your Windows, take a deep breath. We will cover you. After reading this article, you will find some ways to deal with this difficult problem. We hope you can bring your valuable photos back quickly and completely. It is recommended that you regularly update your Windows security system to avoid virus attacks and always prepare a backup plan for important folders if you don’t want to waste your time recovering data. If you need any help, please leave your comments below.