Most Android users must have seen a folder called LOST.DIR in their phone's File Manager. Many of the users will be curious to know what this folder is used for on their phone. Some might think it is a malicious folder because they do not know this folder. In this article, we will analyze what this folder is and what it is used for on our phones.
LOST.DIR folder on the device
What is the LOST.DIR folder?
The Android system has a special program called File System Check which is similar to the chkdsk utility on Windows and fsck on Linux. This utility creates a LOST.DIR folder on the device. LOST.DIR is a system folder created in the SD card directory to collect the corrupted data. This data is created when the process of copying data to or from the SD card is interrupted due to the phone being turned off or the SD card is removed.. This folder may be analogous to the Recycle Bin in the Windows operating system. The data can be moved to its original place from the recycle bin and this can be done with this folder. However, the files are moved to the recycle bin due to the action of a user deleting them and in LOST.DIR, files are moved due to some technical interruption and not user intent.
LOST.DIR in SD card storage
The Android system places copies of the interrupted files in this folder so that they can be recovered at the next boot. The files will also be renamed during the copy process. No, the LOST.DIR directory is not a malicious program as many users believe. There are several reasons why the files will end up in the LOST.DIR directory:
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Take out the SD card while files are being processed.
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Interruptions while downloading files to the device.
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Sudden freezing of Android device operating system.
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Turn off the device while the archiving process is running.
Retrieving data from LOST.DIR
You can restore your files from LOST.DIR folder with recovery software. However, For this to work, you must recover deleted files / damaged asap. Over time, the new information will be overwritten with the existing one. There are many data recovery programs from which you can recover your data. Let's use Easy Drive Recovery, which is also recommended by most of the users.
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Download the program from the link above and install it.
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Connect the SD card to your PC and open the program. Now select the drive and click the next button to scan as shown below:
Select the SD card drive -
Once the scan is complete, you will find various types of files in the program. Select the files and right click on it to get it back and choose Recover Selected Files option.
Recover the scanned file -
Provide a folder location to retrieve the selected files as shown below:
Copy the recovered files to a new location -
Your recovered files will be copied to that specific folder.
Select the SD card drive
Recover the scanned file
Copy the recovered files to a new locationCan I delete the LOST.DIR folder?
Many users will be curious to delete this folder from their device to save storage space. This folder will always be empty unless one of the above reasons occurs. However, when files are recovered to SD card, you can delete the folder or the content inside the folder. You can also delete the folder with the available content if the corrupted data is not important to you. The system will recreate the folder on the next reboot. When your devices show you a message that says “Preparing external SD card”, it is actually checking the contents of the LOST.DIR folder.
