Overview of LOST.DIR (5Ws and How-to)

I find one folder named as LOST.DIR on my Samsung Galaxy S9. What is it? Can I remove the folder because I want to free up more space?

When you notice the LOST.DIR folder on your Android phone, you may also feel blank about it. What is the LOST.DIR folder?

Can I remove the LOST.DIR folder?

How does it come?

With your doubt and seek for the confirmation in this page.

This page collects the overview of LOST.DIR folder, and you can find all the answers to your questions.

LOST.DIR

• Part 1. Definition of LOST.DIR (What and who)
• Part 2. The reasons for LOST.DIR folder's creation (Why, when and where)
• Part 3. LOST.DIR recovery (How-to)
• Part 4. Tips of LOST.DIR
• Part 5. FAQs of LOST.DIR

Part 1. Definition of LOST.DIR (What and who)

What is LOST.DIR? Who create the LOST.DIR folder?

The LOST.DIR is a system folder. It is a place where the Android OS places files that were recovered during a system boot up.

LOST.DIR is to Android phone what Recycle Bin to Windows OS.

When your Android phone suffers from the sudden, the Android system places copies of those files in LOST.DIR directory so it can try, and recover them on the next boot before you overwrite them, which is similar to temp file. As a result, the memory size of the folder vary sometimes.

In one word, just like Recycle Bin, you can recover images, videos, audio files and other data from LOST.DIR folder.

Part 2. The reasons for LOST.DIR folder's creation (Why, when and where)

Since you know that LOST.DIR folder is created by the system for some unknown accidents, then when and why is LOST.DIR created?

Files may end up stored in LOST.DIR folder due to following reasons:

Abruptly and improperly removing the SD card from Android phone.

Interrupting or incomplete downloading files on Android device.

Sudden freezing of Android device operating system.

Ejecting the device, while some files are in read write process.

Part 3. LOST.DIR recovery (How-to)

As mentioned before, LOST.DIR is the way that enables you to recover deleted files. For the LOST.DIR recovery, what you need is the professional LOST.DIR data extractor.

In this part, we will introduced two ways of recovering LOST.DIR on Android SD card.

Recover LOST.DIR from SD card on computer

Aiseesoft Data Recovery is the professional LOST.DIR file recovery tool.

• Restore media files like photos, videos, audio files, etc. from LOST.DIR.
• Undelete documents like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, ZIP, etc. from LOST.DIR.
• Recover the files from NTFS, FAT32, exFAT, etc. on desktop, mobile and other accessories.
• Find back the deleted Emails and other inaccessible or hidden data.
• Retrieve data from Android SD card that is formatted, crashed, deleted, virus attacked, etc.
• Get back files from hard drive, RAW hard drive, RAW partition, data system damage, partition loss, etc.
• Compatible with data recovery on Windows 10/8.1/8/7/Vista/XP (SP2 or later).

1Free download, install and run this software on your computer. Connect your SD card to computer by putting it on Android phone or using a SD card reader.

2Scan SD card

In the main interface, you need to select the data type and hard drive for scanning.

For the file type, you can find image, audio, video, Email, document and others. Tick the data types that you want to recover.

If you are sure which data you want to recover, just pick it up. If you cannot remember the data type in LOST.DIR that you want to recover, just select all data types.

For the SD card, you need to tick it under "Removable Drives".

Then click "Scan" to start to scan the formatted drive.

3Recover data from LOST.DIR

After the scanning result is done, you can click the folder in the left sidebar to view the detailed data types in the folder.

Find the file type and the exact files that you want to get back, and click "Recover" to save the lost files in SD card to computer.

Restore LOST.DIR files on Android phone

In this method, you will need the Android Data Retrieval to help you scan and extract data from Android SD card.

• Recover deleted SMS, contacts, call logs and documents from Android phone/SD card.
• Retrieve lost photos, music, videos and WhatsApp files from Android phones/tablets.
• Restore deleted data from SD card on Samsung, HTC, LG, Huawei, Sony, Sharp, Windows phone, etc.
• Undelete the files from LOST.DIR of SD card that is improper handling, accidental deleted, rooting error, virus attach, system crashed, etc.
• Backup the deleted files from LOST.DIR on SD card to computer.

Learn from the video tutorial or read this article to recover deleted files from Android SD card.

Part 4. Tips of LOST.DIR

As talked before, LOST.DIR folder file size varies high up to several GBs. Considering that some may ask:

"Can I delete the contents of LOST.DIR?"

Yes.

You can delete the LOST.DIR folder, but it will reappear the next time your Android phone system boots up. For deleting the LOST.DIR contents, you need to pay attention to the following points:

1. Make sure the contents in LOST.DIR folder are the unwanted files.

2. Backup Android phone for your important data to computer.

Part 5. FAQs of LOST.DIR

Conclusion

This article focuses on the introduction of LOST.DIR. You can easily know how LOST.DIR creates, and how to recover data from LOST.DIR folder. Moreover, you can benefit from the tips to deal with LOST.DIR.

Have you grasped all the information about LOST.DIR? Leave your comments if you have any questions.