Music is extremely important in the lives of many people. You might have some songs on your phone that you need to hear to get through the day. It could be that your phone is the only place that you store these music files.

No matter how careful you are with your phone, there is the chance that at some point you will face the dilemma of needing to recover deleted songs from your device. Don’t panic if you just noticed that some of your best tunes just disappeared from your phone. We are going to show you how to get them back using some excellent recovery software.

recover deleted music files

Your music files could have been deleted in any of a number of ways.

  • Situations such as an incomplete or interrupted system upgrade or failed jailbreak can cause you to lose data, and this could well be your prized music collection.
  • You might have incurred some water damage or busted your screen.
  • Maybe you have to take the rap and admit that you deleted the files yourself and realized it just after you pushed the button.

Recover Deleted Music from an Android Device on Mac OS X


Disk Drill is the tool of choice for recovering deleted music files from an Android device on your Mac machine. You can download a free version and see what files can be recovered before you purchase the full version.

Steps to recover deleted files:

  1. Download, install and launch Disk Drill.
    Disk Drill
    Data recovery for free
    Your Companion for Deleted Files Recovery
  2. Root your device by following the instructions for your specific model of Android device.recover deleted music files from Android
  3. Connect your Android device to your Mac with a USB cable. It may appear as an MTP device. You need to enable USB debugging on your Android device at this point.recover deleted music files from sd card
  4. Allow Disk Drill to connect to your device by giving it permission and answering any prompts related to access.
  5. Find your device in the list of Android devices and choose the storage location where the files were located before deletion. Сlick the Search for lost data button and let Disk Drill scan for recoverable files.recover deleted mp3 files
  6. Filter on Audio files to minimize the scan time. When complete, the tool will present you with a list of files that can be recovered. Go ahead and recover the files you want.recover deleted music files from sd card

Recover Deleted Music from an Android Device on Windows


Android devices have become exceedingly popular in recent years. While every Android device has a brand-specific interface, the location of your music and audio files is more or less the same. However, there can be situations where you end up losing these files. There are several available solutions for you to recover your deleted music files from an android device in such cases.

Method #1: Using a Third Party App

When you need to recover deleted music from an Android device using a Windows computer, PhoneRescue may be just the right solution. It can streamline a recovery from an iTunes or iCloud backup, but also offers the ability to recover directly from the device.

Here are the steps to use when recovering directly from your Android device:

  1. Download PhoneRescue from this site.
  2. Install and launch the program.recover deleted music files
  3. Connect your device to your computer via USB cable.recover deleted audio files
  4. Choose Music to select music files and then Next.recover deleted mp3 files
  5. Select the music files you want to recover and click the Download to Computer button.recover deleted music files from Android

Method #2: Recover Music using an Existing Backup

If you have a habit of backing up your data to your personal computer or laptop, the most straightforward way to recover your deleted music files is to access your backup. You can use this method to restore the desired files to your android phone in the blink of an eye. Just follow these steps:

  1. First, connect your phone to your computer using a USB cable.
  2. Now, filter through the available data and select the audio files you wish to recover.
  3. Copy and Paste the music files to an Android file folder.

Method #3: Recover Music via Google Drive

If you wish to retrieve your deleted audio files without using third-party software, ensure that your media has been synced with your Google Account. 

Google Drive provides users with about 15GB of free storage space. You would have to upload your music files to your drive account. Once this is done, you can quickly recover your deleted or lost audio files. Go through the following steps to recover your files via Google Drive:

  1. Go to the Google Drive app on your smartphone. 
  2. Log in to Drive with your Google account and search for the music files you want to recover.
    accessing google drive backup

Method #4: Recover Music from SD Card

Many Android phones allow users to expand their phone memory using an SD card in case they run out of internal storage space. If you’ve backed up your data to your external memory card, you can retrieve your lost or deleted music files in a few quick steps. These are:

  1. First, insert the SD card on your Android device.
    accessing sd card on windows
  2. Navigate to the folder where you’ve saved your music files. 
  3. Directly copy the music data to a folder from your Android device. 

Recovering Deleted Music From iOS Devices on any Platform


While data recovery software can restore many types of data that have been deleted from an iOS device, music files pose some significant challenges.

Method #1: Using a Data Recovery Tool

For example, using Disk Drill you would restore files with this basic file recovery procedure:

  1. Download, install and launch Disk Drill.
    Disk Drill
    Data recovery for free
    Your Companion for Deleted Files Recovery
  2. Connect your iOS device to your computer via a USB cable. Accept the Trust this computer message on the device if it appears.recover deleted audio files
  3. Select the iOS device from the list of disks.
  4. Click on the Search for lost data button to start the scanning process.recover deleted mp3 files
  5. Select the files that you wish to recover by checking the boxes to the left of their names.
  6. Choose the location you want the files recovered to in the Recover to drop-down box.
  7. Click the Recover button and let the application recover your music files.recover deleted music files

Unfortunately, numerous tests conducted by our team have shown that music files are not among those that can be recovered by this method. This may be due to the fact that it is difficult to access the music files on an iOS device that has not been jailbroken.

how to recover deleted music from iPhone

how to recover deleted music from iPhoneYou can employ Disk Drill to recover existing music files from an iOS device that ceases normal operation. In these cases, you can recover the music as MP3 files, though they will not have their original names.

You will need to:

  1. Follow the previously defined steps to perform this recovery.
  2. When selecting the data to be recovered, choose the Other files category and filter on mp3 to restore your music.
  3. Manually rename the files after recovery.recover music from other section in disk drill

Method #2: Recover Deleted Songs from iTunes

There are two ways to help you recover your music from iTunes. You can either re-download the files if they’ve gone missing or find the music in the iTunes backup. Let’s go through both methods one by one. 

Re-download Deleted Music

A benefit of purchasing music from iTunes is that it’ll always remain in the Apple Cloud. Even if you upgrade your device or unwittingly delete the music files on your phone, you can access the iTunes Store and re-download the songs again. The steps are:

  1. Launch iTunes on your computer and sign in to your Apple account. 
  2. Go to iTunes Store > Purchased.
    accessing purchased music on itunes
  3. Now, click the Not in My Library option and choose the songs you wish to restore.
    downloading purchased music from itunes
  4. Tap Download to start downloading the files.

Recover with iTunes Backup

If you haven’t purchased songs from the iTunes store, there’s still a possibility to recover deleted music from your iPhone. While this method restores your entire backup, it’s worth a shot. Follow this detailed guide to get your songs back via the iTunes backup:

  1. Connect your iPhone to a computer and launch iTunes.
  2. Click Music under the details of your iOS device.
  3. Now, uncheck the Sync Music option on the top and choose between Entire music library or Selected playlists, artists, albums, and genres.
    syncing music from itunes

Method #3: Recover Deleted Songs on iPhone via iCloud

Another method you can use to recover deleted music from your iPhone is the iCloud backup. You can use this option if your primary backup is iCloud. Follow these steps to restore your music to your iOS device:

  1. First, reset your iPhone. Navigate to Settings > General > Reset > Reset All Content and Settings
  2. Now, set up your iPhone per the given instructions.
  3. Go to the App & Data Section, choose Restore from iCloud and sign in to your iCloud account. 
    restoring backup from icloud
  4. Select a backup that would have all your music and tap Restore from iCloud to complete the process.

Protecting Your Music Files


As the preceding discussion shows, there are some advantages to backing up your music files if they are important to you. In the event that you have lost some music and for some reason did not back it up, it’s good to know that there are tools out there like Disk Drill that can help you get those tunes back on Android devices where you can listen to them whenever you want.

The MobiKin Assistant for iOS is a tool that simplifies saving your music files from your iPhone to your PC where they can reside and remain available for a recovery if necessary. Versions of this tool run-on both the Mac and Windows platforms. There is a free download available so you can try the product and see if it fits your needs.

recover deleted mp3 files

Here are the simple steps that you perform using the tool to protect your music files:

  1. Attach your iPhone to your computer and trust the computer where you are running the MobiKin Assistant.
  2. After trust is gained, click continue on the MobiKin application.
  3. Tap on the Music category in the left navigation panel and preview the songs on your iPhone. Select the files you want to move and click Export to actually move the files.recover deleted music files

Conclusion

This article takes you through the various strategies that can help you recover deleted music from your iPhones or Android devices. It doesn’t matter if you’ve accidentally deleted your songs or lost them; you can choose the recovery method that works best for you. But don’t forget to backup your music files and other data to avoid such a situation in the future!

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Joshua Solomon author at Cleverfiles blog
Joshua Solomon

Technology, SaaS, and digital marketing are Joshua's go-to niches. He understands the need for simple and easy-to-read articles on the internet. As technologies grow in complexity, guides and how-to pieces must remain com...

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Approved by
Brett Johnson

This article has been approved by Brett Johnson, Data Recovery Engineer at ACE Data Recovery. Brett has a Bachelor's Degree in Computer Systems and Network, 12 years of experience.