Photo Repair

We have previously written articles about recovering deleted digital photos from memory cards and flash drives and also recovering files in general with data recovery software. In most common situations, images and other types of files can be recovered or undeleted if the data hasn’t been completely overwritten. However, there could be a chance that a recovered photo might be not viewable after recovering. This usually happens if the file has not been 100% correctly recovered and perhaps some data has previously been overwritten or that specific area of the card/drive has bad sectors and is corrupt.

Photo Repair And Restoration

W e are one of the best photo restoration companies that offer high quality restoration and photo enhancement services at very affordable cost, using the sophisticated technology like pen tablets (Wacom) to provide (near zero) non-destructive photo restoration.Whether it is old photos, vintage photos, damaged photos, blurred photos, photo with abnormal exposures, lost pixels or any other. Stellar Phoenix JPEG Repair claims to be able to repair corrupt or damaged JPEG/JPG files, even if the files are completely unreadable. It also offers to repair and save embedded thumbnails. This program is perhaps the most heavily advertised around the internet and you’ll see more about this online than most other photo repair programs. May 31, 2020 File Repair software is a basic tool to repair your corrupted photo files, including those from iPhones or Android smartphones. It scans the damaged file and extracts maximum data from it to a new usable file. Restore and recover files damaged by virus, due to application failures, system crashes and network errors.

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File Repair software is a basic tool to repair your corrupted photo files, including those from iPhones or Android smartphones. It scans the damaged file and extracts maximum data from it to a new usable file. Restore and recover files damaged by virus, due to application failures, system crashes and network errors.

Some of the photos you get back might display perfectly and others might give you the message that the picture is damaged or corrupted in a picture viewer such as Windows Photo Viewer.

This type of error will be displayed if the photo cannot be identified as a JPEG image and usually means the beginning part of the image is corrupted, the part which tells other software what type of file it is. Of course, digital photos can be megabytes in size so it might not be the start of the file that has the problem. In that case, you might see some or all of the image displayed but there are problems with it.

The image above has issues and the middle of the file has corrupted data. The second half of the image appears to be there, at least in part.

In terms of computer software, there’s virtually nothing around that can repair these image problems for free. There is however, a lot of software around that claims to be able to restore your corrupted photos for a fee. Software developers know how valuable these memories can be to many of us which is why they believe people might be willing to pay big bucks if the photos can be rescued.

To see just how effective these programs are, we’ve run a simple test on 5 well known photo repair applications (4 paid and 1 free) to see what they can and can’t repair. To mimic a real corrupt image, we’ve taken a JPEG file and zeroed out various parts of it to emulate common issues:

Image 1: First 8 bytes of image filled with 0’s
Image 2: First 32 bytes of image zeroed
Image 3: First 1KB zeroed
Image 4: 32 bytes zeroed in the middle of the image
Image 5: 1KB filled with 0’s in the middle.

The first 3 images will not usually open in an image viewer/editor and will produce the type of error shown in the top screenshot. The bottom 2 will often show some of the image but data below the corruption will be garbled or incorrect. Just 32 corrupted bytes in an image can be noticed, like below.

We’ll now see what the programs can do with the corrupt images…

1. Stellar Phoenix JPEG Repair 2 ($39)

Stellar Phoenix JPEG Repair claims to be able to repair corrupt or damaged JPEG/JPG files, even if the files are completely unreadable. It also offers to repair and save embedded thumbnails. This program is perhaps the most heavily advertised around the internet and you’ll see more about this online than most other photo repair programs.

Image 1: Image restored
Image 2: Failed to restore
Image 3: Failed to restore
Image 4: No change to original
Image 5: No change to original

Download Stellar Phoenix JPEG Repair

2. Picture Doctor 2 ($99)

Users of PhotoShop might be interested in Picture Doctor because it lists PSD files and layers as being repairable in addition to JPEG files. Recovered files are saved as BMP files after the repair. What’s disappointing about Picture Doctor’s demo is the watermark covers most of the image so it’s hard to see if the fix has worked or not. All the shareware tools here watermark their results.

Image 1: Image restored
Image 2: Failed to restore
Image 3: Failed to restore
Image 4: No change to original
Image 5: No change to original

Download Picture Doctor

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FG4 hours ago

Very unfortunate. I’ve also faced a similar situation. It hurts.

Interesting to see that only one picture of 5 was recovered. I have the same issue for years. Some pictures recovered from an old hard drive that was formatted. Pictures are all corrupted. I tried many more softwares but it did not work.

HAL9000 Author8 months ago

It doesn’t matter what piece of software may claim to recover your images. If the data is not there to recover, it appears they simply won’t be able to do much about it.

At that point, you’re looking at more comprehensive and professional methods, not just off the shelf software.

Where did you find Filerepair for free? It is just a trial version I have found so far. I think they are just another “gold prospectors”.

Desrtsweeper4 years ago

It would be interesting to see how the original set of files stand up to the latest versions of the programs you tested. They have gone through some versions in the ensuing years and a few more players with wild claims have entered the fray like “asoftech” who use the word “data carving”.

We may update the article in the near future if there are significant changes in the software or some interesting new additions. Anyone can test out a piece of software though because they only have to repeat what we did to our images, and it says in the article, all you need is a hex editor. The original image is also available if anyone wants to test with that for comparison. i.imgur.com/xqZKsOt.jpg

Ziff4 years ago

Asoftech is really bad (tested). Data carving however is a common phrase in data recovery ‘talk’, it is not something they have come up with..

Thanks so much for the useful helpful review! Sadly I lost 2655 files of my wildlife photography work from Malaysian Borneo, a place which is so far from home

John5 years ago

thanks

Wow, this is awesome and so true too. I’m seeing allot of repair utilities these days, and they’re all completely useless. Unfortunately that doesn’t help anybody who really needs a repair badly enough. I had a client come in last year with that very problem and used several different tools, and well no result. I had to tell him that I couldn’t recover the files and watched him leave in misery.

Lucas5 years ago

See my above post, they can probably help you.

how to repair corrupted image

pras5 years ago

Thanks a ton for the honest and detailed article. You even went through the trouble of charting the results.
Saved me a lot of time in making a decision on which to try first.

I don’t usually leave remarks, but this article was really informative, and so straight forward and easy to read, I thought it worth a “2 thumbs up”! Well done and Thanks. It’s a pity that I only found it after I had installed and tried all of these programs and found them to be useless at fixing anything to do with corrupt jpegs! At least JPEGSnoop gives you a chance of seeing what me be wrong with the file.

It’s a shame no-one can be bothered to develop a proper program.. it must be possible, and would them be worth paying for!

Nathalia5 years ago

Thanks a lot for this valuable review.

Thanks for the honest review. I was coming across problems that no site seemed to address until I read this.

Datta6 years ago

Thanks for the review, Raymond. Not what I wanted to hear, but you saved me the time of trying them all out.

Any additional insights? How is progress with the software tool you are developing?

Hello!

thank you for the review! question though

Currently challenged with some photos that are corrupted from my phone. First error message was that it couldn’t open as it was truncated, or the jpg was too length was too short. I downloaded a program that enabled me to open them, but unfortunately the images are now a solid pink color (pink of all things!)

Any advice if these images are retrievable? Some vacation pics of Hong Kong so i would really like to fix them

ac5 years ago

hi had the same problem- transferred to a windows pc and managed to recover 90%

Raymond,
Thanks for the great information. I encountered a massive corruption of my jpeg files about six months ago, or so I thought. I use Ghost to backup my files. Since I had not viewed some older files, they became “toast”.

Whether or not I can recover these files does not diminish the respect I have for your free analysis of these tools.
Yours,
Bill

two.dead.brothers6 years ago

This was an extremely informative review. thank you!

I read two (2) programs ??? is any more….???

HAL9000 Author7 years ago

Look on page 2…

Thanks for sharing such good information. I have learned much by reading. Any advise on the following?
My jpeg displays all photos 100% clearly. However when I attempt to burn photos onto a CD or DVD or flash drive, the entire process is completed without apparent disruption, when i attempt to print from CD ,etc.. or view on another laptop or TV it will not show pics, even taking the CD etc to the photo processing lab at Costco the pictures are not found on CD, etc.

Riddle6 years ago

Hi, it might be problem with your recorderor just recording method. make sure that you’re not burning it in USB mode (making it able to add files later) – XP and older OS, as well as TV, can’t read unfinished CD/DVD.

Hi Raymond
Where can I download these test images, I have developed a tool to correct JPEG images, I can sent you examples of the files I have been correcting. I would like to see how my app stands up to these you have tested.

Thanks,
James

HAL9000 Author7 years ago

You can see towards the top of the article what was done to each image, you can easily do the same using a hex editor like HxD. Here’s the original:

i.imgur.com/xqZKsOt.jpg

Hi James:
Was reading your message about a tool you devloped to correct JEPG images. My flash drive was just recently hacked by the crypto/ransom virus and it has corrupted a good portion of my photos and I don’t know how to get them back. Coul you advise me, and do you have your tool for sale yet? Thank you, Lori

stella6 years ago

I have this problem too :((

If it corrupted them for purpose, then it is not recoverable and you should restore backup.
If it just deleted them simply, then i would use Recuva software.

Faysal Shahi7 years ago

Awesome trick

Thanks for this extremely useful!

Nestor13 years ago

Thanks for the tip. They are resources that at any time are required.

How to restore and repair old photos

Restoring old photos gives memories: long lost relatives, friends from school and photographs of memorable vacations decades ago constitute memories that are way too precious to be allowed to wither away.

1. Create a digital copy of pictures

Make a good quality high resolution copy. There are two way to do that. The first method is to make a scanned copy. The second method involves making a high resolution RAW photograph.

2. Use photo editing software

Preferred tool for restoring old and worn out photos is Photoshop. Lightroom does not nearly offer the same flexibility as Photoshop. Adjust the white balance, repair color, brightness and contrast issues. Fix scratches. Make sure you work in a new blank layer and in any case, keep a backup of the original RAW photograph or a scanned copy.

The Spot Healing Brush tool gives the option to make quick fixes to areas of the photograph that may have been damaged due to passage of time. This tool can be used in content aware mode. It means when you brush over an area that is damaged, Photoshop automatically samples the nearby areas and patches over the affected area. This tool is ideal when you want to restore sections of the photograph that is completely destroyed.

Sometimes the tool may not work as expected. You will need to subtly go over the areas once more, sampling and retouching to ensure that the final result is acceptable. The Clone Stamp Tool allows you to do finer editing, especially for the areas where Spot Healing Brush tool is ineffective. The Patch Tool is a very useful too. It allows you to select patches of the photograph, even those which are right at the edge, and to blend a texture over it. Make sure you do it in the Content Aware mode.

The final touch up would be to decrease a bit of contrast. Contrast is not always necessary to be added when restoring old photograph.

3. If pictures need more complex repair and restoration

If pictures need more complex repair and restoration, or you'd like to colorize the black and white images you may need help of professional photo retouchers. Their services are not very expensive but result may be very impressive. It's really wide range of enhancements which can be done with old photos and vintage images to make them look renewed: remove scratches and damages, clean up, enlarge and sharpen, recolor and refurbish and so on. And all these restoration works can be done online. Just use Phowd to find best retouchers all over the world and they will be happy to make this editing for you.

With Phowd you can get old photo restoration in just a few easy steps!

4. Download your renewed old photos

Photo Repair Dna

Finally you have to download your renewed old photos and check if everything is done: all fixes are made, all damages and scratches removed and all colorization is correct.

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