Stellar Phoenix Photo Recovery - Easily Restore Lost Media Files

I downloaded the trial version of Photo Recovery (version 3.2) to see if corrupted files were worth recovering. The software showed good previews and so I purchased the software and recovered the files. However, what was recovered were files with lines and a mixture of various files making up a montage of photographs.

I then emailed the company explaining the software did not recover what was displayed and asked for a refund. They suggested I try an older version of the software (version 3.0.2.0) and this time the preview displayed what was to be recovered and that was images with lines and a montage of photographs.

I tried to explain to the company again by email that had the software originally downloaded displayed the same as the older version I would not have purchased the software and was still seeking a refund.

This is a glitch in the newer software that people wanting to use their software need to know about so they don't get hoodwinked in purchasing the software.

The companies response to my concerns have been far from sympathetic and I am now trying to obtain a refund by other means!

Buyers beware...

I never add comments to blogs but this time I feel that I have too. I read this blog before buying Stellar and I even read the comment above or bellow mine. I was slightly scared a bit from this comment from a supposed customer.

Here's the real deal; I downloaded the free scan and it showed me the only photo that I really cared about (it was of my dad) and thought to myself the comment that I had read here. I was thinking how can they possibly be showing me the exact photo that I want and when it is recovered it's different?

This is when I came up with my conclusion; The comment above is FAKE! Stellar worked perfectly for me! I never had a problem with the software and in-fact have even purchased there data recovery software, this also works great.

Beware of comments, they are usually lies.

I recently ran a scan of the newest version (Jan, 2011) and this software appeared to be well organized and legit. All the pictures that were lost showed up in the first scan. I also tried another software to see if that would be cheaper, but they were both the same. I decided to purchase the Stellar license and once I went to "recover" the photos the error message came up, "images may be corrupt or damaged". Luckily there wasn't a large number of photos that were trying to be recovered. I'm not sure why this happened but they were quick about a refund so it may be a unresolved issue.

I bought this software to recover some video footage which I couldn't access because after about an hour's filming I got a message saying 'this card needs formatting'. I knew the footage was there as I had checked it earlier and there were no problems. However if I reformatted the card I would lose the files. The software scanned the card and I thought I had recovered the files but my video player software does not recognise the files. I have tried other players but the same thing happened. When I phoned technical support I was told the files must be corrupt. If that's the case then this software must have corrupted them.

I recovered video files with this software but they wouldn't play on any video player software. When I phoned technical support I was told that the files must be corrupt. If that is so then this software must have corrupted them as I recovered them direct from the card. I then tried to recover photo files from a card but when I save the scan it saves as an audio file Grrrr. How do I save the recovered photos to a format I can use?

The problem has now been resolved by support@stellarinfo.com and all video files have been recovered as mp4 files - thankfully I didn't believe their UK telephone rep.

Hello Etta, I have the same problem. Video files were recovered but couldn't be played on any players. Can you please share your experience how it was resolved. Thanks

Hello, can you please share how it was resolved? thanks

This product was awesome!!! It worked perfectly, accept for a few pictures that were distorted. But out of the 800 I had saved, it was nothing!! I downloaded the trial version with a lot of pessimism. I thought my pictures were gone never to return again. However when I saw them all pop up I was elated. The $40 to download the full version was nothing compared to the memories of births, trips, graduations that were on that memory card!!! Highly reccommended service!!!!

Poor product and poor customer support. I had deleted a few home videos that I wanted to recover so I tried this program. At $99 (plus tax) it is not cheap. The shorter, faster analysis wasn't very powerful. The Movie/Music special search that only targets those types of files also didn't work (I have a 1Tb drive that is less than half full so it should have pulled up a lot of files but it didn't.) So I tried the full system analysis but it kept shutting down mid way through the analysis...which would take about 36 hours of running to get to that point so it was very frustrating. I tried this several times (over a period of days) and it kept happening. I contacted their support, which responded promptly but their solution involved spending more money which I was not about to do. I asked for a refund as their program hadn't worked for me and asked them to cancel my registration key but they refused saying that would benefit them in no way. They said they had told me a possible solution (which involved my spending another $100) so they thought they were off the hook.

A note to everyone who has been through the absolutely hellish process of trying to get a refund from Stellar. If you had your order processed by SafeCart, you may call them and get a refund issued.

This software corrupted my Windows 7 Operating System.

We decided to try the software to recover some photos, after we installed this crappy software every application that we tried to start redirected back to the Stellar Software. For example, select Start | Programs | Accessories | Notepad, and Stellar Pheonix Photo Recovery started. We tried to uninstall. No luck, it was still there running from the F#$#@$@G Recycle Bin. Using the DOS interface I went into the recycle bin, deleted the executable, but after a reboot I had another copy. Just like a @#$@#$ virus.

I tried a System Restore, and the process failed due to something blocking it.

So after having a new PC for only a month, my only choice was to reformat the hard drive and re-install everything.

I Thank Stellar for wasting my weekend.

Peter

This software did nothing to restore my photos that were accidentally deleted due to a format error. I have not tried to get my m oney back yet, but reading these reviews, it seems that I am probably out of luck.

Thumbs down to SPR ,All I could manage to do is recover less than a quater of data from my formatted Micro SD card,And the worst part is most of the recovered photos are corrupted and do not even display jus like what the first person who commented about it,And the recovered videos are even worse they all play only upto 20 seconds,So i advise u PPl not to waste ur precious money on this worthless product....

I WANT KEY TO OPEN THE PHOTO RECAVERY PLEASE.

I used the windows recovery sofware and it told me that 28gb's of information could be recovered after numerous attempts, it could not. Then I sent information to there company, which is in India, where they ran me in circles for three months. Then there answer was to send the hdd to there facility in N.J., U.S.A.. After initial diagnosis they claimed they could recover the data, which ultimately proved to be untrue. My experience with their software and their company have been nothing short of a nightmare. The company's policies and procedures are so disconnected from what we consider customer service to be in this country that I tell you stay away or you will truly be sorry in the end.

I purchased Stellar Phoenix Photo recovery after deleting all the files on my camera on accident. The trial software showed the images as if it was going to work, so I bought it. Big mistake, it was only able to recover a small portion of the images that were deleted. There support is a joke and they do not give refunds. Rather than waste your money on this software, use one of the free products like Pandora File Recovery. I downloaded that program and was able to recover all of the photos and it is free!

I was using Canon EOS 400D Rebel Xti to capture the videos and photos. Somehow, the memory card of the Camera got corrupted.
I searched in Google by typing "Photo Recovery Software" and downloaded Stellar Phoenix Photo Recovery Software. Before installing it, I read the manual of it.

It is clearly written on site that it recovers only Photos, audios and videos. It is also written on site that the Trial Version of does not recover. The Trial Version only preview the list of Photos, audios and videos. So I downloaded it. I previewed all the files (Photos, audios and videos only) that I wanted to recover.

Now, I proceeded and purchased it. They sent me a coupon code to activate the software after installation.

Within 10 minutes, I could recovered my all the photos, audios and videos that was very urgent for me.

I would like to give Thanks to Stellar Information Ltd. for developing such useful Photo Recovery Software.

STELLAR doesn't recover your photo data at all, but they refuse t0 refund you with tardy reasoning. I doubt that any positive comments made below are posted by Stellar workers themselves?
This is totally scam.

I purchased the photo recovery by accident; what I thought I was getting was the full data recovery program. When I realized my mistake, I attempted to obtain a refund. HORRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE!!!!!

I was shuffled around, asked repeatedly for information I had already given (clearly the email history was not even being read), and eventually denied the refund.

I can't speak for their product, because I never actually got what I needed, and I am now out the money I would have used to purchase the correct program. I will not be working with this company again, regardless how effective their software may be. There are others that will do the same, will hopefully much better customer response.
I hope this review is helpful; buyer beware!

All I can say is its fine if you don't need the customer service. They ask for more information which was clearly stated in the email. After going through this numerous times I was told they never heard back from me and closed the ticket. I tried to get a refund but they would not respond.

Fast foward a few months another hardrive failed and I could not locate my serial number. They didn't respond for a few days say they had no record of it so I copied the safecart info and sent to them. They sent an email saying they never received it and closed the ticket. I sent 5-6 emails with the info which have gone ignored.
This has been the absolute worst experience with customer service and will never do business with them again.

You make it sound soooo EASY! I've downloaded Stellar Phoenix photo recovery software X 2 (deleted

does anyone know
the technical support phone number for stellar Pheonix Recovery?

USA Helpline
contact us
Sales Queries (Tollfree)
1-877-778-6087
contact us
Support Queries
1-732-584-2700

for more info visit : http://www.stellarinfo.com/contact/contact-us.php

This software and the support thereof is appalling. It is a scam. They preview photos as recoverable in their demo that are not recoverable once you purchase the full version. Their 30 day money back guarantee is as worthless as a US $1,000,000 note. I have been requesting a refund now for in excess of 30 days and will now request refund through Visa. Do not waste your money with these dishonest crooks.

This is not a Scam. Do u know the definition of Scam? I am using this software from last 3 months and their tech support is really helpful. I did not found any of their technician given me wrong information. Used other products also. you are just spreading hoax messages. I have used Stellar Phoenix Photo recovery 3.5 now upgraded to 4.0 . A very satisfied customer and recommend this product.

The program did show some thumbnails on a formatted CF photo card but could not recover the photos.

Its told that if the trial show the thumbnails the full program will be able to recover the photos, NOT TRUE!!

The support told me the photos were corrupted. They were not since a free program called "Zero Assumption Recovery" (ZAR) in the end in 5 min recovered all 37 photos without any problems. The company

Stellar is (of course) not willing to return the money. I think its their only concern to get your money........

I just googled this product (after purchasing it). I wanted to make sure it wasn't some sort of scam to get my financial information...

I was a little hasty in my purchase. I see now that I could have gotten photo recovery software much cheaper. At the time, all I could think about was that my kids' birthdays, a road trip, trip to the zoo, three college graduations, and other important events could not be lost over a $39 price tag. I cannot say that it works for everyone, but am so happy that it worked for me.

I downloaded this and Zero Assumption Recovery for free. I used this, and got the thumbnails. I was ecstatic. Then, prompted to buy a product key. Instead, I attempted to use ZAR. It was unable to locate a single file on my memory card.

I decided to call the customer service to ask a few questions before purchasing. I was shocked when someone answered. It was 2:00 am. I was only planning to get a message informing me of the regular business hours. My questions were answered, and I made the purchase.

The downside is that if you have a lot of files, it takes forever. I don't know how it compares to other software. This is the first recovery software I've ever used. It took a couple of hours to save the files. It was like watching paint dry. That's how I ended up here. I decided to look up the company to kill time. It has finished now, and I am thrilled. It was able to bring back all of my pictures! For whatever reason, every photo has a thumbnail sized duplicate... Not a big deal. I'll delete them. Just thought it was worth noting.

Anyway, all 1500 of my pictures (3000 including duplicates) are now safely tucked away on my external harddrive. I feel bad for those who have had issues, but I just wanted to share my experience.

I also downloaded Stellars software and paid $39.00 US for it. When it did not work, I contacted their tech support team via chat the team member said the software was not able to resolve the type of issue with my digital photos. When I asked for a refund, they directed me to send an email to orders@stellarinfo.com. I did and got a series of replies stating that my "refund cannot be considered"

DO NOT PURCHASE ANYTHING FROM STELLARINFO.COM STELLAR DATA RECOVERY or STELLAR PHOENIX.

This also just happened to me with database recvovery software. The tech support was really anything but stellar. I don't think he had any clue what he was doing. He told me the MS Acess file was severly corrupted and that it was not possible to recover the data however he would excalate my case to level 2 suport.
Don't let them into your computer remotely. He also gave me orders@stellarinfo.com. But I am convinced I got duped. Your email just confirms my assessment.
IT"S A SCAMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I wished I had read these comments before purchase. It would have stopped me from being ripped off. My experience has been unpleasant. First of all I can't activate the product to get the pictures and info I need. I was told to unstall and re-install an upgrade and the same thing. Would not accept my code or serial number. I contacted stellar and they wanted permission to come into my computer. Password and all. To which I am not willing to do. If it is necessary to resort to this then I am out the $39.00. This program of recovery did not work for me. Total waste of my time for days. Buyer Beware is Correct.

Yep, I shoud have read the revues. Same story. Tried the download, got "preview" pictures and when perchased half the picts. were "corrupted". Tried it againe with photos I did save but delibratly deleted to see what would happen, I got "file type unsupported by Windows Media Center" and cannot get any photos at all. Don't do It, try the free recovery programs, if they dont work at least you didnt spend any money.

Well, I am a photographer by profession and it happens to me a couple of time when I was learning photography that I lost my precious photos because of various reasons. Initially I tried a couple of softwares but I was not satisfied with the quality further I used this stellar phoenix software and that is really great and I always use it if I lost any of my photos.

I can say it is the best one tool to recover all photos. I recovered all my photos of the same quality i have seen in preview in just 4 easy steps. Do not confuse anymore go for stellar phoenix.

Well, I had used this software earlier when my friend told me about and I am thankful to him as because of this stellar photo recovery software i recovered my all photos those were mistakenly deleted. I can say that this software is really masterpiece and recover photos magically in just few minutes.

Well, I had used this software earlier when my friend told me about and I am thankful to him as because of this stellar photo recovery software i recovered my all photos those were mistakenly deleted. I can say that this software is really masterpiece and recover photos magically in just few minutes.

DO NOT PURCHASE THIS PROGRAM!
The customer service SUCKS!
I needed to recover my photos after hitting "delete all" by accident. The program showed a preview of ALL of my photos, so I was excited.
So I pay for the * thing, load all of my photos, click to print my photos, but they are NOT what was previewed AT ALL! More than 75% of my photos from the holidays are distorted or incomplete with grey or lines through them.
Customer service is run through India! They don't speak fluent english which is frustrating! And they don't return your emails or messages when you want a refund!
KEEP YOUR MONEY AND DON'T BUY THIS CRAP!

I am a professional photographer and this is what I say: do not buy this product. It's completely worthless. The only thing it does is corrupting the pictures, while another program such as Rescue Pro does the job properly. What is Stellar support saying?: your pictures were already corrupt. Nonsense. I tried it over and over again with the same result.
It does not work.