How to recover deleted photos on iPhone, even after 30 days

The short answer#

To recover deleted photos on iPhone, open the Photos app, tap Collections, scroll down to Utilities and tap Recently Deleted. Tap View Album, unlock it with Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode, choose the photos and tap Recover. They go straight back to your library.

Deleted photos stay in Recently Deleted for 30 days. After that, Apple deletes them for good, and the only way back is a backup made before you deleted them. This guide covers every option, in the order you should try them.

Method 1: Recover from Recently Deleted (under 30 days)#

When you delete a photo or video, it moves to the Recently Deleted album and stays there for 30 days. This is where most deleted photos come back from.

1. 1

   Open Recently Deleted

   Open Photos, tap Collections at the bottom (Albums on iOS 17 and earlier), swipe up, then tap Recently Deleted under Utilities.
2. 2

   Unlock the album

   Tap View Album, then use Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode.
3. 3

   Choose the photos

   Tap Select, then tap the photos and videos you want back.
4. 4

   Tap Recover

   Tap the More button (three dots), then Recover. To bring back everything in the album, tap Recover All.
5. 5

   Confirm

   Tap Recover again. The photos return to your library and the albums they were in.

Each item in Recently Deleted shows how many days it has left. Recover the ones with the fewest days first.

Recover deleted photos on iCloud.com

If you use iCloud Photos, the same Recently Deleted album is on iCloud.com. This helps if your iPhone is lost, broken or wiped.

1. 1

   Sign in

   Go to iCloud.com on any computer or phone and sign in with your Apple Account.
2. 2

   Open Photos

   Tap or click Photos, then select Recently Deleted in the sidebar. If you don't see the sidebar, tap or click the Show Sidebar button in the top-left corner.
3. 3

   Recover

   Select the photos, then tap or click Recover.

Recover deleted photos on a Mac

On macOS Ventura and later, open Photos, select Recently Deleted under Utilities in the sidebar, and unlock it with Touch ID or your Mac login password. Click a photo, then click Recover.

Method 2: Restore from a backup (over 30 days)#

Once a photo leaves Recently Deleted, Apple says you can't get it back from Photos or iCloud Photos. Your only built-in option is a backup made before you deleted the photo, and which backup helps depends on how you used iCloud.

Check what backups you have

• iCloud backup: open Settings, tap your name, then iCloud, then iCloud Backup. You'll see when the last backup ran.
• Mac backup: connect your iPhone, open Finder, select your iPhone in the sidebar, and click Manage Backups to see the dates.
• Windows PC: open the Apple Devices app or iTunes and check the backups listed for your iPhone.

If the latest backup is newer than the day you deleted the photos, it won't contain them. iCloud keeps only your most recent backup, so an old iCloud backup is often gone.

Restore from an iCloud backup

1. 1

   Erase your iPhone

   Open Settings, tap General, then Transfer or Reset iPhone, then Erase All Content and Settings.
2. 2

   Set it up again

   Follow the setup steps until you reach the screen for transferring apps and data.
3. 3

   Choose From iCloud Backup

   Sign in to your Apple Account and pick the backup from before you deleted the photos.

Restore from a computer backup

1. 1

   Connect your iPhone

   Plug it into the Mac or PC that holds the backup.
2. 2

   Open Finder or the Apple Devices app

   On a Mac, select your iPhone in the Finder sidebar. On Windows, use the Apple Devices app or iTunes.
3. 3

   Click Restore Backup

   Choose the backup from before you deleted the photos. You may need to turn off Find My on your iPhone first.

Method 3: Check whether they're really deleted#

Photos often look deleted when they're only hidden or somewhere else. Check these before restoring a backup.

• The Hidden album. Hidden photos disappear from your library. Look under Collections, Utilities, Hidden. If you can't see a Hidden album, turn on Show Hidden Album in Settings, Apps, Photos. See where hidden photos are on iPhone.
• The right Apple Account. If you signed in with a different Apple Account, or iCloud Photos is off on this iPhone, photos stored in iCloud won't show.
• A Shared Library. If you use iCloud Shared Photo Library, check you're viewing Both Libraries. Only the person who added a photo can permanently delete or recover it from Recently Deleted.
• Messages, WhatsApp and email. Photos you sent or received are often still in the chat. In Messages, open the conversation, tap the name at the top and scroll to Photos.
• Google Photos, OneDrive or Dropbox. If one of these was backing up your camera roll, check its trash or bin. Google Photos keeps items in Trash for 60 days if they were backed up.
• Other devices. An old iPad, Mac or iPhone that hasn't synced recently may still have the photos.

What about photo recovery software?#

Plenty of paid apps promise to recover permanently deleted photos from an iPhone. Be careful. Modern iPhones encrypt their storage, and once a photo is permanently deleted, its encryption key is gone, so there's nothing left on the iPhone for an app to undelete.

What these tools can usually do is read your existing iPhone backups and pull out individual photos, without restoring the whole iPhone. That's useful if you have a computer backup and don't want to wipe your phone. If you have no backup from before the deletion, no app can bring the photos back, whatever it promises.

Why some deleted photos can't be recovered#

• More than 30 days have passed. Recently Deleted empties automatically after 30 days.
• You deleted them from Recently Deleted. Apple says photos deleted from that album can't be recovered.
• iCloud Photos synced the deletion. With iCloud Photos on, deleting a photo on one device deletes it on every device signed in to your Apple Account, and on iCloud.com.
• No backup from before the deletion. Backups only help if they were made while the photo still existed.

How to never lose photos again#

• Keep iCloud Photos on, or another photo backup, so your library lives somewhere besides your iPhone.
• Back up to a computer now and then. A computer backup keeps a separate copy, and you can keep several dates.
• Check Recently Deleted before you empty it. It's your 30-day safety net.
• Keep private photos backed up too. If you move photos into the Hidden album, they're backed up like the rest of your library. If you move them into a vault app, check how that app backs up. VaultShield keeps the vault out of iPhone backups on purpose and offers its own encrypted backup instead, so turn that on.

Frequently asked questions#

How do I recover permanently deleted photos on iPhone?

Only from a backup made before you deleted them. Check for an iCloud backup (if iCloud Photos was off) or a Mac or PC backup, and restore it. Restoring replaces what's on your iPhone, so save anything newer first.

Can you recover photos after deleting them from Recently Deleted?

Not from Photos or iCloud. Apple says photos deleted from Recently Deleted can't be recovered. Your only option is a backup from before the deletion, or a copy that still exists in another app or on another device.

How long do deleted photos stay on iPhone?

30 days. They sit in the Recently Deleted album, then iOS deletes them permanently.

Where do permanently deleted photos go on iPhone?

Nowhere you can reach. Once they leave Recently Deleted, they're removed from your iPhone and from iCloud Photos.

Can I recover deleted photos without a backup?

Yes, if it's been less than 30 days: they're in Recently Deleted. After that, without a backup, you can only find copies that exist elsewhere, such as in Messages, another cloud service or another device.

Why can't I find Recently Deleted on my iPhone?

Open Photos, tap Collections, and swipe all the way down to Utilities. On iOS 16 and later the album is locked, so you'll see View Album and need Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode to open it.

The bottom line#

Check Recently Deleted first: anything deleted in the last 30 days is there, one tap from being recovered. After 30 days, only a backup from before the deletion can help, and restoring one erases what's on your iPhone now. Before you go that far, check the Hidden album, your other apps and your other devices, because "deleted" photos are often just somewhere else.