Deleted photos from your iPhone? Where to look first

You have deleted photos from your iPhone, perhaps by accident, perhaps while clearing space, and now you want them back. The good news is that a deleted iPhone photo often still exists somewhere else: in a holding album, in a backup or on another device. The important thing is to look in the right order, and to avoid doing anything that replaces the older copies before you have checked them.

First, protect what you have

Before you start searching, take a moment to stop your backups from being overwritten.

• Do not erase or reset the iPhone. Restoring a backup can wait until you know it holds what you need.
• Keep the phone away from your computer for now if it backs up to a Mac or PC. A new backup can replace the older one that may contain your photos.
• Consider pausing iCloud Backup. If you do not use iCloud Photos, your photos may be in your iCloud backup, and the next backup can replace it. You will find the switch under Settings, your name, iCloud, iCloud Backup.
• Do not empty anything. Leave the Recently Deleted album alone, and do not use “clean up” apps.

Check Recently Deleted

This solves most cases. Open the Photos app and find the Recently Deleted album, which is listed under Utilities on recent versions of iOS. You will need Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode to open it. Deleted photos and videos normally stay here for around 30 days, and each item shows how long it has left. Select what you want and tap Recover.

While you are there, check the Hidden album too. Photos that have been hidden disappear from the main library and are easy to mistake for deleted ones.

Check iCloud

If iCloud Photos is switched on, it is a sync service rather than a backup. When you delete a photo on your iPhone, it is deleted from iCloud and your other devices as well. It is still worth signing in at icloud.com, opening Photos and looking in Recently Deleted there, in case something shows up that your phone does not display.

It also helps to know this if you are hoping an iCloud backup will save you. When iCloud Photos is on, your photos are not included in your iCloud backup, because they are already stored in iCloud. Restoring that backup will not bring them back.

Look for other copies

A photo often exists in more places than you would expect. Work through this list before you try anything drastic:

• Other Apple devices. An iPad or Mac that has been kept offline may still hold the photo. Keep it offline until you have copied what you need, or it may sync the deletion.
• Other cloud apps. Google Photos, OneDrive, Dropbox and similar apps may have uploaded your camera roll automatically.
• Computers you have imported to. Check the Pictures folder on a PC and the Photos library on a Mac.
• Messages and chats. Anything you sent through WhatsApp, Messages or email can often be saved again from the conversation, although quality may be reduced.
• Other people. Friends and family may have the photo, particularly from a shared album or a group chat.
• An old iPhone. A previous phone in a drawer may still have older photos on it. Charge it with Wi-Fi turned off so that it does not sync.

Restoring from a backup

If you backed up to a Mac or PC, or use an iCloud backup without iCloud Photos, an older backup may contain your missing photos. Check the date first: it needs to be from after the photo was taken and before it was deleted.

Take care here, because restoring is all or nothing. It replaces what is on the phone with the contents of the backup, so anything newer can be lost. Restoring from an iCloud backup also means erasing the iPhone first. Copy your current photos somewhere safe before you begin, and if you are unsure, get advice before going ahead.

Can the phone itself be scanned?

This is where we would rather be straight with you. iPhones encrypt their storage, and deleted data cannot normally be pulled back from the phone once it has left Recently Deleted. Be wary of any software that promises otherwise. Most iPhone “recovery” programs mainly read existing backups, which you can check for yourself, and some charge before you find that out.

When a recovery lab can help

There is one situation where professional help often makes sense: when the copy you need is on something that has failed. That might be a Mac that will not start, a laptop holding your iPhone backups, or an external drive with your photo library or Time Machine backups on it. Stop using that device and leave it switched off, as repeated attempts can make a failing drive worse. Our Apple Mac data recovery page covers failed Macs, and our iPhone data recovery page covers phones. You can also request a quote online.

Stop it happening again

Keep at least one copy of your photos that is separate from your phone and is not a live sync. A periodic export to an external drive or a computer is enough, because a deletion on your iPhone cannot reach it.

Photos on a failed device?

Call Data Retrieval on 020 7064 4996. We offer a free assessment with no obligation, so you will know where you stand before any work is done.