There are several ways to recover deleted photos on iPhone. The easiest method is to recover them from the “Recently Deleted” folder.
Recover Deleted iPhone Photos from “Recently Deleted”
When you delete a photo, it’s not permanently gone right away. Instead, your iPhone moves it to the “Recently Deleted” folder, where it remains for 30 days before being permanently deleted. To restore a photo from this folder, do the following:
- Open the Photos app on your iPhone.
- Navigate to the “Recently Deleted” album.
- Here, mark the photo you want to restore.
- Tap “Restore.”
- The photo will then be moved back to its original storage location.
Restoration via an iCloud backup
If the photo you want is no longer in the “Recently Deleted” folder, you may be able to restore it from an iCloud backup. However, keep in mind that this process will restore all of the data on your iPhone to the state it was in when the selected backup was made. To restore from an iCloud backup, follow these steps:
- Open the “Settings” on your iPhone.
- Tap “General” and then “Reset”.
- Select “Erase all content and settings”.
- After restarting the device, select “Restore from iCloud Backup” in the setup assistant.
- Sign in with your Apple ID and select the appropriate backup.
- Make sure that the backup was made before the deleted photo was missing.
- Note: If “iCloud Photos” was enabled when the backup was created, the photos are not included in the backup. In this case, the photos are stored in the iCloud photo library and not in device backups.
Restoration via an iTunes backup
Alternatively, you can use an iTunes backup to restore deleted photos. Again, this will reset the iPhone to the state of the selected backup. To do this, proceed as follows:
- For Mac users: Connect your iPhone to your Mac using a USB cable and open Finder. Then select your iPhone in the sidebar of Finder, click “Restore” and select the desired backup.
- For Windows users: Connect your iPhone to the PC using a USB cable and open the iTunes app. Then click the iPhone icon in the upper left corner and select “Summary” and then “Restore”. Finally, select the desired backup.
- Note: Restoring from a backup will overwrite all the current data on your iPhone. It is therefore advisable to create an up-to-date backup of your current data before performing this operation.
- Alternatively, specialized data recovery software such as “CopyTrans Shelbee”, “EaseUS MobiSaver” or “iMyFone D-Back” allow you to selectively restore photos from backups without resetting the entire device.
