How to Get Recently Deleted Photos Back on iPhone

To get recently deleted photos back on iPhone, open Photos and tap Recently Deleted under Utilities. Tap View Album, unlock it with Face ID or Touch ID, choose the photo and tap Recover. Apple's recovery guide gives these steps for anything deleted in the last 30 days.

After 30 days, Apple says a deleted item is permanently deleted and cannot be got back. From then on, a photo can only come from a copy made before it was deleted. Photos deleted from the library go to the Recently Deleted album on iPhone first, which is why it is the first place to look.

How to Get Recently Deleted Photos Back on iPhone, One or All

One photo or video comes back in five steps:

1. Open Photos, swipe up and tap Recently Deleted under Utilities.
2. Tap View Album and unlock it with Face ID or Touch ID.
3. Tap the photo or video you want back.
4. Tap Recover.
5. Confirm the recovery.

Several items, or the whole album, come back from the same screen, according to Apple's deletion guide:

1. In Recently Deleted, tap Select.
2. Tap each photo or video you want back.
3. Tap the More button, then tap Recover.
4. To bring back everything in the album, tap Recover All instead.
5. Tap Recover to confirm.

Apple's two guides give slightly different routes to the album. In the recovery guide you swipe up to Utilities, while the deletion guide has you tap Collections first. Both end at the same Utilities list.

With iCloud Photos on, Apple's deletion guide says a photo deleted on one device is deleted on your other devices too. A deleted photo can also be recovered from the Recently Deleted album on a Mac or on iCloud.com.

Getting Deleted Photos Back From a Mac or iCloud.com

On a Mac with macOS Ventura or later, open Photos and select Recently Deleted under Utilities in the sidebar. Unlock it with Touch ID or your login password, click the photo and click Recover. These are the Mac steps in Apple's recovery guide.

On iCloud.com, sign in with your Apple Account, click Photos and select Recently Deleted in the sidebar. If the sidebar is hidden, the Show Sidebar button brings it back. Select the photo and click Recover. If the photo is not in the album on any device, it may never have been deleted.

When a Deleted Photo Is Not in Recently Deleted

Why is a deleted photo not in Recently Deleted?

A deleted photo is not in Recently Deleted when its 30 days have passed or someone deleted it from the album. A photo can also look deleted while it is still in the library. Apple's guide to missing photos lists the places to check.

• A hidden photo appears only in the Hidden album, and in iOS 14 and later the Hidden album itself can be hidden. With iCloud Photos on, hiding a photo on one device hides it on the others.
• A Shared Library photo can appear only in certain library views. In iOS 16.1 and later, tap Collections, tap the profile button and choose Both Libraries under Library View Options.
• iCloud Photos needs to be on, with the same Apple Account signed in on every device. After turning iCloud Photos on, you might need to connect to Wi-Fi and wait a few minutes.

The Recovered album is one more place, added in iOS 18. Apple's Recovered album guide says it shows photos and videos that are on the device but not in the library. It appears under Utilities only when the device finds such items.

Items in the Recovered album can be restored to the library or deleted. Apple says a deletion there skips Recently Deleted and cannot be recovered, so restoring first leaves time to decide. When none of these places holds the photo, it has left the album for good.

Getting Photos Back After 30 Days or After Emptying the Album

Can you recover recently deleted photos after 30 days on iPhone?

You cannot recover recently deleted photos on the iPhone after 30 days. Apple says the item is permanently deleted at that point. The same applies at once to anything deleted from the album by hand, so emptying Recently Deleted on iPhone closes the 30 days early.

What remains is a copy made before the deletion. Where that copy lives decides the route back:

Restoring an iPhone Backup

An iCloud Backup holds photos only when iCloud Photos is off. With it on, Apple's iCloud Backup page says photos sync to iCloud and are not part of the daily backup. A computer backup leaves out data already stored in iCloud Photos, according to Apple's backup methods page.

A backup is restored during setup. Apple's restore guide says to erase an iPhone that is already set up. Setup then reaches the Transfer Your Apps & Data screen, where you tap From iCloud Backup. On a Mac, Restore Backup in the Finder restores a computer backup.

Erasing removes all data on the phone, according to Apple's reset guide. Anything added since the backup comes back only if it is also stored somewhere else, in iCloud Photos or on a computer.

Copies Kept Outside the iPhone

A photo imported to a computer or a drive, uploaded to another photo service, or sent to someone in a message may still exist there. A habit to back up iPhone photos outside iCloud Photos is what keeps such a copy in place next time.

Keeping a Deleted Photo Recoverable

Recently Deleted protects a photo only while it stays in the album. Emptying it straight after a clean-up removes that margin. Leaving it until the clean-up has been checked keeps each item recoverable for its full 30 days.

Photos deleted from the library, by any of the ways to delete photos on iPhone, go to the same album. Some photo cleaner apps send their deletions there too. Apps such as Swipe Quick delete nothing without explicit confirmation, and each photo removed goes to Recently Deleted for 30 days.

Frequently asked questions

How long do photos stay in Recently Deleted on iPhone?

Photos stay in Recently Deleted on iPhone for 30 days, according to Apple's deletion guide. After that they are permanently deleted. A photo deleted from the album by hand goes at once.

Can you recover a Shared Library photo someone else added?

You cannot recover a Shared Library photo someone else added. Apple says only the person who added a photo or video to the Shared Library can permanently delete or recover it. That person has 30 days to recover it from Recently Deleted.