Key Takeaways
- Check “Recently Deleted” in your iPhone’s Photos app to see if your deleted photo is still there. If it is, select it and then tap “Recover.”
- You can restore your iPhone from a macOS or iCloud backup. Keep in mind that you will lose any data created or changed since the backup was created.
- Use third-party tools like iBackup Extractor or iMazing to recover photos from your backup files.
If you’ve accidentally deleted a photo or video on your iPhone, there are several things you can try to recover it. Here’s what you need to do.
Recover a Photo From the Recently Deleted Album
The “Recently Deleted” album is the first place you should look. Open the Photos app and scroll down to locate the Utilities section, then select “Recently Deleted.”
Upon passing the Face ID or Touch ID check, you’ll see all of the photos and videos that have been deleted within the last 30 days. Anything older than that will be deleted permanently, but this is absolutely the first place to check.
If your photo (or video) is there, select it, tap the three-dot icon at the bottom right of the screen, and then select “Recover.” Then, “Recover Photo” again. Alternatively, you can preview the photo and tap the Recover button at the bottom right.
Recover Photos From a Backup
If you plug your iPhone into a computer to back it up via macOS, some tools can dip into those backups and allow you to extract individual files from them. If you don’t back up your device to your Mac, this won’t work.
One such tool is iBackup Extractor, and it’s available for both PC and Mac. There are similar apps out there, all doing what amounts to the same thing — opening iOS backups that macOS has created and allowing people to interact with them. If you know that the photo you need to recover is included in an old backup, this could be a great option to take. Especially if the photo was deleted more than a month ago.
iMazing is another pretty popular tool that has a few other useful features besides managing backups. As always, be careful using third-party apps to handle your phone backups. Phone backups almost always contain sensitive information, and a malicious, fake app could compromise your data.
Restore Your iPhone From a Backup Made on a Mac
If you’d rather not use a third-party app to recover your photo, you could also completely restore your iPhone using an old backup. It should be noted that if you do go this route, you will lose any data that was created or changed since that backup was created.
Like the last technique, if you don’t back up your device to your Mac then this won’t work. We would heartily suggest creating a fresh backup before restoring anything, just to be sure.
Assuming you do want to go this route, connect your iPhone to a computer and open Finder. Next, select your iPhone under Locations in the sidebar. In case a pop-up appears asking your iPhone’s passcode to trust the computer, enter the passcode.
This will open up a menu that contains several details and options related to your iPhone, like available storage and current software version. Here, locate and select the “Restore Backup” option. Notice how the Restore Backup option isn’t available in the image below, as I didn’t create a backup beforehand.
In the dialogue box that appears, select from the available backups. The backups appear with their date of creation, so it’s easier for you to identify the most recent one (or the most relevant one). If your backup is encrypted, enter the passcode and click on Restore.
Now, wait for the Mac to finish the restore process. Once the process is complete, don’t disconnect your iPhone from your Mac and instead allow it to sync with your computer. Disconnect only when the sync is done.
Restore Your iPhone From an iCloud Backup
If you don’t back up your iPhone via macOS but use iCloud instead, you can restore it from one of those previous backups, too. All of the same caveats apply here, so we again suggest making a full macOS or iCloud backup before attempting to restore anything, just in case.
With a new backup made, open the Settings app and then tap “General.”
Next, scroll all the way down to the bottom and tap “Transfer or Reset iPhone.”
Finally, tap “Erase all content and settings.”
Hit Continue and confirm by tapping “Erase iPhone.”
You’ll be prompted to authenticate before anything happens, but once you have done so, the reset process will take place. Afterward, your iPhone will restart, and you can set it up as if it was a new iPhone. When doing so, select the option to “Restore from iCloud Backup,” and be sure to select one from a time before when you believe the photo was deleted.
Make sure your lost photos are worth saving in the first place by learning how to take better photos with your iPhone and how to edit them with the Photos app.
