With digital photos stored on phones, computers, and in the cloud, many wonder if deleting a photo truly erases it forever or if traces remain. This article examines what happens when you delete a photo from devices and online services.
Quick Answers
Here are quick answers to common questions about deleting photos:
- Deleting a photo from your phone or computer generally does not permanently erase it. Traces of the photo may remain on the device’s memory until overwritten.
- Deleting a photo from an online cloud service may not permanently erase it either. Cloud services like iCloud and Google Photos hold deleted photos for a period before final removal.
- To permanently delete a photo from a device or cloud storage, you need to use a “secure delete” option that overwrites the photo data.
- There are recovery tools that can resurrect deleted photos from phones, computers, and even the cloud if done soon after deletion.
- The only way to guarantee a photo is permanently deleted is to physically destroy the storage device it’s held on.
Deleting Photos from Your Phone or Computer
When you delete a photo from your smartphone or computer, it may seem like it’s gone for good. However, that photo likely still exists in some form on your device’s memory.
Here’s what happens when you delete a photo on a phone or computer:
- The reference to the photo’s data in the file system is removed. This is like removing a book’s entry from a library catalog – the book still exists, but you no longer have its catalog listing.
- The space the photo’s data occupies is marked as “available to overwrite.”
- Until that space is needed for new data, the original photo data remains intact but invisible.
This is why deleting photos or any files from your devices doesn’t immediately free up an equivalent amount of space. The original data sticks around until replaced.
So if you want to permanently delete photos from a device, deleting them normally isn’t enough. You need to take extra steps.
How to Permanently Delete Photos from Phones and Computers
To guarantee a photo is completely erased from a device, you need to overwrite its data sectors on the memory. This prevents any chance of recovery.
Some options for permanent deletion include:
- Using a “secure delete” app that overwrites deleted photo data.
- Using your device’s built-in reset option, which may perform a full memory overwrite.
- Manually deleting photos then filling up remaining memory with new files.
On mechanical hard drives, you can use a tool like DBAN (Darik’s Boot and Nuke) to overwrite all sectors. Solid state drives (SSDs) make permanent deletion trickier due to internal optimization like wear leveling.
The reality is short of physically destroying the device, there’s always a miniscule chance of data recovery. But secure erase options reduce this risk to near zero.
Deleting Photos from Cloud Storage Services
What about deleting photos from cloud platforms like iCloud, Google Photos and Dropbox? Surely those images disappear forever once you delete them, right?
Unfortunately, that’s not quite the case. When you remove photos from cloud storage, that generally only removes access or visibility of those photos from your account. The provider likely keeps the deleted photos on their servers for some time.
This allows you to recover deleted photos for a limited period, either through a “trash” or “recently deleted” folder in the app, or by contacting customer support. But it also means your photos aren’t immediately wiped when you delete them.
How Online Platforms Handle Deleted Photos
Here are the general approaches major providers take:
- iCloud: Deleted photos remain for up to 40 days in iCloud’s Recently Deleted folder before final removal.
- Google Photos: Deleted photos stay in Google’s trash folder for up to 60 days. A paid Google One membership extends this to up to 100 days.
- Dropbox: Deleted files remain for up to 180 days in Dropbox’s Deleted Files folder before permanent deletion.
So if you delete a photo from cloud storage, expect it to stick around for weeks or months before it’s really gone. This can be helpful for recovering mistakes but means sensitive photos aren’t immediately erased.
For the utmost assurance photos are wiped from cloud storage, you would need to delete your entire account. Even then, providers may retain metadata like timestamps and keep backups for their own internal needs.
Recovering Deleted Photos
If you act quickly after deletion, there are various options for recovering “deleted” photos:
- Device backups: Photos may exist in device backups like iCloud Backup, Google One and Time Machine.
- Cloud trash folders: Cloud services store deleted files for weeks or months, as noted above.
- Android. Android devices discarded photos remain recoverable if you don’t overwrite storage.
- Data recovery software. Software like Disk Drill can recover deleted photos if you haven’t overwritten the data.
Again, secure deletion (overwriting data sectors) prevents any recovery. But if you maintain proper backups, accidental deletion isn’t necessarily catastrophic.
Permanently Deleting Photos from Social Media
Deleting photos from social networks doesn’t guarantee their disappearance either. This is especially true for public photos already circulating among other users.
Here are some tips for permanently removing photos from social media:
- Delete the original high-resolution photo from your account if uploaded directly.
- Report copies of the photo posted by others to get them removed.
- Consider a service like AnonDelete that submits global removal requests for you.
- Deactivate your account if you cannot secure removal otherwise.
With social platforms, copies tend to proliferate. So it’s best not to upload any photo publicly online that you might someday want permanently deleted.
Permanently Deleting Photos: The Extreme Option
As mentioned earlier, the only foolproof way to permanently destroy a photo so that no traces can ever be recovered is physical destruction of the storage medium.
For example, completely smashing your phone’s flash memory chip or burning your hard drive will absolutely guarantee that photo inside can never be recovered. No amount of software tricks or data recovery can reconstruct the photo from a pile of ashes.
But of course, this extreme measure means losing everything else stored on that device as well. So physical destruction is only practical when disposing of old drives with no needed data.
For most purposes, using a secure deletion tool is sufficient to remove photo data forever beyond any realistic chance of recovery.
Summary
- Deleting photos normally doesn’t erase them completely – data remnants remain until overwritten.
- Use secure deletion apps and device reset options to permanently delete photos from phones or computers by overwriting.
- Cloud platforms retain deleted photos for weeks or months before final removal.
- Recovering recently deleted photos is possible from backups, trash folders, etc. if you act fast.
- To guarantee photos are completely wiped, physically destroy the storage device. But this also destroys all other data.
In the digital age, photo data can linger beyond initial deletion. But with care and the right tools, you can still permanently delete images when needed.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can deleted photos be recovered?
Yes, often deleted photos can be recovered unless the storage space they occupied has been overwritten. Device backups, cloud trash folders, and data recovery tools enable recovering recently deleted images.
Is there any way to permanently delete photos?
Overwriting the storage sectors photos occupy effectively deletes them forever. Secure erase apps can overwrite deleted files. Or physically destroying the storage device guarantees no recovery.
How long do cloud services keep deleted photos?
iCloud keeps deleted photos up to 40 days. Google Photos retains them for 60-100 days depending on your account. Dropbox stores deleted files for 180 days before final removal.
Can you recover permanently deleted photos?
If a photo was securely overwritten or the storage medium physically destroyed, no. But otherwise there’s often a window where recovery is possible with the right tools and access.
Do social networks delete photos forever?
No, social platforms generally retain deleted photo metadata and have no control over copies users have saved. Fully removing photos from social media is difficult.
Key Takeaways
- Simply deleting photos does not permanently erase them in most cases.
- Securely overwriting photo data removes any chance of recovery.
- Cloud platforms retain deleted photos for weeks or months typically.
- Act quickly to recover deleted photos using backups and unerase tools.
- Physically destroying a storage device guarantees photo deletion but also destroys other data.