Quick answers
There are a few ways to restore lost or deleted photos on an iPhone:
– Restore from a recent iTunes or iCloud backup
– Use a third party app to recover deleted photos
– Restore from the Recently Deleted album if still available
The easiest way is to restore from a backup. If you don’t have a current backup, a recovery app may be able to get back deleted photos.
How iPhone photo storage works
Understanding how your iPhone stores photos can help troubleshoot missing or deleted photos.
When you take a photo on an iPhone, it is saved in the Camera Roll. The Camera Roll is synced and backed up to iCloud if you have iCloud Photos enabled.
Photos are also backed up locally when you sync your iPhone to iTunes on a computer. During a sync, the photos are copied from the iPhone to the computer’s photo library.
So there are 3 main places your photos can be stored:
On your iPhone
Photos you take on your iPhone are stored locally in the Camera Roll. Older photos may get removed from the Camera Roll if your storage is full.
In iCloud
The iCloud Photos service automatically syncs photos taken on your iPhone to iCloud. They can be accessed from any device signed into your iCloud account.
In iTunes backups
When you connect your iPhone to a computer and sync with iTunes, a backup is created which includes your photos.
Knowing that copies of your photos may exist in multiple places is helpful if you need to restore lost or deleted photos.
Check the Recently Deleted album
If you accidentally deleted photos on your iPhone, the first place to check is the Recently Deleted album.
The Photos app keeps deleted photos for up to 40 days in the Recently Deleted album before removing them permanently.
To view deleted photos:
1. Open the Photos app
2. In the Albums tab, scroll down and tap Recently Deleted
This will show all photos and videos that have been recently deleted.
To restore deleted photos:
1. Tap Select in the top right corner
2. Select the photos you want to recover
3. Tap Recover in the bottom left corner
The photos will be moved back to the Camera Roll or to the album they were originally in.
So always check the Recently Deleted album before attempting any type of restore from a backup. This may have the photos you thought were lost.
Restore from an iTunes backup
If your photos are not in the Recently Deleted album, you may be able to restore them from an iTunes backup of your iPhone.
To restore from an iTunes backup:
1. Connect your iPhone to the computer you normally sync with
2. Open iTunes
3. Select your iPhone
4. In the Summary pane, click Restore Backup
5. Select the backup you want to restore from
6. Click Restore and follow the on-screen prompts
iTunes will wipe your iPhone and restore everything from the backup, including photos.
This will only work if you have a backup from when the missing photos were still on your iPhone. Check the date of each backup to select the appropriate one.
Other iTunes restore steps
Here are some other tips for restoring photos from iTunes:
– You can preview the photos in a backup within iTunes to see if the ones you’re missing are included.
– Select the option to “Manually manage music and videos” before restoring to prevent deleting any music/videos added since the last backup.
– If your photos are stored in the cloud, you can skip re-syncing photos after the restore to avoid duplicates.
Restoring from iTunes is a reliable way to get back lost iPhone photos, provided you have a backup that contains the missing photos.
Restore from an iCloud backup
If you use iCloud Photos, you may be able to recover deleted photos from an iCloud backup.
iCloud automatically backs up photos from your iPhone daily when connected to WiFi and power.
To restore from an iCloud backup:
1. Go to Settings > [Your Name] > iCloud
2. Tap Manage Storage > Backups
3. Select the desired backup
4. Tap Restore to Device
Your iPhone will be overwritten with the iCloud backup data, including photos.
This will only help if the photos were backed up to iCloud before being deleted. Check when the latest iCloud backup was to confirm.
Other iCloud restore tips
Here are some other important points for iCloud restore:
– You can restore from an iCloud backup on a new iPhone to transfer your photos.
– Turn off iCloud Photos before restoring to avoid duplicate photos being downloaded.
– The backup remains in iCloud for 120 days as long as you keep enough available storage.
– Check iPhone storage before restoring to ensure you have enough space.
As long as the missing photos were backed up, restoring from iCloud can retrieve photos that were accidentally deleted.
Use a recovery app
If you don’t have a backup containing the deleted photos, you may still be able to recover them with a third party app.
Recovery apps can scan your iPhone and attempt to restore deleted files that weren’t overwritten.
Some apps to consider:
| App | Price |
|---|---|
| Disk Drill | Free – $89 |
| iMyFone iBypasser | $49.95 |
| Fonelab | $39.95 |
To use a recovery app:
1. Download and install on your computer
2. Connect your iPhone to the computer
3. Scan your device for recoverable files
4. Select the photos to restore
5. Save the photos to your computer
Recovery success depends on whether the files were overwritten. The sooner you run the app after deletion, the better.
Pros and cons of recovery apps
Recovery apps can seem like magic in recovering files you thought were gone for good. However, there are some downsides:
**Pros:**
– Retrieve deleted photos without a backup
– Greater chance of recovery when run soon after deletion
– Advanced scanning for recoverable data
**Cons:**
– Can be expensive for full recovery features
– No guarantee files can be recovered
– Requires expert knowledge to use advanced features
Still, recovery apps provide one last resort to get back photos before they are gone forever.
Avoid permanently deleting photos
Now that you know how to restore lost photos on an iPhone, here are some tips to avoid losing photos in the first place:
– Turn on iCloud Photos to automatically back up new photos.
– Sync to iTunes regularly to create local backups.
– Check free storage before taking more photos.
– Save important photos you take to another album.
– Be careful before permanently deleting any photos.
– Know how to recover recently deleted photos.
Following best practices for managing your photos will reduce the risk of losing your precious memories. But if something does happen, use one of the methods in this guide to get missing photos back.
Conclusion
There are several effective techniques for restoring lost or deleted photos on an iPhone, provided you act quickly and correctly:
– Check the Recently Deleted album in Photos and recover photos if available. This allows recovery up to 40 days after deletion.
– Restore from a recent iTunes backup that contained the missing photos before they were lost.
– Use iCloud backup restore if the photos were in iCloud storage prior to being deleted.
– Try a third party recovery app to scan for deleted files that may be retrieved if they were not overwritten.
– Enable photo backups using iCloud and iTunes going forward to prevent permanent data loss.
With the right knowledge and tools, you can almost always recover deleted photos on an iPhone. Just don’t wait too long before attempting to restore them from a backup or recovery app.