How to recover deleted photos on iPhone (even after 30 days)

Losing photos feels awful, especially pictures of children, family or a once-in-a-lifetime trip. Before anything else, stop and check whether they are really deleted: many “lost” photos are hidden, filtered or still downloading. Then work through the options below from easiest to hardest, and do not pay for anything until you have tried the free ones. Most people get their photos back at the first or second step.

Deleted or just missing? Check this first

• Hidden album: photos you hid do not show in the library. Open Collections or Utilities, tap Hidden and unlock it.
• Library filter: if the library is filtered to Favorites, Edited or a Shared Library view, most photos seem to vanish. Tap the sort and filter button and choose All Items and Both Libraries.
• Recovered album: on recent iOS versions, a Recovered album can appear under Utilities with images the Photos app found that were missing from the library. Check it if you see it.
• Different Apple Account: iCloud Photos shows only the library for the account in Settings. Photos saved under an old account need that account.
• Still downloading: on a new or restored iPhone, iCloud Photos can take hours to download a large library. Scroll to the bottom of the library to see the sync status.

How to recover deleted photos on iPhone

After 30 days: places to check

Photos disappeared after an update?

After a major iOS update, the Photos app rebuilds its library and search index in the background, which can take a day or more on a large library. During that time some photos, albums or memories can seem to be missing. Leave the iPhone on Wi-Fi and a charger overnight, then check again. If photos are still missing, check the Recovered album under Utilities, make sure iCloud Photos is still on, and look at the sync status at the bottom of the library.

Recover deleted photos on a Mac

On a Mac with iCloud Photos, the same deleted photos are in the Photos app. Click Recently Deleted in the sidebar under Photos or Utilities, unlock it with Touch ID or your password if asked, select the photos and click Recover. They return to the library on the Mac, iPhone and iPad together. If the Mac uses its own library without iCloud Photos, check a Time Machine backup of the Pictures folder too.

Photos missing from a Shared Library

With iCloud Shared Photo Library, up to six people share one collection, and anyone in it can edit or delete photos. If a photo disappeared, it may have been deleted by another participant. Ask everyone in the library to check Recently Deleted on their own iPhone and recover it from there within 30 days. To stop surprises, the person who set up the library can review who is in it in Settings › Apps › Photos › Shared Library.

Deleted videos and screen recordings

Videos, screen recordings, Live Photos and slow-motion clips work exactly the same way: they go to Recently Deleted for 30 days and can be recovered from there. Very large videos may take a few minutes to reappear on your other devices after you recover them, because they have to upload to iCloud again.

Deleted from Recently Deleted by mistake?

If you tapped Delete All in Recently Deleted, the photos are removed from the iPhone and iCloud straight away. At that point, only copies elsewhere can help: another offline device, a shared album, a cloud backup app or a computer backup. Apple Support cannot restore photos that were permanently deleted from iCloud Photos.

Do paid recovery apps work?

The top search results for this topic are mostly companies selling recovery software. On older phones, some could scan the storage for deleted files. Modern iPhones encrypt everything, and deleted files are quickly overwritten and unreadable. In practice, these apps mostly extract photos from an existing iTunes, Finder or iCloud backup, which you can restore yourself for free. Some are useful for pulling a few photos out of an old backup without restoring the whole phone, but do not pay until the app shows you the actual photos it can recover.

Photos lost from a broken or dead iPhone

If the iPhone will not turn on, photos with iCloud Photos on are safe in iCloud; sign in at icloud.com or on a new device to see them. You can also download them from icloud.com to a computer: select the photos and click the download button. Without iCloud Photos or a backup, a repair shop may be able to revive the phone long enough to copy the photos. Tell them the data matters before they start, since some repairs replace the whole phone.

Never lose photos again

• Turn on iCloud Photos in Settings › your name › iCloud › Photos. It needs enough iCloud storage for your library; iCloud+ plans start at 50 GB. See our guide to backing up your iPhone.
• Keep a second copy somewhere else, such as a computer, an external drive or Google Photos, since iCloud Photos syncs deletions to every device.
• Check Recently Deleted before emptying it, and never tap Delete All without looking. There is no undo once it is emptied.
• For children’s and family photos, share them into a Shared Album too, even one only you can see. It is a free extra copy that survives accidental deletion.