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How to recover deleted photos from iPhone with/ without Backup

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Ella Garcia Updated on Apr 15, 2022 5:01 PM

This article that you're going to read will discuss how to recover deleted photos on iPhone - from the Recently Deleted album, iCloud backup, iTunes or Finder backup and cloud storage services, as well as how to recover photos from iPhone without backup and how to retrieve photos from an iPhone backup without iPhone.

Like many other apps, the Photos app is for temporary storage to save every photo and video you captured. If you're experiencing a deleted photos problem - you took some photos on the iPhone and recently deleted them that you shouldn't have, don't worry, read the helpful troubleshooting steps and information given below in an effort to recover deleted photos, try them one-by-one and see which method works for you. In the end, you'll learn a useful tip for backing up pictures.

The article applies all iPhone models: 12, 12 Pro, 12 Pro Max, 12 Mini, 11, 11 Pro, 11 Pro Max, XR, XS, XS Max, X, SE (1st and 2nd generation), 8, 8 Plus, 7, 7 Plus, 6s, 6s Plus, etc.

How to find deleted photos on iPhone?

Each time you delete photos in Photos app, they are not permanently deleted. The place where the deleted photos go into is called Recently Deleted album. Apple has provided that folder as part of Photos which allows you recover iPhone photos for up to 40 days after being deleted. With this in mind, you're able to find the missing photos there unless you cleared them out - each photo displays the days remaining before deletion.

Step to recover deleted photos from Recently Deleted album

Here's how to retrieve photos recently deleted from iPhone.

1. Open Photos app on your iPhone, and choose Album tab at the bottom.

2. Scroll down to Utilities section and tap Recently Deleted.

3. Tap Select at the upper-right of the screen.

4. Select every photo you want to restore. Or tap Recover All if you'd like to recover all pictures in the Recently Deleted album.

5. Tap Recover and then tap Recover Photos to confirm the recovery.

It's all that easy! Your photos will go back to photo library immediately.

How to recover deleted pictures from iCloud

Generally, photos stored in iCloud simply mimics exactly what are on the iPhone once you enable iCloud Photos under Settings. When deleting photo from your phone, it also gets deleted on iCloud.

If you fail to find and recover deleted photos from iPhone's Recently Deleted album, you can also locate those items on icloud.com. The photos you deleted can be recovered within 40 days. Sometimes the photos are no longer on your phone will be available on the website.

Here's how to recover deleted photos on iCloud.

1. Navigate to icloud.com using a web browser and log into your iCloud account.

2. Click Photos app.

3. Select Recently Deleted folder on the left column of the window.

4. Click on the photos you wish to get back.

5. Click Recover on the top-right of the screen and you're all set.

Chances are that the photos you're looking for are not in the Recently Deleted folder - the photos have been deleted past that 40-day period, or you deleted them from photo library and then subsequently cleared the Recently Deleted folder. It's technically likely that they are permanently deleted. Note that photos would be permanently deleted when the iCloud storage is full.

Would it be possible to recover permanently deleted photos on iPhone (since the begging of use), or get back the important photos that are completely gone from the iPhone?

YES! Read on to find your solution on the recovery of permanently deleted photos to get images back to iPhone, depending on if the pictures are stored just in your device, or if the photos were backed up to iCloud, computer, or cloud storage services.

How to recover permanently deleted photos (without backup)

Some users were often told that there's no way to recover photos which were not backed up via iCloud or third-party cloud services (Google Photos, OneDrive, Dropbox, etc.), or to computer via iTunes or Finder. This is true unless an iPhone photo recovery software tool was introduced.

There are an array of apps for the purpose of retrieving deleted photos from iPhone—even you had no backup, but not all of them are well-known. The iOS Data Recovery is a case in point. Let's explore how this modest software helps you perform the recovery.

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for Windows | for MacOS

The utility offers a way for you to mostly automate the process when you're trying to recover deleted photos without backup, through the powerful scanning algorithm and data recovery techniques. It can effortlessly access the photos that have been deleted, yet recoverable, and export them into picture file formats on the computer. It comes featured with an intuitive, wizard-style interface that you can use it without any software operation knowledge.

Plus, the application is obtainable in 3 different modes for photo recovery: Recover from iOS Device, Recover from iTunes Backup, Recover from iCloud Backup. We will apply the first mode in this section to get back deleted photos, and the latter two modes will be described in the last method.

Step to retrieve photos using iOS Data Recovery:

You can accomplish the process on a Mac or a Windows computer. Everything looks much the same.

1. Run the software after installation. Connect iPhone to the computer with a USB cable, and once it's detected, click Start Scan button.

2. The software will now scan your iPhone and search around for the deleted pictures and other files. When it's completed, you will get an overview window shown as the screenshot below:

3. From the left-hand side of the window, uncheck the boxes for other types of files except for the Camara Roll, Photo Stream, and Photo Library where your deleted images should reside.

4. Look for the photos you want to get back, select them one by one, and then click Recover button. You should be asked to choose a location to save the recovered images before the recovery begins.

Done! All photos should restore to your computer. The most convenient way to get those photos back to iPhone is dragging and dropping them to the DCIM folder > 100APPLE (101APPLE, or the like), which can be found under Windows File Explorer.

A Note: The recovery software works fine in most cases and covers a wide range of data loss scenarios. One situation where the software won't find any photos and data in the phone memory: factory reset (in order to fix the slow performance, system errors, or as you're looking to sell or give away the device. ). A factory reset wipes the data completely, and the only way to restore the files is to use the backup.

It may be possible to recover photos from a backup, as long as the backup is done in advance, specifically from before the images were deleted. Skip to the next three methods.

How to restore deleted photos from iCloud backup

If you've enabled iCloud Backup feature, iCloud will automatically complete a backup of your iPhone, every time the device is connected to W-Fi network and a power source, and the screen is locked.

So were the photos in your iPhone when you last backed it up? If they were, try restoring that backup, for free. You can check the date, size and other information of the last backup through Settings > [your name] > iCloud > Manage Storage > Backups.

1. Before getting your iPhone restored to that backup, make a backup first. This is necessary if you have data on your phone that is not in the backup. Try iOS Data Backup & Restore - it's built into the FoneLab toolkit, and backing iPhone up is simply a matter of connecting iPhone and choosing what you want to preserve.

2. Next grab your iPhone, go to Settings > General > Reset > Erase All Content and Settings. This will wipe your device clean and then guide you through the initial setup process.

3. When you see the Apps & Data screen, choose Restore from iCloud Backup.

Recover Camera Roll Photos

4. Sign into your account and choose the last backup that's containing the deleted photos.

5. Wait until the restore process to finish. Be sure you are connected to Wi-Fi network connection and plugged into the charger as this may take some time to complete - it restores the whole iPhone, not just recover the photos.

6. Cheers. You restore from iCloud and get deleted photos back to iPhone camera roll. Chance are you lost the files currently on the iPhone, take it easy, you can restore the backup just created via the iOS Data Backup & Restore tool. You can preview the files in the backup before the recovery.

Don't Miss: How to Back Up and Restore iPhone using iOS Data Backup & Restore

How to restore deleted photos from iTunes backup

Do you have older backups of those lost pictures on a computer? If you do, please follow the steps below to retrieve the photos. It's important to note, that any data on your phone will be replaced with the data in the backup. So if you've added anything since the backup, it will be overwritten. Back it up first.

1. Open iTunes on a Mac with macOS 10.14 Mojave or earlier, or on a Windows PC.

2. Attach your phone with the computer.

3. When the device icon appears on the top-left of the window, click on it.

4. In the Summary tab, click Restore Backup.

5. Select the last backup of your iPhone, and click Restore.

How to recover deleted iPhone photos using Finder on macOS Catalina, Big Sur or above

Since the release of macOS Catalina 10.15, Finder replaces iTunes and takes charge of backing up, restoring, and updating iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. Restoring photos from an iPhone backup is a pretty simple procedure via Finder as long as you've done backups before the deletion.

1. Run Finder, and connect iPhone to the Mac using a USB cable.

2. On the left panel, click [your device's name].

3. Under General tab, click Restore Backup in the Backups section.

4. Choose the backup that contain the photos you've deleted or lost.

5. Click Restore and the process should fire up instantly.

6. Once the restore is done, open Photos app to see if the photos come back.

Photos in the camera roll should be imported and saved to a computer ASAP in case of data loss. In addition to Apple iTunes and Finder for making a full, cumbersome backup, iTransfer is an excellent data management tool when it comes to backing up photos to Mac or PC. It works like a charm, thanks to the seamless transfer capability, that you can easily back up every precious picture. Plus, it's able to get the backed-up images back to the iPhone if you deleted important ones on your handset.

How to restore photos with cloud storage services

While the easiest way is probably using iCloud Photos to sync photos you take on the iPhone, it's not a good option for backup. There are a few other cloud storage apps to go about it, including but not limited to Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive, Amazon Prime Photos. Each app has the backup/ upload option that can configure that to save the pictures in the background.

Note that the photos uploaded to these third-party apps and photos backed up with iTunes or iCloud will be independent of each other.

If you had an older backup of photos stored in Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, etc., there's great chance to restore them to your phone. We take Dropbox as an example.

1. Open Dropbox on your iPhone, and log in with your account.

2. Click Photos on the bottom.

3. Tap on the photo you want to restore to iPhone.

4. Tap three dots at the upper-right of the window, and choose Export from the menu.

5. Tap Save Image. The app will inform you that the photo has been save to Photos.

How to extract photos from iPhone backup

It's common to know that restoring iPhone to a backup through iCloud or iTunes or Finder will restore anything on the device - not just the photos, and overwrite the most current data. In case you don't want to run into the risk of losing more data, an iPhone backup extractor is required.

iOS Data Recovery software features with an extractor to restore just deleted pictures from the backup. It works by searching the backups on your computer and in iCloud. Plus it allows you to access the backup and view the pictures which are recoverable.

Download Now!

for Windows | for MacOS

We'll employ "Recover from iCloud Backup" mode to extract photos without iPhone connected to the computer. The steps for "Recover from iTunes Backup" mode are mostly the same.

1. Start iOS Data Recovery utility.

2. From the main screen, choose "Recover from iCloud Backup" mode.

3. Log in with your Apple ID and password.

4. Choose iCloud Backup, and click Start button.

5. The software will then find all your backups. Confirm whether there's a backup of deleted photos according to the backup date. Click Download button.

6. Click the category labelled "Camera Roll", preview each photo, select each one, and click Recover button. You're all set!

A word about backing up photos

I bet you don't want to lose your treasured photos again. You have to immediately back them up so you never spend time waking through the iPhone deleted photo recovery process.

iCloud Photos is a splendid service to sync iPhone pictures over the air and across any iDevices sharing the same Apple ID, and it's fairly straightforward to do so. Go to Settings app on iPhone, tap Apple ID > iCloud, then enable the toggle for Photos. Make sure you have enough space to save the images as iCloud offers only 5 GB of cloud storage.

Syncing photos with iCloud doesn't involve triggering a backup. You probably need other backup apps to get a real copy. Local backup programs like iOS Data Backup & Restore and iTransfer, as well as the online backup apps such as OneDrive, Dropbox, etc. can do you a favor, impressively.

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