How to Recover Deleted Photos from iPhone

* This article is from our Tip of the Day newsletter. . *

If you've ever tapped delete when you didn't mean to, you'll want to know how to retrieve deleted photos on your iPhone. If you want to recover deleted photos on your iPhone, you can easily do it, as long as it's within a 30-day window. You can also permanently delete photos from your iPhone. Here’s how to undo deleted pictures and permanently delete pictures from your iPhone.

Why You'll Love This Tip:

  • Recover deleted photos and videos you didn't mean to delete. 
  • Learn how to permanently delete photos from iPhone and save iPhone storage.

How to Retrieve Deleted Photos on Your iPhone

System Requirements

This tip works on all current supported iPhones but was performed on an iPhone running iOS 18. Find out how to update to the latest version of iOS.

After you delete photos on your iPhone, you can still find them in the Recently Deleted section of the Photos app. The Recently Deleted section contains all your deleted photos and videos, and each item shows the days remaining before deletion (30 days). When this time is up, items are permanently deleted, and you can’t recover them. Before the 30-day limit is over, you can recover the photo or permanently delete it. Here's how to find deleted photos on iPhone, then recover or permanently delete them.

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  1. Open the Photos app.

  2. Scroll down until you see Utilities.

  3. Tap Recently Deleted.

  4. You may be prompted to use Face ID. Tap View Album to trigger Face ID and unlock the album.

  5. Tap on the photo you want to recover.

  6. Tap Recover.

  7. Tap Recover Photo (or Video) to confirm.

  8. If you want to recover them in a batch, tap Select.

  9. Select the photos you want to recover.

  10. Tap the three dot icon at the bottom right of the screen.

  11. Tap Recover.

If you want to delete the photos permanently, there will be a delete option instead of Recover for both individual and batched photos.

Now you know how to recover deleted photos! To keep your future photos safe from accidental deletion, consider checking out this article on how to delete duplicate photos automatically.

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Author Details

Jim Karpen's picture

Author Details

Jim Karpen

Jim Karpen holds a Ph.D. in literature and writing, and has a love of gizmos. His doctoral dissertation focused on the revolutionary consequences of digital technologies and anticipated some of the developments taking place in the industry today. Jim has been writing about the Internet and technology since 1994 and has been using Apple's visionary products for decades.