How To Bring Back Permanently Deleted Photos On Iphone

How to Recover (Permanently) Deleted Photos from iPhone

Summary

Whether you want to recover (permanently) deleted photos from your iPhone with or without a backup, you will find a solution to get back your deleted photos on the iPhone.

Also applies to: The latest iPhone 12 series

Overview of iPhone Photo Recovery

Data loss occurs almost daily. It's no exception when it comes to your iPhone. The loss of your precious photos may happen due to reasons like accidental deletion, human error, physical damage, iOS update, jailbreak, factory reset, and more.

Generally, if you accidentally deleted photos from your iPhone, you can easily recover these deleted pictures from the Recently Deleted folder. Or you can recover permanently deleted photos from a backup you made before. Even if you don't have a backup available, you can apply third-party iPhone recovery software to retrieve your lost photos.

Thus, there are five workable ways for you to recover deleted photos from your iPhone. Specify your situation and apply the one that fits your needs most to get back your lost pictures.

Part 1. Recover Deleted Photos from iPhone from the Recently Deleted Folder

The easiest way to recover deleted photos from an iPhone could be restoring the deleted items from the "Recently Deleted" folder. This folder could keep the photos and videos you remove for up to 40 days. During this period, you can freely recover the deleted files to your photo library.

If the photos you want to retrieve are deleted from your iPhone within 40 days, follow the steps below to get them back.

To recover deleted photos from Recently Deleted:

Step 1. Open the Photos app and tap "Albums".

Step 2. Scroll down to choose "Recently Deleted".

Step 3. Tap "Select" and click the photos you want to recover.

Step 4. After the selection, tap "Recover" > "Recover Photos" to get deleted photos back.

How to recover deleted photos from iPhone from Recently Deleted

Part 2. Recover Permanently Deleted Photos from iPhone in 4 Ways

If you have emptied the Recently Deleted folder or you have removed the photos for more than 40 days, these items are permanently deleted.

Then how can you recover permanently deleted photos from your iPhone?

Retrieving permanently deleted photos from iPhone could be easy if you have made an iTunes or iCloud backup before. But it's more common that you don't have a backup available when you need to perform iPhone photo recovery. In such a case, you will need a third-party iOS data recovery tool to help.

Method 1. Recover Permanently Deleted Photos from iPhone with iPhone Recovery Software

Without a proper recovery plan, there is the potential of permanently losing your data. If you cannot afford to permanently lose your important files, it's better to download a reliable iOS data recovery tool on the computer in case of data loss.

EaseUS MobiSaver, a safe and iPhone data recovery tool, is exactly what you need. As a professional data recovery tool, it has the ability to recover photos, contacts, videos, movies, messages, etc from iPhone/iPad with or without backup. In contrast to traditional recovery methods (iTunes and iCloud) that perform a full restore to iPhone, this powerful tool lets you restore only wanted pictures to the device. More importantly, it can restore lost data without backup.

Step 1. Launch EaseUS MobiSaver. Among the three recovery options, choose "Recover from iCloud" > Enter your Apple ID and password.

recover iphone deleted photos from device

Step 2. Then, it will start to scan your device. After that, all the files that were found will be displayed on the left side. You can find the iCloud photos quickly by choosing the "Photos/Videos" category > Preview the recoverable pictures one by one > Click "Recover" and specify a location to save them on your computer.

Scan photos on your device

If you have made a backup, be it an iTunes backup or iCloud backup, you can follow either of the methods below to retrieve your deleted photos.

Method 2. Retrieve Deleted Photos on iPhone Using iTunes

If you have an iTunes backup, there are two ways for you to get back deleted photos on your iPhone. One is to restore iPhone via iTunes, the other is to selectively restore photos from the backup using a tool like EaseUS MobiSaver.

The difference is: If you perform an iPhone restore, all data and settings on your iOS device will be replaced by the content from the backup, which means data loss may occur. While if you use an iPhone recovery tool, you can choose to restore photos only.

To restore all iPhone data from an iTunes backup:

Step 1. Connect your iPhone to your computer with a USB cable and trust the computer.

Step 2. In iTunes, click the "Device" icon and make sure you choose "Summary".

Step 3. Click "Restore Backup" and select a backup.

Step 4. Choose "Restore" to start recovering photos and other types of content to your iPhone.

How to recover deleted photos from iPhone via iTunes backup

If your iPhone is not recognized by iTunes, you will need to fix it first.

To recover deleted photos on iPhone from an iTunes backup (no data loss):

Step 1. First, download EaseUS MobiSaver (for iOS device) > Connect your iPhone/iPad to your computer > Start EaseUS MobiSaver > Select the "Recover from iTunes" > click the "Scan" button.

Rstore iPhone from iTunes

Step 2. MobiSaver will automatically scan your backup file to find the lost data. All the files that have been found by MobiSaver will be displayed on the left side in well-organized categories.

Restore iPhone Photos from iTunes

Step 3. You can preview the detailed contents of your lost contacts and then choose the pictures you want to recover and click the "Recover" button to save them on your computer.

Preview photos you want to restore

Method 3. Get Permanently Deleted Photos Back on iPhone via iCloud

An iCloud backup (you made with iCloud Photos off) also helps you to recover permanently deleted photos from iPhone. Similar to using iTunes backup, you can also choose to restore everything from the iCloud backup via iPhone settings or selectively retrieve photos with iPhone recovery software like EaseUS MobiSaver.

Since the way to use the iPhone photo recovery tool has been detailed above, here I will show you how to recover all iPhone data from an iCloud backup only.

Before you start, you should know that, to restore deleted photos on iPhone from an iCloud backup, you need to erase all content and settings on your iOS device first, then you can choose to restore the device from the backup. Otherwise, you can only use a third-party tool to access and recover data from the backup.

To recover permanently deleted photos from iPhone using an iCloud backup:

Step 1. Go to "Settings" > "General" > "Reset".

Step 2. Tap "Erase All Content and Settings" to reset your iPhone.

Step 3. Set up your iPhone and choose "Restore from iCloud Backup" on the Apps & Data screen.

Step 4. Sign in with your Apple ID and tap "Choose backup".

Step 5. Select the most recent iCloud backup to restore your iPhone from.

How to recover permanently deleted photos from iPhone via iCloud backup

Method 4. Recover Permanently Deleted Photos on iPhone from Third-Party Services

If you have backed up your iPhone photos with third-party services like OneDrive, Google Photos, or Dropbox, you can also easily recover deleted photos from your iPhone.

Let me take Google Photos as an example. If you have turned on Back up and Sync on your iPhone, the photos and videos you deleted from your iPhone will stay in the trash in Google Photos for 60 days before they are permanently deleted. That, luckily, gives you a chance to recover deleted photos on your iPhone.

To recover permanently deleted photos from iPhone via Google Photos:

Step 1. On your iPhone, open Google Photos.

Step 2. Tap "Library" and click "Trash".

Step 3. Select the photos you want to recover and tap "Restore".

Afterward, you will see these items again in your Photos app and Google Photos.

Part 3. Back Up Photos on iPhone

There are also situations in which you can't get back your deleted photos. For example, your iPhone suffered physical damage and there is no backup available. That should remind you of the importance of data backup.

To minimize the chance of data loss, it's really necessary for you to back up your precious files on your devices, especially photos.

To back up your iPhone photos, the easiest way is to transfer iPhone photos to computer:

Step 1. Connect your iPhone to the computer with a USB cable.

Step 2. Unlock the device and click "Trust" to trust the computer.

Step 3. Go to "This PC" and click [your iPhone name] > "Internal Storage" > "DCIM" > "100APPLE".

Step 4. Now you could see all photos and videos from the iPhone. Select and copy the items you want to transfer to a folder on the computer.

How to back up photos on iPhone

For more proven ways to back up photos on iPhone, you can refer to the guide on how to transfer photos from iPhone to PC.

The Bottom Line

iPhone photo recovery could be easy if you apply the proper method. As you may know now, it's really important to make a backup of your precious data to avoid complete data loss. Thus, don't hesitate to grow a good habit of backing up your device regularly.