Recover Deleted Photos From iPhone: 5 Proven Solutions

iPhone enthusiasts often rave about its camera quality. The ability to capture cherished moments with its impressive capabilities is a major draw for iOS users. Yet, as with any smartphone, there's a risk of losing your favorite memories.

Losing your photos can be heartbreaking, especially if they're snapshots of unforgettable moments you hoped to treasure forever –  vacations, weddings, your child's first steps, or a joyous celebration with friends.

To assist in such a distressing situation, we offer some proven methods and strategies to recoup your beloved photos back to your iPhone. But before moving on to that, let’s first uncover the causes that lead to photo loss on an iPhone.

Possible Causes Behind Photo Loss on iPhone

There could be many possible reasons for the loss of photos from your iPhone. Some common reasons are listed below:

  • Accidental deletion
  • Factory reset
  • Failed iOS update
  • iPhone jailbreak
  • Camera Roll or Photo Stream crash
  • Virus or malware attack
  • Photo loss during transfer from iPhone to PC

How to Recover Deleted Pictures on iPhone?

Different situations call for distinct methods to restore lost or deleted photos on the iPhone. If you’ve backed up your photos on iCloud and iTunes, you can easily restore them from there. In the absence of any backup, iPhone photo recovery software is your best bet to get those memories back.

A reliable iPhone recovery software works regardless of the reason behind your photo loss. Other methods, such as restoring from the 'Recently Deleted' folder or turning on iCloud Photos, can also work in specific situations.

Solution 1: Recover Deleted Photos on iPhone from the ‘Recently Deleted’ Album

Pictures taken with the iPhone Camera application are saved by default in the Photos application. If a photo or video is deleted, it's moved to the ‘Recently Deleted’ folder in the Photos app. This folder is the same as your Mac’s Trash folder. The ‘Recently Deleted folder retains the deleted photos for 30 days, after which they are permanently deleted.

Follow the steps below to recover recently deleted photos on your iPhone:

Step 1: Open the Photos app.

Step 2: Tap on Albums at the bottom.

Step 3: Scroll down to find the Recently Deleted folder.

Step 4: Tap on the Select option at the top-right corner of the screen.

Step 5: Select the deleted photos you want to recover on your iPhone.

Step 6: Now, tap Recover, and the pictures will be returned to their original iPhone albums.

Solution 2: Recover Deleted Photos on iPhone Using iCloud Backup

Apple's iCloud Backup helps restore deleted photos from your iPhone to your system. For iCloud to automatically back up all your pictures and videos, you must first set up and enable iCloud Photos on your device.

Here's how to enable iCloud Photos to backup all your photos:

Step 1: Open the Settings app on your iPhone.

Step 2: Tap iCloud and then go to Photos.

Step 3: Toggle on iCloud Photos to enable it.

To restore photos from iCloud, follow these steps:

Step 4: Go to the iCloud Website and log in with your Apple credentials.

Step 5: Once logged in, select 'Photos' from the app list.

Step 6: Go to Recently Deleted folder, select the photos you wish to restore, and click Recover.

Solution 3: Recover Deleted Photos on iPhone Using iTunes Backup

Many iPhone users use iTunes Backup to backup and restore their deleted photos and videos. Apple's proprietary tool syncs your iPhone files to your PC or Mac. Follow the steps to recover deleted photos from the iTunes backup:

Step 1: Connect your iPhone to your Mac system with macOS Mojave or an earlier version.
Step 2: Click on the iPhone icon at the upper-left corner of your iTunes window.

Step 3: Click the Summary tab in the left pane.

Step 4: Now, in the Backups section, click on Restore Backup.

Step 5: Select the backup you want your phone to use.
Step 6: Once the restoration process is complete, check Photos app to see if the deleted photos are restored. If not, try repeating the process and returning to the most recent backup, or choose an older backup.

Solution 4: Recover Deleted Photos on iPhone Using Finder

To restore your iPhone photos using Finder in macOS Catalina 10.15 or above, follow these steps:

Step 1: Open Finder on your Mac with macOS Catalina 10.15 or above.
Step 2: Connect your iPhone to your Mac system.
Step 3: Select your iPhone from the location lists on the left.

Step 4: Navigate to the General tab and click Restore Backup.

Step 5: Select the backup date you like to use for restoring.

Step 6: Click the Restore button to confirm.

Solution 5: Recover Deleted Photos on iPhone Using Professional Software

Although restoring from backups can help recover your lost photos, there’s a catch – recovery using this method can replace the data on your iPhone. If you do not want to part with the existing data on your iOS device and recover only those lost files, Stellar Data Recovery for iPhone is the most feasible option.

It offers three recovery options — ‘Recover from iPhone’, ‘Recover from iTunes Backup’, and ‘Recover from iCloud Backup’. You can select and recover only the desired content rather than restoring all unwanted data from your iPhone, iTunes, or iCloud:

Step 1: Connect your iPhone to your computer.
Step 2: Download Stellar Data Recovery for iPhone on your PC or Mac.
Step 3: Select Recover from iPhone on the main screen of the software.

Step 4: Select the data type and click Next. The scanning process will start.

Step 5: Once the scanning is complete, preview the recovered photos. Select the photos you want to restore, and click Save.
Step 6: Choose the destination to save your recovered data.

Conclusion

The data loss issues on your iPhone can be easily resolved through multiple backup solutions, including iTunes and iCloud. However, while using these methods, you may also end up replacing the existing data on your device.

To avoid this situation, we recommend using professional iPhone recovery software like Stellar Data Recovery for iPhone. This versatile tool can recover your deleted photos in diverse scenarios like water damage, jailbreak, factory reset, Black Screen of Death, etc. The software has an exceptionally high data recovery success rate, making it an essential utility for all iPhone users.



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A passionate content creator with over 8 years’ of experience.

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