How to Recover Permanently Deleted Photos on iPhone

recover iphone permanently deleted photos
Photo credit: unsplash @janboeke

For many iOS users, we know that there is a Recently Deleted album inside iPhone Photos app, which allows you to recover any photos deleted in recent 30 days (40 days in iOS 11) for your regret. But what if you also deleted those photos from Recently Deleted folder? How to recover the permanently deleted photos on iPhone?

Part One: Get Back Photos from iCloud

Since Apple introduced iCloud Photo Library, people have been used to sync their photos with iCloud effortless. But sometimes it’s a bad idea. Even though you can revert the action if you mistakenly deleted a photo, when you also delete it from the Recently Deleted folder, iCloud will sync this action immediately and remove the photo completely from its cloud server. If a photo are permanently deleted, the action can’t be undo. There’s no regret for you, unless you match one of these situations below.

If iCloud Photo Library has been activated,

Then all your photos and pictures on iPhone will be automatically sync to iCloud under network connection, which means, all your edits and deletion will also be sync to iCloud as soon as possible. So in this case, unless you are in the poor network connection, you won’t be able to retrieve deleted photos from iCloud.
  • Step 1: Turn on Airplane mode immediately to stop deletion being sync to iCloud.
  • Step 2: Then check your iCloud on computer to see if there’s chance to find the permanently deleted photos on iCloud and download them. 
    view photos in icloud on computer

If iCloud Photo Library is not activated,

Then all your photos will still be sync into iCloud backup along with your other data like messages and app data. In these case, you can’t view photos in the iCloud.com, but you have large chance to get back permanently deleted photos from iCloud backup. To check and extract iCloud backup, Gihosoft iPhone Data Recovery software is a must.
  • Step 1: Make sure you have a recent iCloud backup: go Settings > iCloud > iCloud Backup to check the date of last backup.
  • Step 2: Run iPhone Photo Recovery on computer, and click on “View iCloud Backup”. 
    view icloud backup iphone permanently deleted photos
  • Step 3: Sign into iCloud and download backup to scan.
  • Step 4: Recover permanently deleted photos from iCloud. 
    recover deleted photos from icloud backup

Part Two: Recover Photos from iTunes Backup

If you’ve activated iCloud Photo Library and also had good network when you deleted photos from Recently Deleted folder, then you probably have no chance to recover photos from iCloud, and all you could rely on will be iTunes backup. In case any accident happens to your iPhone, it’s better to sync with iTunes regularly. Beside directly restoring whole device from iTunes, you can check the backup first with Gihosoft iPhone Recovery to see if there are your deleted photos.

First: Check iTunes Backup with Gihosoft iPhone Data Recovery

  • Step 1: Open the iPhone Photo Recovery and click on “View iTunes Backup”.
  • Step 2: Choose the match backup and scan it for photos. 
    retrieve permanently deleted photos from itunes backup
  • Step 3: Preview and recover the permanently deleted photos on iPhone.

Second: Restore Backup from iTunes

Or you can restore whole device from iTunes backup, as long as you aren’t afraid of losing current data. Restoring iPhone from iTunes is easy, though it takes some time, only if your device can be recognized.
  • Step 1: First make sure you’ve ticked on “Prevent iPhone from syncing automatically” in iTunes Edit > Device > Preferences.
  • Step 2: Connect iPhone to computer, and then click iPhone icon to go to Summary.
  • Step 3: Scroll down and click “Restore Backup”. 
    restore photos from itunes backup iphone
  • Step 4: Wait till the process finishes. And then check your photos.
If you know other useful ways to recover permanently deleted photos on iPhone, welcome to share with me by leaving a message in the comment below.
Also, if you need, please refer to How to Delete Photos from iPhone But Not iCloud.

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