5 Ways to Restore Deleted Pictures on Different Devices
With different methods, this article helps you to restore deleted pictures on Windows, Mac, Android, or iPhone effectively. Read this article for more details.
Photos are a means for many people to preserve their precious memories. While using Windows, Mac, Android, or iPhone, some people may accidentally delete important photos for various reasons. But deleting photos doesn't mean they can't be restored anymore. With effective methods, you can learn how to restore deleted photos with ease regardless of your devices.
Can I recover permanently deleted photos?
“To free up space on my computer, I deleted some of my useless photos on my PC permanently. But I checked the next morning and found that some important pictures were removed. Does anyone know how to recover them? Thank you very much!” – answers.microsoft.com
“Hi, I thought the whole point of having an icloud was that all photos/docs etc could then be deleted from your phone, but would remain saved on icloud. How can I recover photos that were saved to my icloud but were then permanently deleted from my iphone and are as a result no longer on my icloud. thanks! ” – discussions.apple.com
In fact, deletion just removes the file references of the photos and makes them invisible. You can easily recover deleted photos even if the Recycle Bin has been emptied or permanently deleted. Provided that the deleted data is not overwritten. Continue to read this article and discover effective methods.
How to Restore Deleted Pictures on Windows PC
We cover five proven ways of how to restore deleted pictures- with or without software. You can choose the right solution according to your needs.
Method 1. Restore deleted pictures from Recycle Bin
When you delete photos on your computer, these photos are temporarily stored in Recycle Bin, from which, you can restore accidentally deleted files and folders. Let's see how to recover deleted photos from Recycle Bin:
Step 1. Open Recycle Bin on your Windows PC.
Step 2. Search for or browse to find the removed pictures needed to restore in Recycle Bin.
Step 3. Right-click on selected pictures and select Restore.
Method 2. Recover deleted photos via a File History backup
How to restore deleted files after Recycle Bin is emptied? If you have previously backed up your photos using the system backup tools such as File History or Backup and Restore, you can recover your deleted photos by restoring the backup. Here we take File History as an example to explain the process of how to restore deleted pictures on computer.
Step 1. Input “restore files” in the Windows search box and click on Open for Restore your files with File History in the search result.
Step 2. Navigate the deleted pictures or choose the folder that contains these pictures.
Step 3. Click the green refresh button to restore deleted pictures to its original location.
Method 3. Restore deleted pictures from Previous Versions
Another way to restore erased photos is via Previous Versions, if you have created a system restore point to save the previous version of your system. You can recover accidentally deleted or corrupted files and folders based on copies of the files and folders that Windows automatically saves as part of the restore point.
Step 1. First, right-click the folder where you save your deleted photos before and tap on Restore Previous Versions.
Step 2. In the Previous Version tab, select the appropriate version that you want to restore of the folder and click on the Restore position.
Method 4. Restore deleted pictures with Command Prompt
Command Prompt can solve many Windows-related problems, including helping users to retrieve files lost due to accidental deletion and virus attacks. Recovering files using CMD from hard drives works with USB drives and local disks. But using CMD cannot make sure that files could be recovered 100% successfully.
Below you will find a step-by-step process about how to restore deleted pictures on Windows 10 and other operating systems using CMD.
Step 1. Start Command Prompt and select Run as administrator.
Step 2. Input chkdsk [drive letter]:/f to tap Enter. Then, type Y and hit Enter to confirm and proceed to examine.
Step 3. Type in [drive letter] and hit Enter again. And then, enter attrib -h -r -s /s /d [drive letter]:\*.* to start recovering files on this disk.
- Notes:✎...
- After finishing the process of recovering files, a new folder will be created on the disk with all the files in .CHK format. You can modify the file name extension from .CHK to .JPG. to make them available.
- There is also a free Windows File Recovery software with clickable icons named WinfrGUI that can help restore accidentally deleted media files, office files, ZIP files, and so forth in Windows 10 and 11.
Method 5. Restore Deleted pictures with data recovery software (recommend)
How can I get back my deleted photos if I haven't backed them up in advance and Recycle Bin has been emptied? Don't worry, you can use professional data recovery software to restore deleted photos simply. MyRecover is our pick.
- Suitable for different data loss scenarios. such as accidental deletion, disk formatting (eg: restoring files from a formatted hard drive), virus infection, lost partition, etc.
- Advanced scanning methods: Quick Scan & Deep Scan. It will scan your disk thoroughly to find all the recoverable files, with a high success rate.
- Support a wide range of image file formats, such as JPG/JPEG/JPE, PNG, TIF/TIFF, HEVC/HEIC/HEIF, GIF, PSD, SVG, ARW, X3F, etc. So you can use it to recover deleted PNG files.
- Search, filter, and preview deleted pictures during the scanning process to help you identify the desired files quickly and effectively.
- Support restoring files from HDD, SSD, external hard drive, USB drive, SD card, etc., in Windows 7, 8, 10, 11, and Windows Server.
100% SecureDownload the software on your computer and go through the guide below to learn how to restore deleted pictures from recently deleted or permanently deleted easily.
Step 1. Launch MyRecover and hover the mouse over the drive and click Scan to scan. If your photos are deleted from an external drive, please connect your external disk to the PC beforehand.
Step 2. Wait for the process of scanning deleted or lost files and select a whole drive, a folder, or a single file for restoration. You can enable Filter to locate the file type you want or search for the filename to find it directly
- Type: It will contain all the file types in the local drive, such as, images, videos, documents, mails, webpage, compressed files, etc.
- Data Modified: It supports today, yesterday, last 7 days, last 30 days, and custom. To recover deleted files at a specific time period, try the last option.
- Size: It allows you to filter file size from less than 128KB to 128KB ~1MB to 1MB ~ 512MB and above, or custom.
Step 3. After that, click the Recover xx files button in the lower right corner to restore deleted pictures. You will then be asked to select a location for the recovered files. Select a new location to prevent data overwriting.
How to recover deleted photos on Mac
If you are using Mac machine and in need of recovering deleted photos, read the following content and get several methods to help you.
Method 1. Recover deleted photos from Trash
On Mac, the recently deleted files are saved in the Trash. So if you find any data loss, try to check it first.
Step 1. Double-click the Trash Bin to open it.
Step 2. Locate the deleted photos, right-click it and select Put Back. It will be restored to the original location.
Method 2. Restore deleted pictures from Time Machine
Mac comes along with backup and restore software - Time Machine to help you backup your files including the pictures. If you saves a copy of them, try to restore deleted pictures from it.
Step 1. Connect your backup drive to Mac and be sure it's recognized. Then, open the Finder window.
Step 2. Open the Time Machine and select Browse Time Machine Backups.
Step 3. Locate the deleted pictures and click Restore to start photo recovery.
How to restore deleted pictures on Android
For Android users, it's suggested to restore deleted pictures on Android from cloud storage, such as Google Photos, Dropbox and Microsoft One Drive. If not, you still can try to recover deleted files from SD card by plugging it out of your Andorid phone.
Method 1: Recover deleted photos from Google Photos
If you backup photos to cloud storage, it will keep the deleted photos for a while, 180 days for Dropbox, 60 days for Google Photos and 30 days for OneDrive. Try to recover deleted photos during the retention time.
Open Google Photos on your Android device, go to Menu > Trash and locate the deleted photos, then click Restore to get them back.
Method 2: Restore deleted pictures from SD card
To restore deleted pictures from SD card, the easiest way is plug it it into your computer and use a reliable data recovery software like MyRecover. Its advanced scanning methods - Quick Scan & Deep Scan can find all the recoverable photos and recover them successfully.
It also has good compatibility with SD, miniSD, and micro SD cards, all of which will be used in Android phones. The corresponding file systems including FAT32, EXT4, EXT3, and exFAT are supported. More surprisingly, it is capable of restoring different image file formats, such as JPG/JPEG/JPE, PNG, TIF/TIFF, HEVC/HEIC/HEIF, GIF, PSD, SVG, ARW, X3F, etc.
What are you waiting for when you should have it? Download it to get deleted pictures back now!
Reliable SD card data recovery software on Andriod Phone
Step 1. After loading this software, select your SD card and Click Scan.
Step 2. It will start the scanning methods to find your deleted photos and display them under Recycle Bin, Deleted Files, or Other Missing Files. During the process, you can search or filter deleted photos if you just want to restore deleted files from specific folder.
Step 3. If you find the desire pictures, click the Recover xx files button to get them back. You can also wait untill the scanning process is complete.
How to retrieve deleted photos on iPhone
In addition, there are some iPhone users who also want to retrieve deleted photos. If you are one of them, read the following content and get your pictures back quickly.
Method 1: Restore deleted pictures from Recently Deleted album
iPhone comes with a Recently Deleted album to save deleted photos within 30 days. You can check this album if the deleted photos are still under retention time.
Step 1. Open the Phones app on your iPhone and go to the Recently Deleted album.
Step 2. Locate the deleted photos and select it, click the Recover option.
Method 2. Restore deleted photos from iCloud
iCloud is a cloud storage device, released by Apple, that provides iPhone users with 5GB of free storage space. If you turn it on, it will back up your photos in the albums. Once you find your pictures are deleted, try to restore delete photos from iCloud.
From Settings on iPhone:
Step 1. Open Settings and go to General > Reset > Transfer or Reset iPhone.
Step 2. Select Erase All Content and Settings and click Continue.
Step 3. Click Erase iPhone and complete the setup process.
Step 4. In the Apps & Data window, select Restore from iCloud Backup.
Step 5. Sign in your Apple ID and select the backup containing deleted photos for data recovery.
From icloud.com:
Step 1. Sign in to your iCloud account and click Photos > Recently Deleted to locate the deleted photos.
Step 2. Select the deleted photos and click the Recover option to recover recently deleted photos on iPhone.
Method 3. Retrieve deleted picture from iTunes
If you backed up photos on iPhone using iTunes, this will be great choice to restore deleted pictures. Follow the steps below.
Step 1. Connect your iPhone to Mac machine and open iTune.
Step 2. Select your iPhone and click the Restore Backup... option.
Step 3. Select the backup containing deleted pictures and click Restore.
Wrapping up
On this page, we describe how to restore deleted pictures with or without backup. If you don't have a backup for photos, you can first try recovering data from Recycle Bin. If Recycle Bin has been cleared, you can also use MyRecover, a professional data recovery tool for Windows users, to recover permanently deleted files from PC with a few clicks.