Retrieve Pictures Accidentally Deleted on Different Devices

Digital photos occupy a large part of many people's lives. Unfortunately, they can be lost due to many reasons. For example, you may have accidentally pressed the delete all button on your phone or computer.

If you ever backed up your photos, you can easily get back your deleted photos from the backup. If not, there’s also no need to panic or despair. You can still use data recovery software to retrieve pictures accidentally deleted. And we will show you a complete guide.

Note: As soon as you suspect that you have accidentally deleted photos, stop using the affected storage device immediately, such as SD card, USB flash drive. Using this device may overwrite storage locations containing deleted files. Once they are overwritten, they can never be recovered.

How to recover deleted photos on a Windows PC

Windows comes along with different backup software, such as Backup and Restore, File History, OneDrive, to help users backup files on their computer. If you turn any of them on, there is a chance to recover deleted photos on a Windows PC.  In addition, if you don't have any backup, try free but powerful Windows data recovery software.

Way 1: Recover deleted pictures with Software (Easiest)

On the data recovery market, there are many data recovery software. MyRecover is a good choice. Its advanced scanning methods ensure you can find all the recoverable pictures and recover them successfully in a short time.

In addition, MyRecover has three editions: Free, Pro, and Technician. The free edition supports cost-free data recovery of over 500 MB. To recover more or unlimited photos, please upgrade to MyRecover Pro or Technician. The Technician is recommended for business users within one company.

Step 1. Launch MyRecover. Hover the mouse over the drive and click Scan to scan the selected disk.

Step 2. It will automatically run Quick Scan & Deep Scan and search all lost data on this disk.  It will list all the found files in the following picture. To locate photos, select Filter > Images and type file extension (eg: .jpeg) in the search box to narrow down image formats.  

Step 3. You can also wait until the scanning process to complete. Then, select all the deleted pictures and  tap on Recover x files to retrieve pictures accidentally deleted. Please remember to select a new location instead of the original. Otherwise, your pictures will be overwritten.

You can also use this software to retrieve other file types, such as get old videos back, recover MP3 files, retrieve ZIP files, and more.

Way 2: Retrieved Deleted Photos with Backup and Restore

If you create a copy of your photos with Backup and Restore (Windows 7), it will be a great idea to restore deleted photos from it. Try the following steps.

Step 1. Go to Control Panel > System and Security > select Backup and Restore (Windows 7). Then, click Restore my files.

Step 2. Click the Search…, Browse for files, and Browse for folders options to find your deleted pictures.

Step 3. Select where you want to restore your files - original location or new location and then click Restore to restore deleted pictures.

Method 3. Restore Precious Version of Pictures

Another effective way is to restore deleted photos from previous versions as long as you enable file history or system restore point.  It gives you a chance to restore the precious version of your photos.

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 version containing deleted pictures and click on the Restore position.

How to recover deleted photos on iPhone 

In fact, if you've deleted a photo on your iPhone or iPad, there's a "Recently Deleted" folder in the Albums section of the Photos app. This will keep deleted photos and videos for up to 30 days, so as long as that time limit isn't exceeded, you can choose what you want and restore them.

However, if you can't find the photos you want in the "Recently Deleted" folder, it means they have been permanently deleted from your iPhone. In this case, using a third-party iOS data recovery software is the best option to help you retrieve accidentally deleted photos from your iPhone. 

Way 1: Check the Recently Deleted Album

If your deleted pictures are within 30 days, try to check the Recently Deleted album first. Follow the steps as follow:

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.

Way 2: Restore Delete Photos from iCloud Backup

If you turn iCloud on, you may have a copy of backup files here. Try to restore deleted photos from iCloud backup as follows:

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 to your Apple ID and select the backup containing deleted photos for data recovery.

Way 3: Recover deleted photos on iPhone with Software

If your deleted picture is not found in the Recently Deleted album or iCloud backup, try data recovery software for iPhone. Here, MyRecover for iOS is recommended to you due to its high success rate, prominent features, and wide compatibility. You can use it on iOS 10 and later systems.

Some prominent features of this tool:

☂ All-inclusive data: It can recover photos, videos, contacts, call logs, voice memos, notes, reminders, calendars, and safari bookmarks. ☂ Phone app data recovery: It can retrieve lost or deleted data in some applications, such as recovering WeChat history, photos, videos, audio, WhatsApp messages, app documents, etc. ☂ Preview and select: It allows you to preview and choose desired photos, videos, notes, and other iPhone data before saving. ☂ Export data to computer: It also can export and save recovered phone data such as chats, images, audio, video or other types of files to a computer for backup or data transfer. ☂ Wide compatibility: It supports recovering data from all iPhone, iPad, & iPod touch models, so it is perfectly compatible with the latest iOS 16/15.

Now, download this tool and follow the steps below to learn how to get back photos accidentally deleted on iPhone or iPad.

Step 1. Run MyRecover for iOS on your computer. Then, connect your iPhone to the computer and tap Trust on your iPhone.

Step 2. It will automatically detect your iPhone, you just need to click Scan Now to start the scanning process.

Step 3. All iPhone data found will be listed on the left panel. Click the Photos icon and choose the deleted photos you want. Then, click Recover to restore deleted pictures on iPhone.

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 plug your SD card out and recover deleted files from SD card in a Windows PC.

Method 1: Recover deleted photos from Google Photos

If you back up 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.

Step 1. Open Google Photos on your Android phone.

Step 2. Go to Menu > Trash and locate the deleted photos. Then click Restore to get them back.

Note that Microsoft OneDrive and Dropbox have a similar feature called Recycle Bin or Deleted Files to restore deleted photos. Find it and locate the deleted picture, and click Restore.

Way 2: Restore Deleted Picture with Software

To restore deleted pictures from SD card, the easiest way is to plug it it into your computer and use reliable data recovery software like MyRecover. Its advanced scanning methods -Quick Scan & Deep Scan can find all the recoverable photos and recover them successfully.

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 you want.

Step 3. If you find the desired pictures, click the Recover xx files button to get them back. You can also wait until the scanning process is complete.

Bonus tips to avoid picture loss in the future

While it's a great thing to have lots of ways to recover deleted pictures from any devices. But no recovery method is 100% perfect, and despite your best efforts, deleted photos may not be recovered.

Therefore, preventing problems before they happen is the best way to protect your data.Taking some simple and common sense precautions can help you avoid the stress of losing your images. Here are some tips to help you avoid photo data loss.

💿 Back up your photos regularly: 

The importance of regularly backing up your photos cannot be overstated. Whether on an iPhone, Android phone or Windows PC, creating a backup copy is an accepted best practice you should follow.

• You can regularly transfer iPhone photos to PC for backup.
• The same goes for Android phone.
• For Photos on Windows, you can create automatic backups for daily, weekly, and monthly backups.

👾 Avoid viruses and malware: Virus or malware infection can cause unexpected data loss. To minimize the risk of infecting your storage device, you can always have an updated antivirus program installed on your computer.

🔨 Take care of physical storage devices: Users whose devices have been physically damaged may not be able to recover lost photos using any of the methods. So, take care of your iPhone and computer.

☁️ Automatically upload photos to the cloud: Services like OneDrive, Google Photos, Dropbox, and iCloud make it easy to store your photos securely in the cloud, which can be used as a copy of backup files.

❓ Think twice before deleting files: Sometimes, pressing the wrong key or formatting an important partition can lead to irreversible consequences. So, think twice before hitting that delete key, and make sure you want to do it.

Conclusion

That’s all for how to retrieve pictures accidentally deleted from Windows, iPhone or Android phone. No matter what type of device you use to store photos, once you delete or lose photos, you should first consider taking steps to perform photo recovery. 

For better and faster photo recovery, using professional data recovery software like MyRecover may be the best way. It's suitable for more data loss scenarios, such as accidental deletion, virus infection, lost partition, etc. You can also use it on different devices, such as SD card, USB drive, external disk, etc.