How to recover deleted photos after deleting from ‘Recently Deleted’ on iPhone

The Recently Deleted folder in the Photos App on iPhone is there to recover accidentally deleted photos. However, even if your important photos are deleted from ‘Recently Deleted’ you are not yet out of luck. This post shares how to recover deleted photos after deleting them from ‘Recently Deleted’ on iPhone.

‘I deleted some important pictures on my iPhone and also deleted them from the ‘Recently Deleted’ folder. Is there any possible way to recover photos after permanently deleting them from the iPhone?’

When you delete photos from your iPhone, they first go to the ‘Recently Deleted’ folder of the Photos App. Here the photos remain for 30 days. Hence, any picture deleted 30 days ago automatically gets removed after this period, and this time permanently.

However, sometimes you may accidentally delete valuable pictures too. To make the situation worse, even remove image files from ‘Recently Deleted’ or realize the mistake 30 days after deleting!

In any case, can you get photos back after deleting from ‘Recently Deleted’ on your iPhone?

This post addresses the problem situation of permanently deleted photos from iPhones and finds the appropriate solution.

Let’s read on…

Understanding permanently deleted photo recovery from iPhone

You can recover deleted photos from your iPhone after deleting them from the Recently Deleted folder or 30 days of automatic deletion.

Of course, backups — iCloud and iTunes are the immediate go-through solution in such a case. However, Apple backups have their own disadvantage. Photo recovery with iCloud and iTunes results in the loss of your current data on your iPhone!

That’s the reason, iCloud and iTunes are frustrating when you want to get back only a few photos.

So, if you are using another backup service such as Google Drive or OneDrive for iPhone photo backup, they are more convenient.

In addition, apart from backup, iPhone recovery software is just the right solution. It works even when you don’t have a backup or don’t want to eliminate your existing data on your iPhone or iPad.

1. Recover ‘Recently Deleted’ photos from iCloud backup

Use an iCloud backup to recover deleted photos from your iPhone after 30 days of deleting them from the ‘Recently Deleted’ folder. iCloud backup is the best solution to retrieve permanently deleted photos from iPhone free.

Just get on to the below steps to recover deleted photos from iCloud:

• On your iPhone, navigate to Settings > General > Reset> Erase all Contents and Settings.

• Select Erase Now in the dialog box and follow the prompts until you reach the Apps & Data screen.
• Click on Restore from iCloud Backup.

• Sign in to your iCloud account.
• Select the recent backup from the list that has the deleted pictures. Click Restore to get back the deleted photos on your iPhone.

2. Recover permanently deleted photos from iTunes

If you have an iTunes backup, look for the deleted photos after deleting from ‘Recently Deleted’ in your iTunes backup.

Below are the quick steps:

• Connect your iPhone to your PC or Mac and launch iTunes.
• Click on your iPhone under the device list and select the recent backup date that may contain the permanently deleted pictures.

• Click Restore Backup.

That’s it. You get back the deleted photos on your iPhone.  However, this will replace the current data on the iPhone with the old backup data.

3. Recover recently deleted photos from cloud storage

iPhone users, who don’t completely rely on iCloud and iTunes for backup, use third-party cloud backup solutions. If you are one of those, check your cloud storage for permanently deleted photos on your iPhone. Cloud backups such as Google Drive, iCloud, Dropbox, OneDrive, etc., are efficient ways to save and protect your photos on your iPhone from permanent loss. You can restore photos on a PC , Mac, or iPhone by using cloud storage.

4. Recover Recently Deleted Photos with iPhone recovery software [Recommended]

Some of you may not have photos backed up in iCloud or iTunes. It’s also possible you couldn’t find the desired picture in the backup. In any case, use the best iPhone recovery software to get pictures back after deleting from Recently Deleted on iPhone.

Try one of the popularly used Stellar Data Recovery for iPhone . It is compatible with not just old iPhones like iPhone 6, 7, 8, X, etc., but also the latest series of iPhone 15. You also get the latest iOS 17 support.

Stellar Data Recovery for iPhone can help to recover photos from the iPhone without backup. Additionally, you can retrieve lost or deleted contacts, messages, chat messages, Notes, Reminders, etc.

Besides, when you recover photos by using iTunes or iCloud, it gets back all data from the backup file whereas with the software you can select and recover only what you require. Unlike photo recovery from backup, the software doesn’t replace the existing data with old backup data on your iPhone.

Here are the steps to recover deleted photos after deleting them from the Recently Deleted folder on your iPhone:

• Connect your iPhone to your PC or Mac computer.
• Download and launch Stellar Data Recovery for iPhone on a computer.

• On the first screen, select Recover from iPhone on the left pane. If required, you can choose the ‘Recover from iCloud’ or ‘Recover from iTunes’ option.

• Check-in Camera Roll and Photo Stream and click Next.

• The software scans and displays the recovered pictures. See preview, select, and save the desired photos.

Conclusion

An iPhone recovery software is the perfect approach to recover deleted photos from an iPhone after 30 days of deleting them from the ‘Recently Deleted’ folder. We recommend Stellar Data Recovery for iPhone. It is fast and can retrieve permanently deleted photos without affecting the current data of your iPhone. Unlike iCloud and iTunes backup, which annoyingly replace existing data with the old backup data, the software can restore only those photos, which you have deleted.

Take the free trial and ensure that Stellar Data Recovery for iPhone can retrieve permanently deleted photos from your iPhone.

How to fix ‘Unable to load Video: An Error Occurred’

Summary: Are you facing ‘unable to load video’ error message while trying to play videos on iPhone or iPad? No worries. This post guides you how to fix the error and watch your videos on the iOS device without any issue.

‘I am frequently facing ‘unable to load video’ error message ever since iOS 16 update. Its annoying as I cannot watch videos on iPhone. How to fix the issue?’

‘Since I upgraded to iPhone14 Pro from iPhone 11, I have problem playing a few videos. It states ‘error loading video’. I even bought more iCloud storage but no luck. Please help.’

Videos not loading on iPhone or show ‘Unable to load video, an error occurred’ message is a persistent issue faced by iPhone users, even after successive iOS upgrades, irrespective of the iPhone model.

As the annoying error stops you from watching your favorite videos on iPhone, you want to fix it soon. But before that its’ important to understand what could be the cause of this ‘unable to load video’ error, to troubleshoot the problem accordingly.

Why iPhone shows unable to load videos error?

There is no single reason for video loading error. Usually, videos saved in iCloud would display unable to load error on iPhone, if the Internet is off or you have slow connection.

Another common reason behind videos not loading on iPhone is that the ‘optimize storage’ option is enabled on your iOS device. Apple offers this feature to save space on your iOS device and stores the full resolution videos to iCloud. However, this often results in the video loading problem on the device.

Its’ also possible that your iPhone has insufficient space, which prevents videos from loading. There could also be a bug that can be fixed with iPhone update.

Right 9 ways to Fix ‘Unable to load Video, an error occurred’ on iPhone, iPad

Method 1: Restart iPhone

Restart, also called soft reset can fix error in loading video on iPhone or iPad. Close all the applications and restart your iPhone or iPad.

Method 2: Turn on Internet of the iOS device

If you are watching YouTube, Netflix, or other online videos, ensure cellular data of your device is turned on. In case you are facing the error ‘unable to load video: an error occurred’ while loading a higher quality version of the video on iPhone, try by switching to uninterrupted Wi-Fi connection. Note that high speed Internet is necessary for streaming videos on iOS device.

Method 3: Update your iOS device

You can update the device to fix ‘unable to load video’ error on iPhone or iPad. To update your iPhone or iPad follow the given steps. Before that make sure Wi-Fi is turned on.

• Go to Settings > General > Software Update.
• Click Download and Install followed by Install Now.

Method 4: Turn off the Optimize Storage option

When ‘optimize storage’ option is enabled on your iOS device, all the full-resolution high quality videos and photos get saved in iCloud while only the compressed space-saving versions are on your iPhone.

Thus, when you try to open a video on the iOS device, it takes time eventually to load it from iCloud. While sometimes, the video may not load at all. Try to fix unable to load video on iPhone by turning off this feature. Here are steps to disable optimize storage’ option:

• Open Settings. Click on your name.
• Tap on iCloud > Photos.
• Below Optimize iPhone Storage, tap on Download and Keep Originals option.

Figure: Disable Optimise iPhone Storage Option

Wait until the iPhone downloads all the videos from iCloud. You should now be able to open videos without loading error.

Method 5: Update the app that shows video load error on iPhone

If the video loading issue error pops up in a particular app like YouTube, Instagram, then update the application. If the update doesn’t help, you can reinstall the app also. This should fix videos not loading error or buffering issues. App update are available in App Store. To update any iPhone app follow the given steps:

• Open the App Store.
• Now click on your profile icon on top.

Figure: Update app in App Store

• Scroll to find your app and click on the Update button next to it. You can also click on Update All on top.

Method 6: Create free space on your iPhone

High quality videos may not load and show error if there is no space on your iPhone. Check your iOS device, if it has enough free space. Its’ essential to have 2GB free space available in the device to play high quality and large size videos.

You can check the available space on your iPhone or iPad by navigating to: Settings > General > iPhone Storage.

Figure: iPhone storage screen

On the top right, you will see the amount of space used on your iOS device. If the space is less, remove the useless videos, photos, apps and other data on your iPhone or iPad.

Method 7: Access video from iCloud.com

If the videos don’t load on iPhone and show error, try to access them via iCloud.com on your computer by following the below steps:

• Open iCloud.com and enter Apple ID credentials to sign in.
• Click on the Photos or iCloud Drive app where the video is saved.
• Find your video and click on it to open.

There’s also the options in icloud.com to share the video via email or download to save it on your computer.

Method 8: Repair video not loading on iPhone

If you face ‘unable to load video’ an error occurred in Camera Roll videos of iPhone, the file may have corrupted.

Copy or transfer the problem video to your PC or Mac. Download and install a video repair software—Stellar Repair for Video . It can fix file corruption in the error throwing iPhone video. The software is compatible with MP4, MOV, HEVC, video files formats used in iPhone and iPad.

The software also offers a free trail wherein you can repair the corrupt video and watch its preview.

Method 9: Restore iPhone to factory settings

If ‘unable to load video’ error is perpetual on your iPhone or iPad, in spite of trying the above methods, then factory reset can be your last bet.

As all know, factory reset will delete everything on your iOS device , make sure you create the latest backup of the iPhone in iCloud or iTunes.

Follow the below steps to factory reset iPhone and fix unable to load video error:

• Open Settings > General > Reset.
• Click on Erase All Content and Settings.
• Enter Apple passcode. Click on Erase iPhone and follow the prompts.

Now check if the video error problem is resolved or not.

Wrapping Up & FAQ

Usually one of the methods shared in this post fixes the error – ‘unable to load video‘, an error occurred’ on iPhone. However, unfortunately if none works and you cannot play videos on iPhone, contact Apple support .

FAQ

1. Why does my iPhone say ‘an error occurred while loading a higher quality version of this photo’?

High quality photos/videos require more storage space to open. Less free storage is one of the for the media file loading error.

Hence, delete some useless photos, videos, or apps to free up space. Now you can open the high quality photo/video smoothly without any error.

2. Why my iPhone videos not playing on PC?

Your iPhone videos may not play on Windows PC due to many reasons— the media player doesn’t support videos file format; virus in your PC; or the video has turned corrupt during transfer. However, you can fix the problem and play iPhone videos on Windows .

3. Why I cannot view my video in icloud.com?

In iCloud.com, select the Photos app and click Photos. In the side bar, you will see the thumbnails of all your photos and videos. Find your video and click on it to view.

How to Recover Deleted Videos from iPhone Without Backup?

Your iPhone 13 Pro is supported by a strong and powerful operating system that makes your daily activities such as calling, emailing, messaging, web browsing, notes making, etc. easily possible. Also, capturing happy moments spent with family, friends, and your loved ones is another thing that you do with it. It is natural that the good times that you record becomes your favorite videos, which you love watching anytime you feel like.

However, at times in the event of making space in your iPhone 13 Pro, or due to any other reason, you accidentally delete the videos, and end up losing one, more, or all of them. The situation becomes grim when you realize that you haven’t taken a backup of your favorite videos. You really do not know what to do to recover your deleted videos from iPhone  13 without backup. It is then that you understand the importance of having a backup and regret not creating the same for your favorite videos.

You can come out from such a situation with the help of Stellar Data Recovery for iPhone. It is a comprehensive iPhone data recovery software tool through which you can recover deleted videos from iPhone 13 Pro without a backup.

The videos you capture with your iPhone 13 Pro gets stored in either the memory of the phone. However, once the videos are lost or accidentally deleted from there, you lose access to them. To recover deleted videos of iPhone 13 Pro with Stellar Data Recovery for iPhone, you need to execute the following steps:

Step 1) Download and install the software on your system, the one on which you want to recover the deleted videos of your iPhone 13 Pro.

Step 2) Connect your iPhone 13 Pro to your system.

Note –  You can connect your iPhone 13 Pro with multiple devices and the software will enlist all the connected devices. You can connect the iPhone 13 Pro after or before the launch of the software.

Step 3) Next, launch the software that you installed.

Step 4) To recover deleted videos from your iPhone 13 Pro, click on the ‘Recover from iPhone’ option that comes up on the screen.

Step 5) The Stellar Data Recovery for iPhone software will scan the iPhone 13 Pro to list all the recently deleted data including videos.

Step 6) All deleted videos will be listed in red, while the rest will be listed in black color as shown in the image placed below.

Step 7) After that, select the videos you want to recover by putting check marks in the boxes in front of them.

Step 8) Provide the address of the location where you would want the recovered videos to be saved.

Step 9) Click Save button to finally save the videos. With this, the ‘Save Files’ dialog appears as shown below:

 (i) Chose the option ‘Save to Computer’ if you want to save the recovered videos to your computer. Click Browse and select a destination for saving the recovered files and click OK.

(ii) Choose the option ‘Save to iPhone’ if you want to save the recovered files to your iPhone 13 Pro. From the drop-down menu, select the iPhone 13 Pro to which you want to save the recovered videos.

Step 10) Finally, click on the OK tab to complete the recovery process of deleted videos from your iPhone 13 Pro.

What should I do if I don’t find the deleted iPhone files after scanning?

Stellar Data Recovery for iPhone is an efficient software to recover all kinds of lost data from iPhone, iTunes, and iCloud.

In case you are unable to find the lost data after quick scan through Stellar Data Recovery for iPhone , choose to perform Deep Scan.

Deep scan is a next level of aggressive scanning. It involves thorough scan of the device and the backups (iTunes and iCloud) using advanced algorithms. Deep Scan recovers as much data as possible from the selected device or backup. It searches for lost files on the basis of file signature. This recovery option recovers everything that is found in the selected source. This option is especially helpful in case of severely deleted and corrupted iPhone data.

How to perform Deep Scan?

Once quick scan is completed, in the preview window choose Click Here option at the bottom left of the window to start Deep Scan.

When the scanning process is completed, a dialog box displaying the message ‘Deep Scan completed’ is displayed.

In case the additional data is not recovered through Deep Scan, the dialog box displays the message ‘Deep Scan completed. No additional data found.’

Files found during Deep Scan can be viewed in the preview window and saved at any desired location.

Stellar Data Recovery for iPhone® Stellar Data Recovery for iPhone® is the best DIY software to recover missing or accidentally deleted Contacts, Messages, Calendar, Photos, Videos, Call History etc directly from iPhone or iPad.