How to Recover deleted pictures on iPhone? 5 Best Solutions

For many iPhone users, photos are the most important data stored on their device – so losing those photos can be a disaster.

However, even if you accidentally deleted some or all of your pictures on iPhone, you can get them back.

We’ll discuss how to recover deleted photos on your iPhone with or without backup.

How to Recover Deleted Pictures on iPhone?

There are five best solutions to recover deleted pictures on iPhone. Use the solution that fits your needs and helps you recover your lost pictures.

1. Recover Deleted Pictures on iPhone from Recently Deleted Albums

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 computer’s Recycle Bin and retains the deleted photos for 30 days. Once this period expires, your photos are permanently deleted from this folder. Perform these steps if you want to recover recently deleted photos on your iPhone:

• Open the Photos app.
• Tap on Albums at the bottom.

• Scroll down to find the Recently Deleted folder.

• Tap on the Select option at the top-right corner of the screen.

• Select the deleted photos you want to recover on your iPhone.

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

Note – If you want to restore all the deleted photos from your Recently Deleted folder, tap on the Recover All button.

How to Recover Deleted Pictures on iPhone From a Backup?

If your photos are not in the Recently Deleted folder, you might get them back by restoring your iPhone from a previous backup. There are three ways to restore deleted photos on iPhone – iCloud website, iTunes backup, or Finder.

When recovering photos from your iPhone from backup, pay attention to the date of creation of your backups. Use the most recent backup but don’t delete all older backups. It’s always good to have multiple backups if something goes wrong.

2. Recover Photos on iPhone using iCloud via the iCloud website

Apple’s iCloud Backup helps you recover 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:

• Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
• Tap iCloud and then go to Photos.

• Toggle on iCloud Photos to enable it.

To restore photos from iCloud, follow these steps:

• Go to the iCloud Website and log in with your Apple credentials.

• Once logged in, select ‘Photos’ from the app list.

• Go to Recently Deleted Album, select the photos you wish to restore, and click Recover.

3. Recover Photos on iPhone using iTunes

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

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

• Click the Summary tab in the left pane.

• Now in the Backups section, click on Restore Backup.

• Select the backup you want your phone to use.

Note - macOS Mojave is the last version of Apple’s OS to ship with iTunes. In macOS Catalina and newer version, iTunes is split into different apps: Podcasts, Books, TV, and Music. Moreover, Finder is used to manage and sync content on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

• Once the restoration process is complete, check the Photos app to see if the deleted photos were recovered. If not, try repeating the process and return to the most recent backup or choose an older backup.

4. Recover Deleted Pictures on iPhone using Finder

To restore the pictures on iPhone using Finder in macOS Catalina 10.15 or above, follow these steps:

• Open Finder on your Mac with macOS Catalina 10.15 or above.
• Connect your iPhone to your Mac system.
• Select your iPhone from the location lists on the left.

• Navigate to the General tab and click Restore Backup.

• Select the backup date you like to use for restoring.

• Click the Restore button to confirm.

How to Recover Pictures on iPhone without Backup?

What to do if there is no iPhone backup or you cannot restore pictures using iCloud or iTunes? Use iPhone data recovery software to restore lost iPhone pictures.

Stellar Data Recovery for iPhone can find and restore deleted/lost pictures, videos, chat messages, audio, contacts, etc., from your iPhone/iPad/iPod touch. This software is easy to use when restoring deleted photos, and you can operate it even if you don’t have technical knowledge. Follow the steps to discover how to use software to recover deleted photos:

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

•  Select Recover from iPhone on the main screen of the software.

• Select the data type and click Next. The scanning process will start.

• Once the scanning is completed, preview the data. Select the recovered data you want to restore and click Save.

• Choose the destination to save the recovered data.

Conclusion

The data loss issues in Apple can be resolved easily through multiple backup solutions — iTunes, iCloud, and iCloud.com. However, these native backup recovery solutions fall short when you need to recover specific data, though you can easily recover deleted photos in your iPhone from these backup options. However, you will also end up replacing every existing data on your device!

Stellar Data Recovery for iPhone fills this gap quite efficiently. It recovers your deleted photos in water damage, jailbreak, factory reset, Black Screen of Death, etc. In addition, this software has an exceptionally high data recovery success rate, making it an essential utility for iPhone users.

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Recover Lost Photos during Transfer from iPhone to PC or Mac

Summary: Lost your precious photos during the transfer from iPhone to computer? Learn 4 ways to recover photos lost during transfer. These methods are applicable to all variants of iPhone and iPad or in short all iOS devices.

Transferring photos from iPhone 15, 14/13/12/X/8/7 to PC or Mac system is a simple task that can often get skewed causing serious photo loss situations. If you have also lost your valuable photos during one such event of photos transfer, then here’s a guide to get back photos lost during the transfer.

Photo loss while transferring from iPhone to a computer is a common problem faced by many. You try to transfer your photos from your iPhone to your computer and select the location to save them.

But when you check the drive folder in the system, to your shock the photos are not there! And if this is a ‘cut and paste’ transfer from iPhone, it’s a big jolt for you.

But do not worry, thankfully, data recovery technology is always there to recover lost photos in any situation.

There can be several reasons for the loss of photos during transfer, such as below:

• Sudden power failure during the transfer of photos
• Disconnecting iPhone from the PC/Mac while transferring photos
• Lack of enough space in the drive to save the photos
• Corruption of the drive in which you saved the photos
• Virus in the system
• Anti-virus on your PC/Mac scans and detects viruses in the photo resulting in photo loss

How to Recover Photos Lost during Transfer from iPhone 15, 14/13/12/11/X/8/7 to PC/Mac?

Typically, if you have not deleted the required photos from your iPhone, try transferring them again from the device to the PC or Mac. If already deleted then, try the below methods to recover the photos lost during transfer from iPhone 15, 14/13/12/11/X/8/7 to PC or Mac.

Solution 1: Search for missing photos in the PC/Mac hard drive

It might be possible you transferred the iPhone photos to the PC but forgot the location where you saved them. Try once searching the complete hard drive for your photos.

1. Click on My PC or My Computer
2. Type the command kind:=picture into the search box and press Enter
3. The list of images will be displayed
4. Right-click on the required photos from the search results, and click Open File Location to view where they are saved

For MAC follow the below steps:

1. Open the Finder and go to your home directory
2. Go to the Pictures folder
3. Right-click on Photos Library.photoslibrary and select Show Package Contents
4. Open the folder Masters to find the images in the Photos app. The Masters folder comprises the photos by date in subfolders. You can open the folders of the relevant dates to find your pictures.

Solution 2: Recover lost transferred photos from iTunes Backup

If you have synced your iPhone to iTunes, you can recover lost photos from this Apple’s backup utility.

Drawback: You cannot selectively pick the lost photos during the file transfer, rather complete data of iTunes is saved on your PC/Mac.

| Note: In Mac, the iTunes backup is stored in Library > Application Support > MobileSync > Backup.
In Windows 7, 8, 10, & 11 the iTunes backup is stored in Users > username > AppData > Roaming > Apple Computer > MobileSync > Backup.

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Solution 3: Recover Lost Photos from iCloud

If you have iCloud backup of the iOS device, you can recover photos lost during transfer through the cloud facility.

Drawbacks: You cannot directly restore iCloud backup photos on your PC or Mac. It is saved only to an iOS device.
You have to reset your iPhone X/8/7 to factory settings to restore the iCloud backup on it.

How to recover data from iCloud Backup on a computer

1. Take the backup of your iPhone data on iTunes
2. Reset your iPhone to factory settings
3. Go to the Apps & Data screen of your iPhone by pressing the Sleep/Wake button for a few seconds and following the onscreen instructions
4. Under Apps & Data, click on Restore from iCloud Backup
5. Sign in to iCloud by entering your Apple ID
6. Select Choose Backup and pick the relevant one from the list of backups
7. Tap After completion of the process, the iPhone restarts and recovers complete data including photos, apps, videos, etc.
8. Select the required photos from the recovered data and transfer them again to your PC or Mac from iPhone

Tip: For selective recovery of lost photos from iCloud/iTunes use Stellar Data Recovery for iPhone . It recovers missing Photos from Camera Roll and Photo Stream in iCloud/iTunes/iPhone. You can preview, select and save only the desired photos at your preferred location.

Solution 4: Use the Best Photo Recovery Software

When no backup, take the help of a third-party photo recovery tool. This is regarded as the easiest way to recover lost photos during the transfer from iPhone 15, 14/13/12/11/XR/XS/X/8/7 to PC/Mac. Use a risk-free application – Stellar Photo Recovery to recover your lost photos from your PC or Mac

The do-it-yourself software recovers all types of media files lost due to deletion, corruption, virus infection or accidental formatting, etc.

How to recover lost photos using Stellar Photo Recovery?

1. Launch Stellar Photo Recovery Software.
2. On the home screen of the software – ‘Select What to Recover’. Click Next.
3. Next, select the location from where you want to recover. Click Scan to start the scanning process
4. A dialog box of ‘Scanning Completed Successfully!’ displays the scan results – the number of files found and the size of the data. In the left pane of the main window, all the recovered data is listed. You can preview them in the right pane.
   Note: If you do not see the required photos in the list, opt for the Deep Scan option at the bottom.
5. Click Recover. You can also choose to recover only the selective files – select the photos that you need, right-click, and click Recover.
6. In the dialog box, specify the location to save the image files. Click Save. All the files get saved at the specified location Click Save. All the files get saved at the specified location.

Conclusion

Backup is the undisputable solution to any kind of photo loss situation. However, if you have not taken your photos backup in iTunes, iCloud, or other storage media, recovery through Stellar Photo Recovery software is the best way to get back photos lost during transfer from iPhone 15, 14/13/12/XS/XR/X/7/8 to PC or Mac.

How to Delete All Photos from iPhone Beyond Scope of Recovery?

Summary: Learn how to delete all photos from your iPhone beyond the scope of recovery with this comprehensive guide. We’ve also mentioned an iPhone eraser software that securely erases your photos for good and safeguards your privacy.

Are you planning to sell or discard your iPhone? If yes, it’s important to ensure that your personal data, such as photos and videos, etc. is deleted and cannot be recovered even by a professional data recovery tool. To protect your privacy and prevent unauthorized access to your deleted iPhone photos, make sure your iPhone is wiped clean of all your previous photos before you sell, donate, or discard it.  

In this blog, we will talk about different ways to delete photos from iPhones beyond the scope of recovery.

How to Delete All Photos from iPhone?

Before deleting all photos from the iPhone, it’s important to take a backup of all photos to avoid any accidental data loss situation. There are various ways to back up your iPhone photos:

1. iCloud

Use iCloud to back up all your photos automatically. To sync iCloud with Photos –

• Go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud > Photos, and turn on iCloud Photos.

Your photos will be backed up to iCloud automatically if your device has enough storage space and is connected to Wi-Fi.

2. iTunes:

You can even use iTunes to back up your iPhone photos. To do this,

• Connect your iPhone to your system.
• Launch iTunes and then select your device.
• Click Summary > “Back Up Now” to create a backup of all your data, including photos.

Once you have backed up all your photos, proceed forward with deleting them from your iPhone.

Method 1: Delete Images From Photos and Recently Deleted Folder

Photos app saves images shot from iPhone as well as those received on chats. You can delete all the photos from your iPhone via the Photos app. Here’s how to do it.

• Open the Photos app on your iPhone.
• Go to the Library tab, tap All Photos, and then tap Select.
• Select one or multiple photos you want to delete.
• Tap on the Trash icon and then confirm to delete the photos.

When you delete a photo from the iPhone, it’s not deleted permanently. Instead, it is moved to the Recently Deleted folder, where the deleted photos stay for 30 days before being permanently deleted.

To permanently delete photos from the Recently Deleted folder, follow these steps:

• Open the Photos app > Albums.
• Scroll down, then tap on Recently Deleted.
• Next, tap Select and choose the photos that you want to delete permanently.
• Tap Delete and then confirm to delete the photos.

Remember, if iCloud sync is enabled, photos deleted from iPhone will be deleted on iCloud. That is why if you want to delete photos from your iPhone but not on iCloud, make sure iCloud sync is disabled for Photos.

Method 2: Factory Reset Your iPhone

Apple’s brilliant feature of the ‘Erase All Content and Settings’ option brings your device to default settings by erasing all your iPhone data, etc.

The factory reset will delete all the settings, photos, audio, videos, messages, notes, call history, search history, app history, passcodes, and any other data on your iPhone.

However, remember erasing your iPhone data with the ‘Erase All Content and Settings’ doesn’t delete your data permanently. It means that all your iPhone data including photos are still recoverable with the help of robust iPhone data recovery software .

Steps to Factory Reset iPhone

• Open Settings on your iPhone.
• Go to General and tap on Transfer or Reset iPhone.
• Click on the Erase All Content and Settings options.
• Click Continue and enter your iPhone passcode.
• Next, click Erase iPhone. This will fully wipe your device clean.

Note: Don’t forget to back up your iPhone data on iCloud or iTunes before initiating the factory reset. Because this backed-up data can be accessed on your computer or new iPhone.

Stellar Eraser for iPhone is the best way to delete permanently erase all photos as well as other data of the iPhone. The software erases all your photos, contacts, videos, chats, iMessage, browser search history, third-party apps data, and more from your iPhone.

The Stellar iPhone Eraser tool is the best way to clean or delete iPhone data. This tool deletes iPhone data permanently making it impossible to recover it from any software. It is the best data erasure tool for iOS devices before you exchange, sell, recycle, or give them away.

The software works with all iPhones and iPad versions, such as iPhone 14 to lower versions till iPhone 4 and supports iOS versions from iOS 6.0 to iOS 16.

Steps- How to Delete All Photos From iPhone via Stellar Eraser for iPhone

• Download and install Stellar Eraser for iPhone on your Windows and Mac systems.
• Launch the software and click on the Erase Data option.

• In the next Erase iPhone Data screen, click Next.

• Connect your iPhone to the system when prompted and click Erase.

• Click Yes to start the process of erasure.

• Click OK, once all the data is successfully erased.

All the data including photos and videos get permanently erased from iPhone beyond the scope of recovery.

Conclusion

Deleting all photos from your iPhone beyond the scope of recovery is crucial to protect your privacy and prevent unauthorized access to your personal data. By following the methods above, you can ensure that all your photos are deleted permanently from your iPhone. However, the best way to delete all photos from iPhone is by using Stellar Eraser for iPhone. The software will help you erase photos and other data from your iPhone so that it is impossible to recover it using any data recovery software.

FAQ

1. How to Delete Photos from iCloud?

To delete Photos from iCloud, follow these steps:

• Open Settings > tap on your Apple ID > iCloud.
• Then tap Manage Storage and select Photos.
• Next tap Disable and Delete. It will disable your photos from being saved on your iCloud account.

2. How to delete apps on iPhone permanently?

If you want to delete apps on your iPhone for managing the storage space then you directly remove it from Home Screen or delete it from App Library.

3. How to delete documents and data on iPhone?

Documents and Data folder may contain browsing history, cookies, cache, temporary files, database files and other information specific to the app. You can delete them easily by following this detailed guide .

How to Wipe iPhone Data Permanently?

Summary: Do you want to erase everything on your iPhone? But fear that it could be recovered. Learn about the best tool that wipes iPhone data permanently and makes it unrecoverable by any recovery software.

Your iPhone is a trove of personal data — photos, videos, passwords, ID proofs, bank details, chats, messages, contacts, and a lot more— which, naturally, you don’t want to fall into other hands. That’s why you prefer to delete all the information on your iPhone before selling it to others.

But several iPhone recovery software can easily restore deleted data from an old or discarded iPhone. So there’s always a fear that someone could recover your iPhone’s data and misuse it.

Here’s a solution — permanently wipe iPhone data beyond the scope of recovery by any software.

How do you permanently erase data from your iPhone?

Manual deletion is one of the ways to remove data. But it can be easily recovered by iPhone features like restoring ‘Recently Deleted’ or recovery software.

Then, Apple suggests resetting the content and settings of the iOS device. It’s effective as the deleted data is not accessible directly on your iPhone. But this also does not completely erase your data from iPhone storage.

So to wipe iPhones permanently, specialized erasure software should be used. The iPhone data erasure tool destroys all information on your storage by overwriting, thus rendering it unrecoverable.

Methods to erase everything on iPhone

1. Reset content and settings on iPhone (data gets inaccessible but recoverable)
2. Use iPhone data erasure software – Stellar Toolkit for iPhone (permanently wipes iPhone’s data, unrecoverable)

Method 1: Reset content and settings on iPhone

Apple provides a factory reset feature in iPhone with the ‘Erase All Content and Settings’ option. This method lets you bring your device to default settings by erasing iPhone data.

Apple’s factory reset will delete all settings, passcodes, photos, videos, notes, contacts, call history, messages, search history, app history, and other data on your iPhone.

However, erasing your iPhone with the ‘Erase All Content and Settings’ option does not delete your data permanently. All the personal data on iPhone is still recoverable with the help of advanced iPhone data recovery software.

Steps to Factory Reset iPhone:

1. Open Settings on your iPhone.
2. Tap and follow General > Reset.
3. Tap on Erase All Content and Settings.
4. A dialog box appears; click Erase Now.
5. Enter your Passcode and your Apple ID password when prompted. This will wipe iPhone completely and turn off the device.

Now your device is ready to use as new without any personal photos, videos, or other information.

Note: Back up your iPhone data on iCloud or iTunes before performing a factory reset. Even when you want to sell the iPhone, the old data remains in iCloud and iTunes. And you can access it anytime on your computer or new iPhone.

Method 2: Erase data permanently using Stellar Toolkit for iPhone

When you want to delete iPhone data permanently beyond the scope of any recovery software, use an iPhone erasure tool – Stellar Toolkit for iPhone.

The factory reset option by Apple does leave a chance of iPhone data recovery by using the software. But, Stellar Toolkit for iPhone software permanently resets iPhone. The software erases iPhone data from the storage drive by overwriting and setting it to the original default settings. The software leaves no possibility of recovering data by any means.

You can quickly remove iPhone’s settings, photos, videos, audio, music, contacts, messages, chats, installed apps, call history, reminders, search history, and other data.

The software works with all iPhones and iPads. It can wipe off data from iPhone 15, 14, 14 Pro, 14 Pro Max, 13, 13 Pro, 13 Pro Max, 12, 12 Pro, 12 Pro Max, 11 Pro, 11, XS MAX, XS, XR, X, 8, 7, 7s, 6s, 6 Plus, 6, 5s, 5c, 5, 4s, and 4. It supports iOS 6.0 and up to iOS 16.x.

Stellar iPhone erasure lets you completely wipe data from an unlimited number of iPhones with the software.

Additionally, the Toolkit can also recover lost, or deleted data from iPhone, iCloud, and iTunes in various data lost cases such as water-damaged iPhones , broken iPhones , stuck at Apple logos , and so on.

Key benefits

• Wipes complete iPhone data permanently
• Erases data from multiple unique iPhones
• Easy-to-use
• Compatible with all iPhones and iPads

Steps to erase iPhone data permanently with software:

Step 1: Download and run Stellar Toolkit for iPhone on your computer.

Step 2: Select Erase Data.

Step 3: Erase the iPhone Data screen appears. Click Next.

Step 4: Plug your iPhone into the computer when prompted.

Step 5: Click Erase.

Step 6: An Erase Process dialog box appears. Select Yes to start the erasing process on iPhone. Next, you can view the process progress bar.

Step 7: Once the process finishes, the ‘Data Erase Completes’ message box appears. Click OK.

Your iPhone is now reset as new without any personal information, passwords, or settings.

When should you erase iPhone data with software?

Your data is sensitive and can be easily exploited by someone. So before giving away your iOS device to its next owner, it is better to wipe it off completely so that no one can recover it.

You can use iPhone erasure software when you are-

• Selling an old iPhone
• Exchanging an old iPhone with a new one
• Donating an iPhone to someone
• Fixing technical malfunctions in your iPhone

Final Words

Stellar Toolkit for iPhone comes to the rescue when you want to be sure about your iPhone data privacy.

If you have to use your iOS device as new, give it away, donate, or resell, you must use the erasure software to wipe iPhone data permanently. It’s 100% secure and easy to use.

A free trial is available for Stellar Toolkit for iPhone; you may try it yourself.