How to Recover Deleted Photos on PC/Mac/iPhone/Android

In contemporary society, photos undoubtedly carry many emotions and memories. Whether you choose to take awkward photos of your friends, record the sweet moments created by your family, or just save something important, all you want is to collect this cherished life forever. For most people, you store your photos digitally on computers or mobile phones. However, you may lose these photos due to various reasons.

Fortunately, this tutorial can rescue your deleted photos, showing you how to recover deleted photos on various devices, including Windows, Mac, iPhone, and Android. Whether you delete photos by mistake, or lose photos as a result of accident formation, this tutorial prepares a solution for you.

Part 1: How to Recover Deleted Photos on Windows - 3 Ways

If you unfortunately delete your photos on Windows, don’t panic. This part will introduce 3 feasible methods to help you recover deleted photos on Windows. According to the different personal settings on PC, you should choose the suitable one. Among them, utilizing data recovery software is always the most reliable and efficient one. Let’s try to resolve your puzzle.

Method 1. Recover Deleted Photos with Data Recovery Software

There is no denying that the capability of professional data recovery software can’t be underestimated. If you wish to recover deleted photos swiftly and accurately, it is recommended you employ Syncios D-Savior. If you are a Windows layman, not good at performing complicated operations, you can resort to this method. With Syncios D-Savior, a simple operation gives your deleted files back.

Syncios D-Savior can not only recover deleted photos with a few clicks, but can be applied to multiple scenarios. Whether you accidentally empty your Recycle Bin or format your disk by mistake, it can perform a fast scan and deep scan to find your deleted files and recover them. Besides photos, it also supports recovery for diverse files, such as audio, documents, videos, archives, programs, and many more. With this program, you can recover any files in bulk, saving time and energy. The easy tutorial on how to recover deleted photos with Syncios D-Savior is as follows.

• Step 1: Launch Syncios D-Savior on your PC. In the following main interface, you can see all the available partitions, including the local disk and external devices connected to your PC. Choose one partition and hit the “Scan Now” button to start the scanning process.



• Step 2: When the scanning performs, it will show a progress bar below, informing you of the scanning time. It will finish the fast scan soon, with a slower deep scan following. You can directly look up your deleted photos on the left panel without waiting for the scanning completion.



• Step 3: If you are not sure about the deleted photos you want to recover, you can select them and tap the “Preview” button on the right panel. It will show you all the thumbnails that can be recoverable. Preview and confirm which photos you need.



• Step 4: After locating the photos you wish to recover, you can click the “Recover Now” button on the lower right corner to begin the official recovery. Then click “Directory” to choose another available file folder to preserve your files.



• Step 5: Once the recovery finishes, it will pop up a “Recovery successful” window. Simply clicking the “Recovered” button, it jumps you to the folder you set in the last step. You can verify that the files have been successfully restored and are accessible.

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Method 2. Recover Deleted Photos with Recycle Bin

Checking the Recycle Bin is always the immediate measure you should take when you find that something was deleted by mistake. Windows operating system is embedded with the Recycle Bin feature which helps to store your deleted files temporarily. Once you delete a file, it will move to the Recycle Bin. It just lie down there until you empty the Recycle Bin to permanently erase. Retrieving deleted photos with Recycle Bin is effortless as follows.

• Step 1: Find the Recycle Bin on your desktop or in the File Explorer. Then double-click the icon to open it.
• Step 2: Quick look for your deleted photos by the “Date Deleted” or the “Item Type” filter.
• Step 3: Once you locate the deleted photos, right-click the target file you want to recover and hit the “restore” button. Alternatively, you can also click the target item and then tap the “Restore the selected items” option in the above option card.
• Step 4: Recycle Bin helps to recover files to the original path. Now you can go to your file folder storing photos to check if your deleted photos have been recovered successfully.

❗❗❗ Note: This method is suitable for the circumstance when you haven’t emptied the Recycle Bin. If you can’t find your photos in the bin or your bin is accidentally emptied, it is suggested to adopt the data recovery tool mentioned in Method 1. Additionally, if you delete photos from an external drive, Recycle Bin may not retrieve them for you, you can only resort to the data recovery software for Windows.

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Method 3. Recover Deleted Photos with File History

File History is another helpful Windows feature that allows you to recover deleted photos without much hassle. It will automatically back up your personal files such as documents and photos on your PC with regular frequency, keeping your important files from accident deletion. However, only if this feature is enabled, can you recover files by reverting to the earlier versions.

👉To check if you set up File History feature, go to “Settings” then “Update & Security”. Find the File backup option to see if your File History is turned on. If not, it is recommended to skip this method. Or in case you need to recover files next time, you can set to turn on File History now, and toggle on “Automatically back up my files”.

• Step 1: Make sure that your File History is enabled. Then you can directly open the file folder where your deleted photos were stored before.
• Step 2: Right-click this file folder and select “Restore previous version” from that menu.
• Step 3: In the popup window, you can see all the available previous version of this file folder. Tap one version to reverse it before your photos were deleted.
• Step 4: Before the restore, you can open your selected version of this file folder. Check and ensure that this version contains your deleted photos.
• Step 5: Once confirm your needed version, simply click the “Restore” button to recover your deleted photos.

❗❗❗ Note: This method can be applied only when your File History is enabled. If you haven’t switched on this feature, unfortunately, you can’t recover deleted photos on Windows through its version reversion. Method 1 is universal, though.

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Part 2: How to Recover Deleted Photos on Mac - 2 Ways

This part shows you 2 effective ways on how to recover deleted photos on Mac. Like the recovery process on Windows, when you delete photos accidentally, you should check your Trash first, then Time Machine (if enabled). Your ultimate choice is to ask the data recovery tool for a favor. Here we only explore two simple recovery methods for you.

Method 4. Recover Deleted Photos with the Trash

Acting a similar function as Recycle Bin in Windows, Trash can temporarily store your deleted files including photos, programs, documents and many more. To prevent accident loss, Trash allows you to recover files to their original path, unless you manually empty the Trash to erase your files forever. Here are simple steps for you to recover deleted photos with the Trash.

• Step 1: On the bar at the bottom of your Mac screen (Dock), find the Trash icon and open it.
• Step 2: It will appear a window showing the entire files that you performed deletion. Look for the target photos you want to recover inside the Trash. Or, you can use its search bar in the upper right corner to locate the deleted photos quickly.
• Step 3: Once you find the photos you want to recover, simply right-click it and tap the “Put Back” option from the context menu.
• Step 4: Visit the location that you store photos to check if your deleted photos are recovered to the original path successfully.

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Method 5. Recover Deleted Photos with Time Machine

Time Machine enables to automatically back up your files on Mac, copying multiple versions. With this built-in backup feature in Mac, you can reverse your Mac or specific files to its previous version, so as to retrieve the files you need. Nevertheless, before you use this method, you should make sure that your Time Machine is turned on. You can go to the “System Settings” then “General” to check if your Time Machine is started.

• Step 1: Open the original file folder where you stored the deleted photos.
• Step 2: In the same file folder window, tap the “Time Machine” icon on the top bar of your screen. Then, select “Enter Time Machine” option from the context menu.
• Step 3: After entering the Time Machine, it displays you all the versions of this file folder. And you can see a timeline on the right side of the screen edge. Browse through these different versions by timeline and locate the photos you need.
• Step 4: Select the photos you want to recover and click the “Restore” button. You will find that your deleted photos have been recovered to their original file folder.

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Part 3: How to Recover Deleted Photos on iPhone/Android - 1 Ways

The following part provides you with the one general and effective way to recover deleted photos on iPhone or Android.

Method 6. Recover Deleted Photos with Default Recycle Feature

Both iPhone and Android devices are equipped with the built-in storage feature for photos. Your deleted photos will not be erased permanently, removing to its default place to store deleted photos for a limited time, instead. Hence, you can easily recover deleted photos through the “Recently Deleted” folder. Here is how you operate.

• Step 1: Open your Photos or Gallery app on your iPhone or Android.
• Step 2: Scroll down and find the “Recently Deleted” folder.
• Step 3: Enter this folder and browse to select the photos you need to recover. Simply tap the “Recover” button to recover your deleted photos immediately.

If you can’t find anything on the built-in backup feature of your system, or if you exactly know that you enable other cloud services like Google Photos, Dropbox, OneDrive or iCloud, then you can check if your deleted photos are synced there.

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Part 4: How to Recover Deleted Photos from Different Cloud Services

What if you delete photos from cloud services? Focus on this part, it teaches you how to recover deleted photos from different cloud backups. Most cloud services keep your deleted photos for 30 days, and you can recover before they are erased forever. The operation may have slight discrepancies between mobile app and the web version, but it does not influence on the recovery process.

1. Google Photos App - for All Users

• Step 1: Open the Google Photos App on your mobile device, or you can go to the official website.
• Step 2: Find the “Trash” option. If you are using the mobile app, you should hit “Library” on the bottom bar first, then select “Trash” on the screen. If you are using the web, you can locate the “Trash” in the left side panel.
• Step 3: Browse the photos you wish to restore.
• Step 4: Select your target photos and tap the “Restore” button.

2. Dropbox - for All Users

• Step 1: Launch the Dropbox app on your mobile device, or visit the official website on the browser.
• Step 2: Look for the “Deleted Files”. You can find this option after entering the bottom Home interface. As for web users, you need to click “All Files” on the left sidebar, then click “Deleted Files” below that menu.
• Step 3: Browse through and confirm what are the photos you need to recover.
• Step 4: Select the photos and tap “Restore” to move deleted photos back to their original path.

3. OneDrive - for All Users

• Step 1: For mobile app users, you need to start OneDrive on you device and tap the “Me” option at the bottom of the screen. As for desktop users, go to onedrive.com and sign in to your account.
• Step 2: Tap the “Recycle Bin” on the left sidebar.
• Step 3: Search for the photos you want to recover.
• Step 4: Choose the photos and hit “Restore” button.

4. iCloud - for Mac/iOS Users

• Step 1: Visit iCoud.com and sign in with your Apple ID.
• Step 2: Hit “Photos” and then click the “Recently Deleted” in the sidebar.
• Step 3: Look up these deleted photos.
• Step 4: Locate the photos you wish to recover and click on the “Recover” tab.

Conclusion

To sum up, to recover deleted photos, step 1 is to resort to your embedded backup features on your system, step 2 is to check your cloud service to see if you have any backups there, and step 3 is also the most effective and reliable one, to employ a data recovery software. Whether you are using Windows, Mac, iPhone or Android devices, you can always follow the principle.

If you don’t want to waste time in checking if your deleted photos are backed up somewhere, or just can’t restore them from an internal backup feature, try Syncios D-Savior. Your best partner to recover 1,000+ file types with a few clicks: install, scan, preview and recover!

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