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How Do I Recover Deleted Smartphone Photos?

Your pictures aren’t really gone, at least not immediately

Edward C. Baig,

AARP

Published November 26, 2024

I love snapping pictures of my family, but they’re not always wild about how they look. Someone will often snatch my smartphone and delete the objectionable pics against my wishes. Are they lost forever?

Have you been talking to my wife or kids? The same thing frequently plays out in my own family.

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I have a habit of taking pictures of my clan when we’re out at a restaurant or elsewhere. Each person wants to inspect the photos immediately, and invariably someone isn’t thrilled.

Hey, everyone’s a critic, and yeah, so am I when I look at pictures of myself.

Under such circumstances, members of my family demand that I delete the photos. If I don’t comply, they sometimes take matters into their own hands.

But here’s the thing: Deleted pictures don’t have to stay deleted, at least for a little while. Don’t let my family in on our little secret, but getting those pics back is easy whether you shoot them on Android phones or iPhones.

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How to restore deleted photos on iPhones

Open the Photos app and scroll down to Utilities. Tap Recently Deleted. The tiny lock icon is an indication that you will have to use Face ID or Touch ID to access this Recently Deleted album.

Tap View Album. Thumbnails for any photos or videos that have recently been deep-sixed will show up here, with the number of days before each will be permanently deleted plastered on the image. You’ll have up to 30 days to perform photo CPR, but the procedure itself takes mere seconds.

Tap the photo or video you want to bring back to life and tap Recover at the bottom right corner of the screen, followed by Recover Photo. The image lands back in your Photos library.

To recover multiple photos in the Recently Deleted album, tap Select and then tap each thumbnail for the images you want to save.

If a photo or video in Recently Deleted is objectionable even to you, you can make it go away permanently by selecting the thumbnail and tapping Delete. You’re given one last chance to change your mind.

Keep in mind: Deleting photos for good off your iPhone will also delete the pictures from iCloud and any other connected devices.

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How to restore deleted photos on Android

Android users also can resurrect recently trashed photos.

If you’re in Google Photos, tap Collections at the bottom of the screen and Trash at the upper right. Tap the image or images you want to revive and then Restore.

Google says backed-up items will be permanently deleted after 60 days in the Trash, while pics that have not been backed up will be on life support for 30 days. You will have to tap a thumbnail in the Trash to see how many days are left before the picture is disposed of for good.

Restored photos return to the Google Photos album they were in before being deported.

Samsung Galaxy owners can employ Google Photos or Samsung’s own preinstalled Gallery app. The procedure for restoring a pic in Gallery is slightly different.

Tap the three horizontal bars ☰ at the bottom of the display, then tap Trash. The folder contains pictures and videos deleted up to 30 days ago from Gallery, My Files and some third-party apps. As with iPhone Photos, you will see the number of days the pics are on death row.

Tap the image or video and then Restore to salvage it. Or to immediately proceed with the execution, tap Delete. If you do hit Delete, you will have one last chance to, um, issue a stay.

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Bonus tip: Keep active in Google Photos

To preserve any of your pictures in Google Photos, make sure your account is active for at least two years, meaning you visit Google Photos via the app or the web.

“Activity” as Google defines it is considered by account, not by device. If you’re inactive for two years or longer, Google will dispatch your photos and videos to the trash, where you’ll once again have up to 60 days to save them.

Edward C. Baig covers technology and other consumer topics. He previously worked for USA Today, BusinessWeek, U.S. News & World Report and Fortune. He is the author of Macs for Dummies and coauthor of iPhone for Dummies and iPad for Dummies. Follow him on LinkedIn, Threads and X (formerly known as Twitter).                   

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