How to Find Recently Deleted Photos on Your iPhone

Credit: MichaelJayBerlin / Shutterstock

Have you ever been in a situation where you accidentally deleted a precious photo from your iPhone? It’s common, but the good news is all hope isn’t lost. Your iPhone keeps your deleted photos around for up to 30 days, and there’s a simple way to access them right in your Photos app.

If you’ve found yourself in this situation, keep reading. Here’s a step-by-step guide to accessing and recovering recently deleted photos.

How to Access All Recently Deleted Photos on your iPhone

In the example above, you’ll see that I selected five photos and deleted them. Note the prompt which states, “These photos will be deleted from iCloud Photos on all your devices. They will be in Recently Deleted for 30 days.”

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Here’s how to find those recently deleted photos:

Open the Photos app on your iPhone.
Select Albums at the bottom of your iPhone’s screen.
Scroll down to the bottom and select Recently Deleted.

From here, you should see all your deleted photos from the past 30 days. A tag on each photo shows how many more days it will be kept for.

You can also add an additional layer of security to your Recently Deleted album by requiring Face ID or Touch ID before you can open it. This protects against unwanted access to intentionally deleted private photos. You can do this by opening the Settings app, going to Photos, and toggling on Use Face ID. Note that this will also apply to photos in your Hidden album as well.

Our iPhone Photos app is our digital diary. Most of us use our iPhone’s camera multiple times each day. The photos we take tell our stories and allow us to relive some of our most cherished experiences. From capturing candid laughs to breathtaking landscapes or a milestone event, our iPhone has allowed us to preserve special moments like never before.

Unfortunately, accidents happen. Other times we might simply want to see a photo we intentionally deleted in the past. Either way, understanding how to retrieve intentionally or accidentally deleted photos is useful and reassuring. After all, it’s not simply about recovering lost files, it’s reclaiming precious memories.