How to Recover Deleted Photos from iPhone XS/XR/X/8/7/6/5

It is easier to delete iPhone photos than it is to take them. Accidentally deleting important photos and screenshots is probably a weekly occurrence for every iPhone user. A frequent cause of accidentally deleting photos is users innocently trying to free up space on their iPhone. We’ve also heard from users who have had a failed device OS upgrade or sync has caused their photos to disappear. There are a few ways to recover deleted screenshots and photos. So, relax and try a few of these tutorials. We’re here to help. There are three ways you can recover deleted photos from an iPhone:

With these tutorials, you can recover deleted iPhone images from:

• iPhone XR
• iPhone XS/XS Max
• iPhone X
• iPhone 8
• iPhone 7 & 7 Plus
• iPhone 6 & 6 Plus
• iPhone 6s & 6s Plus
• iPhone 5/5c/5s
• iPhone SE
• iPhone 4/4s

Find Deleted Photos on iPhone

Once an iPhone photo is deleted, it goes into the Recently Deleted folder on your device. The invention of this absolute lifesaver of an album came with the introduction of iOS 8. For 30 days your deleted photos and videos will remain in this folder where they can be recovered at any time. In fact, you may be surprised by what’s still in there!

We’ve included this tutorial first, as it is the easiest and simplest way to get your deleted photos back. Once they have been deleted from the Recently Deleted folder, getting them back can be a little trickier, but not impossible– keep reading to find out more!

To recover deleted photos directly on your iPhone, without a backup:

1. Go to the Photos App on your iPhone > Albums > Recently Deleted

2. With the Recently Deleted album open, preview the photos and videos included in the album to check if the photos you need are there

3. Tap Select > Select the photos you need to recover > Tap Recover (in the bottom right side corner)

4. Your photos will be transferred back to your main photo album(s)

If you did not find your deleted photos in the Recently Deleted folder, don’t worry just yet, there is still hope! Backups to iCloud or iTunes may be your saving grace. If you adhere to Apple’s encouragements to back up your phone on a regular basis to iCloud or iTunes, you may still have possession of the photos that have been deleted. Use the tutorials below to extract your photos.

Recover Deleted iPhone Photos from iCloud

Many iOS users back up their photos to iCloud automatically – this is a great way of protecting your precious photo memories. Automatic iCloud backups occur when your iPhone is connected to a power source and Wi-Fi and will include photos if you’ve selected to back up this option. To recover your photos from iCloud without the need to do a full device restore, follow our process below.

Step 1 – Download Enigma Recovery Free Trial

Use your Mac or PC to download the Enigma Recovery free trial. Once it has been successfully installed, open the program to the start screen.

Step 2 – Recover from my iCloud

To download photos from your iCloud backup, select the option ‘Recover from my iCloud’ from the side panel.

Step 3 – Log in to iCloud

Log in to your iCloud backup. This process offers the most secure login as the software will not save your login details and will offer a two-factor authentication login process.

Step 4 – Select backup file

The software will show you all the backup files you can recover images from. It may be a good idea to scan more than one backup if you don’t see the photos/screenshots you are looking for in the first scan.

Step 5 – Scan for photos

Select to scan for Photos, to retrieve all of the images that were backed up at the time of the backup. Now start the scan and the software will retrieve all of the images in the iPhone backup selected.

Step 6 – View photos

After the scan, you will be able to view retrieved images in the ‘Photos’ tab. If you would like to keep and save the photos retrieved, please unlock the full version to export your images.

Step 7 – Save to desktop

You can save selected or all images to your desktop by using your export option. ‘Export & Restore’ > ‘Export to desktop’ > Select location through ‘Browse’ > ‘Export’.

If you did not find the photos you were looking for, try scanning another iCloud backup file with a different date. Or if you would like to try scanning a previously made iTunes backup file, please continue on to the next tutorial.

Extract Deleted iPhone Photos from iTunes

While deleted photos cannot be extracted straight from the phone’s internal database, they can sometimes be found in an iPhone backup. Enigma Recovery is an iPhone Data Recovery tool capable of rooting through your iPhone backups and extracting only the important bits. If your photos are regularly backed up to iTunes, use the Enigma Recovery free trial to scan your backup and find lost photos.

Step 1 – Download Enigma Recovery Free Trial

Download the Enigma Recovery free trial to your laptop or computer. The software is compatible with both Mac and Windows versions.

Step 2 – Recover from my iTunes

Open the software to the start screen and select ‘Recover from my iTunes’ from the side panel.

Step 3 – Select a backup file to scan

The software will show you all the backup files created in iTunes on your laptop or computer. Select the backup file you would like to recover from. If your backup files are encrypted, you will need your password to scan each file.

Step 4 – Scan for Photos

To scan your backup file for photos, screenshots and other images, please select ‘Photos’ from the data type menu and start the scan.

Step 5 – View Photos

After the scan, you can view the retrieved thumbnail images in the ‘Photos’ tab. If you would like to export and save these images, please unlock the full version of Enigma Recovery if you have not done so already.

Step 6 – Save Images

To save the images you have ticked or all images, go to ‘Export & Restore’ > ‘Export to desktop’ and select a location to save through ‘Browse’ > ‘Export’.

You will be able to retrieve deleted photos from your iTunes backup if you created the backup after the images were taken/saved to the phone, but before they were deleted. It’s always worth a try to retrieve photos from an iPhone backup, especially while Enigma Recovery offers a free trial!

Export Photos from Recently Deleted Folder

As a final tip for you, you can also use Enigma Recovery software to transfer and save your photos directly from the Recently Deleted folder to your Mac or PC. This is a useful methodology to ensure that once you find the photos you accidentally deleted, that you can transfer them to your computer for safe keeping. To save photos from your Recently Deleted folder to your laptop or computer, follow these steps.

Step 1 – Download Enigma Recovery

Download Enigma Recovery.

Step 2 – Connect iPhone to laptop or computer

Open the software and connect your iPhone to the computer. At this point, you may be asked to trust the computer with your iPhone. To continue, tap ‘Trust’ on your iPhone.

Step 3 – Select data type

To scan your phone for deleted images from the Recently Deleted folder, select to scan ‘Photos’. Now start the scan.

Step 4 – View deleted Photos

The photos from your recently deleted folder will appear in the ‘Photos’ folder as deleted.

Step 5 – Save photos to desktop

To save the deleted photos to your desktop computer or laptop tick the selected photos and go to ‘Export & Restore’ > ‘Export to desktop’ > select location by clicking ‘Browse’ > ‘Export’.