Deleted photos don’t disappear right away: they go to a Trash folder and stay there for a while. The sooner you look, the better your chances of getting them back.
In this article
1. Gallery Trash (Android)
- Google Photos: Library › Trash. Backed-up photos stay there for 60 days; photos without a backup, for 30 days. Select them and tap Restore.
- Samsung Gallery: menu (three lines) › Trash. They stay there for 30 days.
- Other brands have a similar folder, such as Recently deleted, inside the gallery app.
2. “Deleted” on iPhone
- Open the Photos app.
- Scroll down to Utilities and tap Deleted (on earlier versions of iOS, Recently Deleted).
- Unlock with Face ID or your passcode, select the photos and tap Recover.
Photos stay there for up to 30 days.
3. Check your cloud backup
- Google Photos: go to photos.google.com on a computer. If the photo was deleted only from the phone (for example, with Free up space), it’s still in the cloud.
- iCloud: at icloud.com/photos › Deleted, also for 30 days.
- OneDrive: if camera backup was turned on, check the Pictures › Camera Roll folder and the OneDrive Recycle bin.
4. WhatsApp photos
- Android: photos you receive are kept in the WhatsApp Images folder (Files app › Images), even if you delete them from the gallery.
- The person who sent it still has the photo: ask them to send it again.
- If you restore an older WhatsApp backup, the photos from that date come back. Careful: restoring replaces your current chats. See WhatsApp backup.
5. What if the deadline has passed?
What might still work:
- Look for the photo in chats, emails or social media where you shared it.
- Look on your computer, if you’ve ever copied your photos there. See recover deleted files in Windows.
- For very important photos on a memory card, a professional data recovery company (get a quote first).
So it doesn’t happen again
Turn on automatic backup in Google Photos, iCloud or OneDrive, and copy your photos to your computer every so often. See how to transfer photos from your phone to your PC and the 3-2-1 backup rule.
FAQ
I factory reset my phone. Can I recover the photos?
Only if there was a cloud backup (Google Photos, iCloud, OneDrive) or a copy somewhere else. A factory reset erases the data in a way that apps can’t recover.
My Google Photos Trash is empty, but I didn’t delete anything.
Check that you’re signed in to the same Google account that was being backed up and that the photo isn’t archived (Library › Archive).
