Ways to Recover Permanently Deleted Photos on Mac/iPhone [2022]

Photos are precious memories. Losing them is painful. The situation gets even worse, when the pictures are removed from Trash or Recently Deleted folder of your Apple devices. This leaves least chance of recovering such permanently deleted photos on any synced device.

So can you recover permanently deleted photos from Mac or iPhone? If yes, then how to get back the deleted images?

Let’s get on to the solutions right away and learn the correct approach to recover permanently deleted photos on Mac and iPhone.

Methods to Recover Permanently Deleted Photos on Mac and iPhone

When the photos are permanently deleted from Mac or iPhone, a backup can save you from the catastrophic photos loss situation. However, not everyone keeps photos backup. If you don’t have backup or cannot find the permanently deleted photos in backup, get a professional photo recovery software. A secure and pro tool can scan and retrieve deleted photos from your macOS drives, iPhone, and external storage media.

Recover deleted photos from Mac using Time Machine backup

Time Machine is a built-in backup solution by Apple for your Mac. Once enabled, it automatically backs up your photos and other data residing on Mac. When the photos are deleted from Trash or ‘Recently Deleted’ folders, look for them in Time Machine.

Steps to retrieve photos from Time Machine:

• Connect the Time Machine drive to Mac.
• On Mac, open the location from where the photos were deleted. For example, if you want to recover deleted photos from Photos app, open the Photos app folder.
• Click on the Time Machine icon in the menu bar. Select Enter Time Machine.

• Select the backup that contains the deleted photos.
• Select folders or disk that had deleted photos. Click Restore to get the photos back to their original location.

1. Recover deleted photos from iCloud on Mac or iPhone

If iCloud is enabled on Mac, it backs up photos on all your Apple devices. Here, you can find pictures shot with your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and those shared via messages or chatting apps. Photos transferred or saved on Mac are also backed-up in iCloud.

You can easily search for the deleted photos in iCloud backup on Mac or iOS device. If you cannot locate the pictures in iCloud, check its ‘Recently Deleted’ folder. Here you can find and restore the photos deleted within the 30 days timespan. If the photos are permanently deleted and not in the ‘Recently Deleted’ folder, follow the given steps to recover deleted photos on Mac and iPhone via iCloud.

How to recover deleted photos on Mac via iCloud:

1. Go to icloud.com and sign in to your account using Apple ID.
2. Go to Photos.
3. Navigate to Recently Deleted album.
4. Select the desired photos and click Recover.

How to recover deleted photos on iPhone via iCloud:

• On iPhone, go to Settings > General > Reset > Erase all Contents and Settings.

• Select Erase Now and follow the instructions to open the Apps & Data screen.

Tap Restore from iCloud Backup

• Sign in to the iCloud account and choose the backup file that contains the deleted photos.

2. Recover permanently deleted photos on iPhone using iTunes

Other than iCloud, you can check iTunes for photo recovery, provided you use the Apple’s backup utility for protecting your photos from loss.

Here’s what you have to do to recover lost photos using iTunes:

• Connect your iPhone to Mac.
• Open iTunes and click on your iPhone on the left.
• Click on Restore Backup under Backups in the right panel.

• Choose the backup file that contains the deleted photos.

• Click on the Restore button.

3. Recover permanently deleted photos on iPhone using software

If you fail to restore photos on iPhone from iCloud or iTunes back up, use a professional iPhone data recovery software. Download it on your Mac and follow the prompts to restore deleted pictures of iPhone or iPad. You can also restore deleted photos from iCloud and iTunes, with the help of an advanced iPhone recovery software like Stellar Data Recovery for iPhone. With software, you can restore exactly those photos that were deleted, and avoid unnecessary data recovery.

4. Get the deleted photo recovery software for Mac

Mostly users cannot recover permanently deleted photos due to absence of backup or are unable to locate the specific deleted pictures from the large backup folders or disk. Such situations call for a Mac photo recovery software.

A professional software can retrieve permanently deleted photos from Mac drives, Fusion drives, Thunderbolt, USB, SD card, etc.

Tools like Stellar Photo Recovery can recover permanently deleted photos captured with iPhone, iPad, DSLR, action camera, etc. The smart tool gets back photos along with the original file name and date timestamp.

How to recover photos from Mac with a recovery software

• Download the Mac Stellar Photo Recovery.
• Select the location from where the photos are deleted and click Scan.

• Preview the photos. Select the desired pictures and click Recover. You can save the recovered photos at your chosen location on any storage disk or media.

Wrapping Up

Besides backup, a deleted photo recovery tool is a quick way to get back lost photos on Mac or iPhone. It would be best if you first get the free trial of the chosen software. The free trial of photo recovery software usually show the preview of photos that can be restored. This way, you can be assured of the efficiency of the software.