How to Recover Recently Deleted Photos?

There can be many reasons you want to delete photos or other data from your PC, such as for freeing up storage space, increasing the performance of your system, or removing duplicates, etc.

Whether photos are deleted unintentionally or due to human error like accidental deletion, formatting, corruption, etc., losing photos from your Windows or Mac is devastating.

Fortunately, you can recover the recently deleted photos from Mac and Windows PC depending upon when and how they were deleted.

Here in this guide, we explained different scenarios of recently deleted photos and how to recover photos in each one.

Scenario 1- “I accidentally deleted photos from my computer yesterday. Now I want them back. How do I recover them quickly?”

Solution – In this scenario, check the Recycle Bin of your Windows. Mac users can check the Trash bin to find their deleted photos.

Recover Recently Deleted Photos Using Trash/ Recycle Bin

When you delete pictures from your computer, they are directly moved to the Trash or Recycle Bin on Mac or Windows PC, respectively, where they stay for 30 days or more, until you empty the Bin manually.

Steps to recover photos from Recycle Bin in Windows

• Open Recycle Bin, select and right-click on the photos you want to restore, and click Restore.

Steps to recover photos from Trash in Mac

• Open Trash, look for the photos you want to retrieve, right-click on it, and click Put Back.

Scenario 2: “While clearing old images from my computer, I deleted lots of important pictures one week ago. Now, I can’t find them in the Trash or Recycle Bin. How to recover them?”

Solution – To recover lost/ deleted photos, use various backup options in Windows and Mac. In Mac, check the Time Machine backup or iCloud backup, whereas in Windows, check File History or Backup & Restore or Previous Version.

Recover Recently Deleted Photos Using the Backup

For those of you who have taken a backup of your photos, you can easily restore the deleted photos from there.

Steps to find recently deleted photos on Mac by using Time Machine Backup:

• Open Time Machine on Mac, find and click the backup that contains your pictures. Click Restore to save those photos at the desired location.

Steps to find recently deleted pictures from Apple iCloud

• Open icloud.com in your web browser and log in to your account.
• Click Photos > Recently Deleted. Select the desired photos and click Recover to save them.

Steps to Find Recently Deleted Photos on Windows Using File History

• Type Control Panel in the Windows search box and open it. Go File History.
• Click Restore Personal files, and choose the backup folder that may have your photos. Click Restore and save recovered pictures at the desired location.

Steps to Find Recently Deleted Photos on Windows Using Previous Version

• Go to the folder from where your photos were deleted, right-click on it, and select Restore previous versions.
• Select the folder or file versions you want to retrieve. Click Restore and save them in the desired location.

Steps to Find Recently Deleted Photos on Windows using Backup & Restore

• Type Control Panel in the Windows search box to open it.
• Click Back Up and Restore (Windows 7) and then click Restore my files.

• Next, click on Browse for files or Browse for folders and select the photos you want to restore.
• Click Next and then follow the on-screen instructions to save the recovered photos.

Scenario 3: “Last month, for freeing storage space on my computer, I permanently deleted all the photos using Shift + Delete keys. I forgot that I have no backup and now I need some important photos back. Please tell me how to recover permanently deleted photos from Windows PC after one month.

Solution – Recover Recently Deleted Photos with Photo Recovery Software

If you have permanently deleted your photos and want to recover them, use Stellar Photo Recovery software. This tool can recover your lost/deleted photos in all data loss scenarios, such as accidental deletion, formatting, virus attack, corruption, etc. It can even recover your recently deleted photos removed from your computer one day, one week, or one month ago.

This photo recovery software can retrieve deleted images in all data loss scenarios like drive corruption, virus attack, accidental deletion, or formatting. You can restore photos and other multimedia files from Mac, Windows systems, HDD, SSD, flash drives, SD cards, and other storage devices.

Caution – Stop using your Mac or Windows system from which you lost photos to prevent data overwriting. Overwriting with new data dramatically reduces your chances of any data recovery.

 

Steps to recover recently deleted photos from Windows/ Mac using Stellar Photo Recovery

• Download and install the Stellar Photo Recovery tool on your Mac or Windows device.
• Launch the software and from the home screen, select the location from where you lost photos. Click Scan.

• The scan process will begin and once completed, see the list of recoverable photos and preview them.

• Select the photos you want to restore, click Recover and save the recovered photos at the desired location.

Conclusion

Whenever you delete photos from Mac or Windows device, the first place to look for them is Trash or Recycle Bin. However, these apps hold the deleted photos only for a limited time, so retrieve them soon after deletion.

On the other hand, if Trash or Recycle Bin doesn’t have those photos, look for the recently deleted photos in various Backup options for Mac/ Windows devices. However, you need to set up or take a backup of your photos beforehand.

When none of the above manual data recovery options work, use professional photo recovery software to restore recently deleted photos on your Windows or Mac devices. This tool recovers photos in any file format from all kinds of macOS and Windows drives.

FAQ

1. How to recover deleted photos after deleting them from a Recently Deleted folder on your iPhone?

If your photos are deleted from the Recently Deleted folder, check iCloud and iTunes backup to restore them.

2. How to recover deleted photos from Android?

To recover deleted photos from an Android smartphone, check Recycle Bin of the device, Google Photos, or any other backup server.

3. Where do recently deleted photos on Mac go?

If the photos were removed using the Photos app, it goes to the Recently Deleted folder of the app. If they were deleted using any other method, they should be in Mac’s Trash Bin.

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About The Author

Vishakha Singh

Vishakha Singh is a Senior Writer at Stellar Data Recovery with half a decade of experience in writing content in diverse verticals. She's a tech enthusiast who loves creating photo/video recovery & repair tutorials. Vishakha also specializes in writing full-blown iPhone and Android guides.