‘Recently I found an old SD card of my DSLR. Its photos were probably deleted 3-4 years back. But, I am sure the SD card had some interesting family pictures to keep. Is there any way to recover old photos deleted years ago?’
Photos are precious memories of your loved ones and events in life. However, it’s not easy to manage thousands of digital photos collected over the years. You may accidentally delete them or lose them due to formatting or corruption from your camera memory cards, computer, pen drive, or other.
Can you recover old deleted photos?
The answer is ‘Yes’. Fortunately, there are recovery software whose search engines can retrieve photos deleted long time ago from PC, Mac, and removable storage drives. Further, various backup solutions also keep you safe from losing old deleted photos.
Methods to Recover Old Photos Deleted Years Ago
Recovering old deleted photos can be challenging, below are the reliable methods you can try:
Recover old deleted pictures with professional photo recovery software
If the photos are deleted from the storage drive years ago, you may not be able to recover them through manual methods unless you have a backup. Hence, you can straightaway use a permanently deleted photo recovery software — Stellar Photo Recovery. The advanced software comprehensively scans old hard drives, SSDs, SD cards, flash drives, and other types of memory cards to retrieve photos deleted years ago. The software is apt for old photo recovery deleted many years back.
Some of the key benefits of using recovery software to get back old deleted photos:
- Recover old photographs without hampering their original quality.
- View the original date and timestamp of the recovered photos.
- Scan and retrieve photos from formatted or corrupt old HDD, SSD, SD cards, etc.
- Recover photos shot with Android or camera.
- Recover all image file types from JPEG to RAW file formats of Canon, Olympus, Nikon, Sony, Samsung, Apple, etc.
Steps to recover old deleted photos:
- Step 1: Connect the HDD, SSD, SD card, etc., from which you want to recover old deleted pictures to PC or Mac.
- Step 2: Download Stellar Photo Recovery on your PC. If you have lost photos from Mac storage drives, download the macOS version.
- Step 3: Select the storage drive for scanning. Turn on Deep Scan at the bottom and click Scan.
- Step 4: After the scan finishes, preview the found photos. Select and click Recover.
Stellar free photo recovery software lets you retrieve up to 10 pictures from any storage drive. To recover more old deleted photos from years ago, download its full version.
A Pro Tip - Don’t save the recovered old pictures in the same storage drive from which they are deleted or retrieved. Always save them at a different location.
Recover deleted old photos from File History on PC
Windows File History feature regularly backs up your PC data on an external drive, provided you have enabled it. If you’re looking for missing or deleted old photos, you may find them using File History.
Steps: How to recover old deleted photos with File History on Windows 10/ 11
- Connect the external storage drive you’re using to backup files on Windows PC.
- Open Control Panel and click on File History.
- Click Restore personal files on the left pane.
- Find your relevant backup from which you want to restore the old photos. Select the old photo/s and click on the green ‘Restore’ button. The old photos are restored to their original location on your PC.
Note - If you are sure that the deleted photos were backed up using File History or Windows Backup and Restore Utility, then only you can restore them; otherwise try using Photo Recovery Software
Recover old photos using Windows Backup and Restore Utility
If you’re using 'Backup and Restore' feature on Windows 10, 8.1, 8, or below, try to recover old deleted photos using this feature. Below are the steps to get your old photos back from Windows backup:
- Connect the storage media drive to your computer.
- Open Control Panel.
- Go to Backup and Restore Windows 10.
- To restore your image files, select Restore my files. But if you want to recover the photos of other users, choose Restore all users' files.
- Select Browse for files or Browse for folders to view old photos in the backup.
Note: If you want to view specific photos in the backup, then select ‘Browse for files’. When you browse for folders, individual files won’t be visible.
- Click on Search to find any specific old photos. Type the part or whole name or extension of the required image file. Try with special characters for example, *.jpg or *.cr2 to search for JPG or CR2 files in the backup.
- Next, select the desired photos from the results and click Next.
- Click Restore to save the recovered old photos.
Note - If you are sure that the deleted photos were backed up using File History or Windows Backup and Restore Utility, then only you can restore them; otherwise try using Photo Recovery Software
Recover old photos from a backup created on another computer
Are you looking for old photos saved on another Windows computer? You can recover old photos from another computer if there is a backup created from the old PC using Windows Backup and Restore.
When you restore the backup of an old PC, the recovered files get saved in the name of a user in a folder. For instance, if the user name was 'Jim' on the old PC on which the backup was created, the backup will be restored in a folder named 'Jim'.
Use Google Drive Backup to recover photos from old Google account
Google Drive allows users to save data in the cloud and sync files across all their devices. If you use Google Drive, then try to recover photos from old Google account. Google Drive may contain your old deleted pictures on your Android phone and computer.
To recover old photos with Google Drive, follow the below steps:
- Sign in to your Google Drive account on Android or a computer.
- Search and select the required photos.
- Click on the 3 dots. Click on the Download option to save recovered old photos on your device.
You may be able to recover old photos deleted years ago from Google Drive.
How to Restore Old Photos with Google Photos
If you have been using the Google Photos backup and sync feature, the old deleted photos on Android or PC must be residing there. Just look for your precious old photographs in the cloud backup and download them on your system.
Steps to restore old photos deleted years ago in Google Photos:
- Open the Google Photos on your PC or smartphone.
- Sign in to your Google Account.
- Look for the photos in the albums, archive, or library. Select the ones you wish to recover.
- Click on the 3 dots. Move the old pictures to new album or Archive folder, as options appear on your device.
A Pro Tip - Meanwhile, it can be tedious to search and recover photos deleted years ago in Google Photos. Hence, utilize the search tools of Google Photos that are available for all devices, be it PC, Mac, Android, or iPhone. You can search old deleted photos by year, location, name, file type, event, and more in Google Photos for quick photos recovery.
If you cannot recover old photos from Google Photos, they are probably lost forever. Try other backup drives that you may be using or get photo recovery software.
Recover old deleted photos from iPhone / iCloud/iTunes
Do you want to recover pictures deleted 2-3 years back from your iPhone? Restore old photos from your iCloud or iTunes backup. Sign in to the iCloud/ iTunes account with your Apple ID. Select the relevant backup file that contained the old deleted photos and try to recover photos from iPhone.
If the photos were deleted years ago, you might have had another Apple account back then. So make sure to enter the correct Apple ID and password.
In case, you have forgotten your old Apple ID, learn here how to recover.
Recover old deleted photos from Time Machine on Mac
When it comes to Mac photo recovery, Mac users should look into Time Machine backup for deleted old photos. The built-in backup feature regularly backs up your photos and other data present on Mac.
To recover old pictures from Time Machine:
- Connect the Time Machine backup drive to the Mac.
- Enter Time Machine from the menu bar.
- Navigate to backups using the Time Line. You can also use Up/Down arrow button.
- Locate and select the required pictures. Click Restore.
Click for other methods to recover deleted photos from Mac.
Use Lab services to restore old photos deleted years ago
Go for the in-lab photo recovery services when you cannot recover old pictures deleted over 2-3 years ago or more due to drive failure or physical damage. The data recovery experts retrieve your precious photos from a damaged storage drive in the sophisticated Class 100 Clean Room lab. These labs are ISO-certified, contamination-free, and secure. The lab experts are equipped to recover old pictures in tough cases of water-damaged, broken, or burnt hard drives, camera memory cards, pen drives, etc.
Besides, they take care of your personal photographs by strictly following data privacy and safety regulations. You can contact Stellar Data Recovery services via call or online.
Wrapping up
Updated photo backups and archives are quick ways to recover old photos deleted years ago. Always first, look for your pictures in Google Drive, Google Photos, Time Machine, File Manager of smartphones, iCloud, or other backup drives that are readily available. However, without backup, Stellar Photo Recovery comes in handy. It can recover deleted photos from a computer, SSD, SD card, or other storage drive. Further, if your storage drive is inaccessible or physically damaged, seek the help of in-lab services experts for old photo recovery.
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