Digital photos have become a very important part of our day-to-day lives. But sometimes, you may encounter problems due to sudden and accidental deletion of these pictures from your device. Whether it is accidental deletion, virus or malware attacks, or any other reason, you can always restore your lost pictures using proper photo recovery methods.
Here, we will explore several methods to recover accidentally deleted photos from any device, including your SD cards, HD drives, Windows PC, Mac, etc. So, let’s start the recovery process without wasting much time!
How to Recover Deleted Photos on Android Devices?
If you are using an Android smartphone and lost pictures on it, don’t lose hope! You can check the Recently Deleted folder in the Photos app or even use any backup options, like Google Drive or Google Photos to recover lost pictures. We’ll walk you through each of the photo recovery methods below:
Method 01: Check Recently Deleted Folder in the Gallery
The first step to restore lost photos on Android smartphones is from its Recently Deleted folder, which stores your lost or deleted pictures or videos for 30 days. To recover deleted pictures from the Recently Deleted folder on Android, you need to:
- Launch the Gallery app, click Albums, and then scroll down and then tap the Recently Deleted folder.
- Select the photo you need to restore and click the “Restore” button.
Method 02: Restore From Google Photos
If the picture is not present in the Recently Deleted folder, then it might be permanently removed from your device. In such cases, you can try backup options, like Google Photos, Google Drive, etc. to recover your lost pictures.
Go through the following steps to recover accidentally deleted photos via Google Photos:
- Launch the Google Photos app and click Library > Trash.
- Click Select from the top-right corner and choose the photos you need to restore and tap “Restore” button.
Methods to Recover Deleted Pictures on iPhone
If you have lost your memorable pictures from your iPhone, you can go through any of the following methods to recover lost pictures:
Method 01: Check the Recently Deleted Folder in the Files App
Just like Android devices, iPhones have the Recently Deleted folder which stores your deleted pictures for 30 days. To restore deleted pictures from the Files app:
- Launch the Files app, click Browse located at the bottom and then click Recently Deleted.
- Select the photos you need to restore and click Recover. After this, the selected pictures will be restored back to their original location.
Method 02: Restore Photos from iCloud
If you have a habit of maintaining regular iCloud backups, then you can easily restore your lost pictures using it. Just enable the iCloud backup on your device and go through the following steps to recover deleted photos via iCloud:
- Visit iCloud.com and log in to your iCloud account.
- After login, scroll down and click on the Photos app.
- Now, from the left navigation pane, click the “Recently Deleted” folder and select the photo you need to restore.
- Finally, click the “Recover” button to save recovered photos in their original albums.
Recovery on Windows Devices
Windows OS offers in-built backup options that you can use to restore lost or deleted files on your device. Along with the manual methods, you can try using photo recovery software to restore your lost pictures.
Method 01: Recover Deleted Photos from Recycle Bin
Before you dive into any other photo recovery method to restore deleted photos from a Windows device, it is important to check the Recycle Bin folder. This folder stores all the pictures and other files deleted on your device, for some specific days. Just go through the following steps to recover accidentally deleted photos from the Recycle Bin:
- Launch the Recycle Bin folder.
- Locate and select the photos you need to restore.
- Right-click on any selected picture and tap the “Restore” button.
Method 02: Restore Using Windows Backup and Restore Utility
If the deleted picture is not present in the Recycle Bin folder, then it might be permanently removed from your device. In such cases, you can use the backup of your computer data to restore lost photos easily. All you need to do is:
- Type CP in the search box of your desktop and launch Control Panel.
- Go to Backup and Restore, and then choose either “Restore my files” or “Restore all users’ files” option.
- Now, choose the desired pictures you need to restore and then select the ‘Browse for files’ or ‘Browse for folder’ button.
- Click the Next button followed by the “Restore” button to save selected pictures back to your storage drive.
Method 03: Use Photo Recovery Software to Recover Deleted Pictures
When the above methods can’t provide the desired result, you can use a professional photo recovery software to get your lost picture. Tools like Stellar Photo Recovery support the recovery of deleted pictures of multiple types, including JPEG, JPG, TIFF, GIF, PNG, etc. The software can recover photos from all internal and external drives, including SD cards, HD drives, and many more.
Steps to Recover Accidentally Deleted Photos from Windows Device Using Stellar Photo Recovery:
- Download and install the Stellar Photo Recovery software on your device. Launch it and from the homepage, select the location from where you need to restore lost pictures and click the Scan button.
- After completion of the scanning process, preview the recoverable files.
- Select the file you need to restore and tap the “Recover” button to save selected files at the desired location.
Recover Lost Pictures on Mac Devices
If you lose photos from any MacOS devices, then the restoration process will be quite similar to that of Windows OS devices. You can apply any of the following Mac photo recovery methods to get your deleted pictures:
Method 01: Recover Deleted Pictures From Trash
Like Windows’ Recycle Bin, Mac devices have the Trash folder where your deleted files first go and remain before getting permanently deleted. Go through the following steps to recover deleted pictures on Mac from the Trash folder:
- Click the Trash icon located on your dock.
- Locate and right-click on the photo you need to restore, and then click Put Back.
- After that, the selected pictures will be restored back to their original location.
Method 02: Restore Pictures on Mac Using Photo Recovery Software
For perform Mac photo recovery, you can use photo recovery software for Mac, like Stellar Photo Recovery for Mac. It supports the recovery of lost or deleted photos, videos, audio files, etc. from HDDs, SSDs, SD Cards, and other storage devices. The software offers several amazing features for quick and easy recovery of your lost images. These features include:
- It supports the recovery of all popular images and RAW camera file formats. It can also recover lost audio and video files of multiple formats.
- The software is compatible with M1, M2 & T2 chip-enabled Macs.
- Allows you to preview the recoverable pictures, so you can select and save only the required ones.
The photo recovery steps to recover accidentally deleted photos from Mac devices are somehow similar to the above steps of Stellar Photo Recovery for Windows OS. For this:
- Just download the Stellar Photo Recovery for Mac software, install and launch it. Select the storage location from where you need to restore lost pictures and tap the Scan button to start the scanning process.
- After the scanning process, preview the recoverable files and select the photos, videos, and audio files you need to restore.
- Tap the “Recover” button to save selected files at a desired location.
Conclusion:
Accidentally deletion of photos from any device can be a distressing experience, but with the right tools and techniques, you can recover deleted photos easily. Remember to act quickly, avoid using your device, and use professional photo recovery software as per your requirements. Additionally, maintain a proper backup of your file in order to quickly recover your cherished memories if any unforeseen data loss occurs.
