How to Recover Deleted Photos From iCloud

If you’ve deleted photos and want them back, iCloud is often the best place to look. This guide covers how to recover photos from iCloud when they’ve been deleted, how to retrieve and download your iCloud photos to a computer or new phone, and how iCloud Photos sync works, which explains most “missing photo” surprises. It also covers the hard limit: once photos are gone from iCloud’s Recently Deleted, Apple can’t bring them back, and neither can anyone else.

If you’re working from the iPhone itself, our guide to recovering deleted photos on an iPhone covers the on-device steps. This one focuses on iCloud.

First, understand how iCloud Photos sync works

When iCloud Photos is turned on, your photo library lives in iCloud and stays in sync across your iPhone, iPad, Mac and iCloud.com. That has two consequences:

• Deleting a photo on one device deletes it everywhere. It’s not a backup in the traditional sense. It’s one library mirrored on all your devices.
• Recently Deleted is synced too. A photo deleted on your iPhone shows up in Recently Deleted on iCloud.com and your Mac, and you can recover it from any of them.

To check whether iCloud Photos is on, go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud > Photos on your iPhone. The exact wording varies a little between iOS versions.

How to recover deleted photos from iCloud Recently Deleted

Deleted photos and videos go to the Recently Deleted album and are kept for about 30 days before they’re permanently removed.

On iCloud.com

1. On a computer, go to iCloud.com and sign in with your Apple Account (Apple ID).
2. Open Photos.
3. In the sidebar, click Recently Deleted.
4. Select the photos you want. Hold Command (Mac) or Ctrl (Windows) to select several.
5. Click Recover.

The photos return to your library and sync back to your devices. This works even if your iPhone is lost, broken or won’t unlock, which makes iCloud recently deleted photos the quickest place to check.

On a Mac

Open the Photos app and click Recently Deleted in the sidebar. You may need to unlock it with Touch ID or your password. Select the photos and click Recover.

If you don’t see Recently Deleted on iCloud.com

• You may be signed in to a different Apple Account than the one your phone uses. Check on the iPhone under Settings > [your name].
• iCloud Photos may have been off, so the photos were never in iCloud.
• If you’ve turned on Advanced Data Protection, viewing your data on iCloud.com requires a separate setting that lets you access iCloud data on the web. Use a trusted device instead.

How to retrieve photos from iCloud to a computer or new phone

Sometimes the photos aren’t deleted. You just need to get them out of iCloud. Here’s how to retrieve photos from iCloud:

• Download from iCloud.com: open Photos, select the photos, and click the Download button. You can choose to download the original or a more compatible format, depending on your browser and settings.
• On a Mac: sign in with the same Apple Account and turn on iCloud Photos in the Photos app settings. Choose Download Originals to this Mac if you want full-resolution copies stored locally.
• On Windows: install iCloud for Windows from the Microsoft Store, sign in and turn on Photos. Your library appears in File Explorer.
• On a new or reset iPhone: sign in with your Apple Account and turn on iCloud Photos. Your library downloads automatically. This is how to restore photos from iCloud onto a replacement phone. No backup restore is needed.

iCloud backups vs iCloud Photos

This is where many people get confused. An iCloud backup and iCloud Photos are separate things.

• When iCloud Photos is on, your photos are not included in your iCloud backup, because they’re already stored in iCloud Photos.
• When iCloud Photos is off, your photos are included in the iCloud backup (if backups are on).

So restoring an iCloud backup only brings back photos if iCloud Photos was off when the backup was made. A restore also replaces everything on the phone, so save anything new first. Our iPhone photo recovery guide walks through the restore steps and its pitfalls.

What about iCloud.com Data Recovery?

iCloud.com has a Data Recovery option, usually found in your account or iCloud settings on the site. The menu location has changed over time. It can restore:

• Files deleted from iCloud Drive in roughly the last 30 days
• Earlier versions of contacts, calendars and reminders
• Safari bookmarks

It doesn’t restore photos. Photos are recovered only through Recently Deleted.

How to recover permanently deleted photos from iCloud

This is the honest answer to how to recover permanently deleted photos from iCloud: if the photos have been removed from Recently Deleted, either manually or because the time limit passed, Apple can’t restore them. There’s no hidden archive or support request that brings them back.

And no recovery lab can either, including ours. iCloud data lives on Apple’s servers, not on any device you can send us. Be wary of any software or service that claims to recover photos purged from iCloud. Many simply download what’s already in your account, and some ask for your Apple Account password, which is a real security risk. Read is data recovery software safe? before paying for anything.

Check everywhere else before giving up

Copies of photos often exist outside your iCloud library:

• Shared Albums. Photos you added to a Shared Album can stay there after you delete them from your library.
• Messages. Open a conversation, tap the contact’s name and look at the photos sent in that thread.
• Other devices. An old iPhone, iPad or Mac that was offline, or signed in to a different account, may still have them.
• Other apps. Google Photos, OneDrive, Dropbox or Amazon Photos, if you ever turned on backup. Check their trash folders too.
• Other people you sent the photos to.

Our general photo recovery guide covers more places to look.

When a lab can help

A lab can’t undo an iCloud deletion. It can help when photos were never uploaded to iCloud and are stuck on an iPhone that has physically failed, for example one that won’t turn on or has water damage. In that case the photos are typically still on the phone, and repairing it enough to boot is how they’re recovered. You’ll need your passcode. See iPhone won’t turn on: how to recover your photos.

The bottom line

To recover deleted photos from iCloud, check Recently Deleted on iCloud.com or in Photos on a Mac within about 30 days. To retrieve or restore photos from iCloud, download them from iCloud.com or sign in on a new device with iCloud Photos turned on. Remember that iCloud Photos is a synced library, not a backup: delete it once and it’s deleted everywhere. Once photos leave Recently Deleted, they can’t be recovered by Apple or by anyone else.

If your photos are trapped on an iPhone that has failed and never synced to iCloud, our iPhone recovery service can help. It’s one flat $1,200 price for a single device, with free prepaid shipping, and you pay nothing unless the recovery succeeds.