How to recover deleted photos (When they seem lost forever)

I’m an amateur photographer, and I’ve lost and recovered photos more times than I can count. Once, I formatted a flash drive with pictures from my friend’s kid’s birthday, thinking I had already backed them up. Another time, I deleted a folder of photos from a cross-Canada trip and emptied the Trash, convinced they were safely stored on an external drive. Whatever story happened to you, it probably happened to me.

In most cases, I managed to recover all — or at least most — of the photos. Over time, I’ve developed a clear plan of action for situations like these, and I’d like to share with you how to recover deleted photos using native Mac tools and third-party apps.

How to recover deleted photos on Mac: Quick solutions

To save you time, I've organized the key solutions from this article into this handy table. If you feel confident, just use these instructions. If you need a more detailed guide, click on the link in the left column to jump to the solution. I also share my personal tips for recovery there.

Is it possible to recover deleted photos on Mac? Do this 1 thing ASAP

It is very possible to restore deleted photos on Mac and other Apple devices. A variety of native tools and third-party apps can help, but just to be clear, no option can guarantee a 100% success rate. If photos were deleted in 2017 from a device you've been actively using all this time, chances are they're lost forever.

That's why when I realize that the photo is missing from my Mac, I do only one thing first.

Stop working on the Mac. 

Stop working on the Mac! When we delete a file, it's not physically removed from the hard drive. It loses its preferences in the file system and waits to be overwritten. The more things we do after deleting, the more likely it is that we won't be able to recover the deleted image.

That’s why it’s important to find out how to recover deleted photos in the fewest clicks possible.

And after this, I proceed to save my photos.

Before you continue...

The easiest way to recover deleted photos on Mac

For several years now, I've been using only one data recovery app for Mac — Disk Drill. Disk Drill supports all file formats and can get files back from connected devices at the same time, from SD cards to USB drives to iPhones and iPads. The app will scan the selected disk and show you the files that can be recovered. The scanning time depends on the amount of data, but I'd say that for me it usually takes about 10 minutes.

Here's how to recover recently deleted photos from Mac with Disk Drill: 

1. Launch Disk Drill. If you want to recover deleted photos from an SD card or to an external hard drive (recommended), plug them in now.
2. Select your hard drive and click Search for lost data.
3. Review the results of the scan. Narrow down the list by selecting Pictures.
4. Preview the files you want to recover.
5. Restore deleted photos that you want to get back.

There are additional features in Disk Drill that can help you avoid disasters later. Its disk space analyzer can alert you to any damaged data early on, the data backup feature can store your files on external drives, and the data protection module can prevent any damage to your files and folders.

This was the heavy artillery you can use if a photo has disappeared without a trace, and you have no copies of it anywhere. But below, I'll cover the built-in options, like the Recently Deleted folder or iCloud, in case you haven't tried either.

Recover deleted photos with iCloud

If you have iCloud Photos enabled on your Apple devices, you can access your pictures on any of them, including the web, and restore them in case of accidental deletions. 

Here’s how to recover deleted photos from iCloud: 

1. Visit icloud.com and sign in.
2. Go to Photos.
3. Select Recently Deleted in the sidebar.
4. Choose one or more photos and click Recover.

The process is the same in the Photos app on Mac. 

But here’s how to recover deleted photos from Recently Deleted on iPhone:

1. Open Photos.
2. Go to Albums, scroll down, and tap Recently Deleted.
3. Tap Select and choose one or more photos to recover.
4. Recover (optionally Recover All).

For more detailed information, check out our guide for recovering deleted photos from an iPhone. 

Restore deleted photos from Trash

Checking the Trash is usually the first thing you do when you lose a file, but I have to ask anyway: Did you check carefully?

If your Trash is full to the brim and you haven't cleaned it in ages, the photo might be buried somewhere deep in there. In that case, try right-clicking anywhere in the Trash window and sorting files by type, size, date, last modified, or name. It might make your search easier.

1. Open Trash from the Dock.
2. Select and right-click on the images you want to restore.
3. Click Put Back.

If you want to know how to recover permanently deleted photos from Mac, take a look at the Disk Drill solution described above.

How to recover deleted photos from a backup

If you have a backup solution, such as Time Machine, try logging in to their portals and recovering the photos by scrolling back to the time and date when they were there.

Another way to perform backups is to sync files between two Macs. One of the tools I use (and love!) is ChronoSync Express. It's a great solution for having photos automatically sync up on two Macs, which means that even in the case of losing them on one, you’d have another copy on the other. 

I usually select specific folders I want to sync (e.g. Photos) and set a schedule. Then, I just receive system notifications for any processes that are currently in progress. 

Recover photos using Finder

Even if you don’t back up your Mac regularly, there’s a secret way to recover deleted pictures using your iPhone. 

By default, iCloud saves full backups of your iPhone. If you have iCloud Photos turned on, and the photos on your Mac and iPhone are the same, it means that deleted photos on the Mac might exist in the backup of your iPhone. 

To recover deleted photos with Finder: 

1. Connect your phone via a USB cable.
2. Open Finder and then your phone.
3. Click Restore Backup… 
4. Select the backup from the dropdown, enter your password, and click Restore.
5. When the process is complete, go to Photos and retrieve the photos you’re looking for.

As you can see, there are a few options for recovering deleted photos, from iPhone backups to iCloud to Trash to the Recently Deleted folder. However, to properly secure your Mac for the next time, I'd recommend creating backups with Get Backup Pro and ChronoSync Express. And if something really got deleted, try restoring it with Disk Drill. 

All these apps are available to you for free during the seven-day trial of Setapp. Setapp is a platform with more than 250 apps for macOS and iOS curated to solve all kinds of problems, from backups to RAM cleanups to workspace optimization. Try them all at no cost and see which ones you must add to your collection.

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