The short answer
Open Photos, go to Utilities › Recently Deleted and unlock it with Face ID or your passcode. Tap Select, choose the photos, and tap Recover. Deleted photos stay there for 30 days. After that they're gone from the iPhone, and only an older backup or a copy somewhere else can bring them back.
On an iPhone, deleting a photo doesn't remove it straight away. It moves to an album called Recently Deleted, where it stays for 30 days in case you change your mind.
Get a photo back
- Open Photos.
- Find Utilities (under Collections, or Albums on older versions of iOS) and open Recently Deleted.
- Unlock it with Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode.
- Tap Select, choose the photos and videos you want back, and tap Recover.
They return to your library in their original place, with their original date. Each item in the album also shows how many days it has left.
With iCloud Photos on, Recently Deleted is shared across your devices and iCloud.com, so a photo recovered on one comes back on all of them.
Need the space? Empty it
Photos in Recently Deleted still take up space. That's why your free storage often doesn't change when you delete a lot. iOS gives the space back when each photo's 30 days are up, or right away if you empty the album:
- Open Recently Deleted and unlock it.
- Tap Select, then Delete All, or choose specific items and tap Delete.
This is permanent. Only do it once you're sure.
After the 30 days
Once a photo leaves Recently Deleted, it's gone from the iPhone and from iCloud Photos. A few places might still have a copy:
- A computer or drive you imported photos to earlier.
- Another service that backs up your camera roll, such as Google Photos or a work account.
- A chat. If you sent the photo to someone, it's still in that conversation.
- A shared album. Photos you added to a Shared Album stay there even after you delete them from your library.
- An iPhone backup. If iCloud Photos was off, an iCloud or computer backup made before the delete includes your photos. But restoring a backup replaces everything on the iPhone with that older copy, so it's a last resort.
Delete with confidence
Knowing about Recently Deleted changes how you clean up. You don't need to agonise over each photo: you have a month to notice a mistake. The safest cleaner apps work the same way, sending everything through Recently Deleted instead of erasing it on the spot.