robogeo

Q: are permanently deleted photos REALLY gone?

I accidentally permanently deleted "iPhoto Events" album from my iPhone >iCloud>Mac. I went from 8,000 photos to 2,000. I restored some of them from an old time machine backup (March 2013). My iCloud account clearly reflects the deletion. I was told that hard drive data recovery options were futile, because the data was overwritten. Same for the iPhone flash memory. I gave up on any kind of data recovery a week ago, but now this question keeps nagging me: Maybe I missed something? Are my precious photos REALLY gone?

Posted on Aug 29, 2016 11:09 AM

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Q: are permanently deleted photos REALLY gone?

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  • by Winston Churchill,

    Winston Churchill Winston Churchill Aug 29, 2016 11:15 AM in response to robogeo
    Level 10 (103,368 points)
    Apple TV
    Aug 29, 2016 11:15 AM in response to robogeo

    What do you mean permanently deleted them, do you mean you deleted them and then deleted them again from the recently deleted album.

     

    The path iPhone > iCloud > Mac doesn't mean anything to me I'm afraid, but if the photos were synced to your Mac and you run time machine on that Mac, the photos should be recoverable.

  • by Rysz,Solvedanswer

    Rysz Rysz Aug 29, 2016 11:30 AM in response to robogeo
    Level 7 (20,242 points)
    iTunes
    Aug 29, 2016 11:30 AM in response to robogeo

    If you're using Photos (not iPhoto), "deleted" images are held for about 30 days in the Recently Deleted album. If you "permanently" deleted them from that special album, they're gone for real.

     

    If you're really still using iPhoto, they would have been moved to iPhoto Trash. Same rule, though, if you emptied the trash, they're gone.

  • by robogeo,

    robogeo robogeo Aug 29, 2016 11:27 AM in response to Winston Churchill
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Aug 29, 2016 11:27 AM in response to Winston Churchill

    Sorry, what I meant was I deleted the album from my iPhone, then they were deleted from iCloud and finally from my Mac. The last time machine backup was March 2013. They were deleted from the 'recently deleted folder'. Thanks for the response, and sorry for the confusion, as you can see I'm not a computer person.

  • by Winston Churchill,

    Winston Churchill Winston Churchill Aug 29, 2016 11:39 AM in response to robogeo
    Level 10 (103,368 points)
    Apple TV
    Aug 29, 2016 11:39 AM in response to robogeo

    If they were deleted from recently deleted and your last back up was 3 years ago and before the photos you deleted were taken, then yes I'm sorry they are gone.

  • by robogeo,

    robogeo robogeo Aug 29, 2016 11:41 AM in response to Winston Churchill
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Aug 29, 2016 11:41 AM in response to Winston Churchill

    Thanks, I needed to hear it from an expert.

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Aug 29, 2016 11:45 AM in response to robogeo
    Level 10 (84,185 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Aug 29, 2016 11:45 AM in response to robogeo

    It depends on exactly what have and what you did

     

    What version of the OS and of hotos do you have?

     

    If you delete an album from Photos the album is gone but the Photos are not gone - they are still in the library - this does not affect ICPL

     

    If you remove photos form an album they are removed from the album but not from the library adn tehy are still in teh library - this does not affect ICPL

     

    If you delete photos from an album they are moved to the recently deleted album for 30 days or until you specifically delete them from there, which ever comes first - this will remove them form ICPL also

     

    What exactly did you do step by step?

     

    And I seem to remember some early issues with OS X 10.1-.x that deleting the iPhoto Events Album causes unexpected results - I've not seen that for a ling time so assume it has been resolved in the bug fixes since the early releases - the current software is El Captain OS X 10.11.6 and Photos 1.5

     

    LN

  • by robogeo,

    robogeo robogeo Aug 29, 2016 12:30 PM in response to LarryHN
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Aug 29, 2016 12:30 PM in response to LarryHN

    Thanks for the info Larry.

     

    I'm on OS X 10.11.2 and Photos (?)

     

    "iPhoto Events" was an album that appeared when I upgraded to El Capitan, which puzzled me at the time. That it was transferred and not converted, I really thought it could NOT be the root folder of my Photos Library but it was, and it just got incorporated into Photos. 

     

    My iPhone told me if you delete them they will be deleted from all your devices, via iCloud. I just didn't listen. I deleted some old videos (that I'd put on a hard drive), and the next day they were still on my computer so I foolishly decided to delete the biggest folder "iPhoto Events". Didn't know about the time lag when I did it...

     

    The next day the grey squares started popping up where the photos had been, and I thought Oh boy, I think i've really done it. It went on for a few days.

     

    I had issues with time machine interfering with normal operations. Kept meaning to get it going again but...

     

    Rob