My baby cousin recently deleted all of my photos permanently as a joke thinking I could recover them. But I can’t and I’ve lost over 200 photos! How can I get them back?
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
iPhone XS, iOS 16
Try these steps to recover your photos:
1a. Check your “Recently Deleted” folder: Deleted photos will stay there normally for 30 days, after 30 days they will be removed and can not be recovered
1b. Check your “Hidden” folder: Sometimes photos are just hidden and not deleted
2. Read Apple recommendation: If you're Missing Photos or Videos in the Photos app - Apple Support
3. Check your iCloud: Open your iCloud and see if you find the missing photos: https://www.icloud.com
4. Other places where you could find photos: Other computer, external hard drive, USB memory stick, other cloud storage, shared albums, digital camera, memory cards, emails, ..
5. Use your Backup: iPhone/iPad: Restore your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch from a backup MacBook/iMac: Restore items backed up with Time Machine on Mac You must restore the complete library (as a second copy) and then export the needed photos.
Attention: Unfortunately iCloud backup will only contain data that are not already stored in iCloud, therefore your photos may not be part of this backup. TimeMachine backup will only contain data / photos if they are stored on the local drive, if you use optimized storage for your photos you may just have reduced quality in your backup.
6. Data recovery service: Some companies offer data recovery service, but this is expensive and can only be done if no new data were added. New data will overwrite the deleted photos and a recovery will be impossible.
If none of the above steps was able to recover your photos then your photos are gone.
Ralf
Try these steps to recover your photos:
1a. Check your “Recently Deleted” folder: Deleted photos will stay there normally for 30 days, after 30 days they will be removed and can not be recovered
1b. Check your “Hidden” folder: Sometimes photos are just hidden and not deleted
2. Read Apple recommendation: If you're Missing Photos or Videos in the Photos app - Apple Support
3. Check your iCloud: Open your iCloud and see if you find the missing photos: https://www.icloud.com
4. Other places where you could find photos: Other computer, external hard drive, USB memory stick, other cloud storage, shared albums, digital camera, memory cards, emails, ..
5. Use your Backup: iPhone/iPad: Restore your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch from a backup MacBook/iMac: Restore items backed up with Time Machine on Mac You must restore the complete library (as a second copy) and then export the needed photos.
Attention: Unfortunately iCloud backup will only contain data that are not already stored in iCloud, therefore your photos may not be part of this backup. TimeMachine backup will only contain data / photos if they are stored on the local drive, if you use optimized storage for your photos you may just have reduced quality in your backup.
6. Data recovery service: Some companies offer data recovery service, but this is expensive and can only be done if no new data were added. New data will overwrite the deleted photos and a recovery will be impossible.
If none of the above steps was able to recover your photos then your photos are gone.
Ralf
Sorry but your device is telling you already the effects of deleting photos.
Delete photos on your iPhone or iPad - Apple Support
Here the message when you delete photos from Recently Deleted
Yes Apple could display a stronger message, if you try to delete more than ??? photos.
But at what amount of photos should they display the other message?
You can send a feedback to the Apple team and ask them to change the message if more than ?? photos are deleted / been removed from Recently Deleted album.
My experience shows that people don't read messages if they are too long.
Ralf
Sorry but no message can stop your baby cousin from deleting data from your phone.
If somebody will ignore the first two messages, he / she will also ignore additional messages.
There are only two things that can help you.
Ralf
I tried all of these and none of them worked. A lot of memories down the drain!
Hopefully Apple will do something to prevent such things from happening. For example, a warning notifying us if we want to delete so many photos.
Yeah, I’m aware of that message and that would’ve been enough for me to stop and think about what and how much i’m deleting, but it wasn’t me. It was my baby cousin haha!
I would say when you’re deleting at least 100 photos Apple should display that warning message.
Thanks for your help anyway! Appreciated.
With iOS 16 installed (as shown below your question) your baby cousin should not have been able to remove the photos from Recently Deleted. The Recently Deleted album is locked and requires a password. You are not sharing your password with your baby cousin? Or are you sharing the same Apple ID? Even if someone deleted all photos, they should still be in Recently Deleted, and nobody holding your iPhone could delete them permanently without entering the passcode.
If your photos vanished immediately after deleting them, you may be having a problem with the iCloud storage. If you have used all iCloud storage, deleted photos will immediately be deleted to help you free your cloud storage quickly. Yu may want to check, if you are having an iCloud Storage problem.
And if you are not yet having iOS 16 installed, you may want to upgrade to the most recent system version.
How can I get deleted iPhone photos back?
