iCloud photos and videos
My iCloud photos and videos were transferred to my new phone and accidently permanently deleted. Is there any way to retrieve them?
iPhone 15, iOS 18
Question marked as
Deleted pictures can be seen in the Recently Deleted view in the Utilities section for 30 days, and they can be restored from there. If you have bypassed this safety feature and deleted them from the Recently Deleted view, then they are gone.
You can see this:
If you're missing photos or videos in the Photos app - Apple Support
Basically the above says to look in Recently Deleted and in Hidden. Be sure to check your Library thoroughly-- the pictures may not be where you expect, as dates may have changed. You can use the search field with the date or location.
If you don't keep your own backups to an external drive, then there really isn't any place else to look.