Recovering deleted photos from a shared album on iPhone
I put photos in a shared album, and after a while, they suddenly disappeared and were deleted. How can I get them back?
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
iPhone 13 Pro Max, iOS 26
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The Apple Support Community will permanently close on November 20, 2026. Starting today, the site will no longer accept new posts and is available in a read-only state.
You can continue to find trusted guidance and support on the official Apple Support site.
We want to thank the community members who have contributed their time and expertise to help others with their Apple products.
I put photos in a shared album, and after a while, they suddenly disappeared and were deleted. How can I get them back?
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
iPhone 13 Pro Max, iOS 26
Shared Albums don't count against your iCloud Storage, because they are lower quality copies of the pictures in your Library--the don't have all the same information. Shared Albums don't replace the pictures in your Library-- they are completely separate things. As muguy said, pictures deleted from your Library go to Recently Deleted for 30 days (or until that safety is defeated.) Picture removed from Shared Albums are gone.
It is valuable to keep backups of pictures and important data on an external drive.
Shared Albums don't count against your iCloud Storage, because they are lower quality copies of the pictures in your Library--the don't have all the same information. Shared Albums don't replace the pictures in your Library-- they are completely separate things. As muguy said, pictures deleted from your Library go to Recently Deleted for 30 days (or until that safety is defeated.) Picture removed from Shared Albums are gone.
It is valuable to keep backups of pictures and important data on an external drive.
You'll need to add the photos again from your library.
Items that you delete are moved to the recently deleted album. You can restore from there. If you further delete from that album, the photos are permanently deleted and irrecoverable.
But I deleted them from the library album after I moved them to the shared album, now they are not in the library album or the shared album, how do I get them back?
Recovering deleted photos from a shared album on iPhone