How 30 Days From Deletion Is Calculated

AppleQuestion206 wrote:

I've got an iPhone, and I understand that deleted photos can be recovered for 30 days. My question is how those 30 days are calculated.

Is this a count of 720 hours from the time of deletion (something deleted at noon on 1 January would be ultimately deleted at noon on 31 January), or is the day of deletion counted as day 1? When I delete a test photo, it says there are 29 days left (but I suspect it may be rounding down - it really means 29 days, 23 hours, 59 minutes).

I've done some internet searches and seen some AI answers, but was looking for something more certain, such as perhaps anything from Apple on this. Thanks!

Take a picture of something, delete it, then see for yourself when it deletes.

If you look in Recently Deleted

it tells you just how many days are left. That's probably ±1 day.

If you're worried, restore it with a day left and think about it some more.

Why do you care? The packet networks over which this stuff happens are not - nor can they be - time synched to the level of accuracy you seem to be expecting. If you delete something on the 1st Jan then don't expect it still to be recoverable on 1st Feb.