How to Retrieve Deleted Photos and How to Backup So You Don’t Lose Them

Technological advancements have made life easier and more convenient. Not only can we use our smartphones as cameras and take pictures with ease, but we can also carry thousands of photos with us wherever we go. Instead of relying on physical storage, we’re now depending on SD cards and hard drives. However, storing your pictures on an electronic device does come with a major disadvantage. Unlike physical copies, photos on devices can get accidentally deleted, SD cards can get corrupted, and chaos can ensue.

Whether you’ve accidentally deleted a few pictures or an entire album, you don’t have to worry. This guide is here to detail how to retrieve deleted photos, including how to access deleted photos, how to retrieve deleted photos from gallery, and how to backup recovered photos.

How to Retrieve Deleted Photos

While it is possible, retrieving deleted photos is not an easy process. In some cases, it may not even be possible. However, trying to restore photos soon after they have been deleted may result in success. In this article, we will tackle how to retrieve deleted photos from various devices and operating systems, including how to restore deleted photos in Androids, how to restore deleted photos from iOS, how to retrieve deleted photos from PC, and more.

How to Recover Excluded Photos From Android

There are many different ways to recover photos from Android phones, including from internal storage, an SD card, or the cloud. We have covered all these methods below.

Retrieve Photos From SD Card

If you deleted photos from your Android, there’s a chance that they may still be on your SD card. Please note that deleted files stay on the memory card until they’re overwritten. Therefore, it’s essential to remove your card from the phone. You need to use a card reader or an SD card slot to connect your SD card to the computer and use recovery software to retrieve your pictures.

1. Connect your SD card to your computer.
2. Download a data recovery program like EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard.
3. Run the program to see all available drives. This should include your SD card.
4. Select the SD card and click “Scan.” This can take time depending on the amount of data you have on the card.
5. Narrow down your search through the “Graphics” option on the left. Click the file format your phone saves pictures in and the images you can recover will show up.
6. Select the images you want to recover and click the “Recover Now” button.

You will then be prompted to choose a location to save your images. Once this is done, you can copy them to your phone.

How to Recover Deleted Photos From Internal Memory

You cannot recover deleted photos from internal memory unless your phone is rooted. If it is rooted, you can install an app like DiskDigger to recover photos.

1. Launch the app and grant the relevant permissions.
2. Click “Full Scan” from the options that appear.
3. Find the internal storage for your phone. This is usually the partition “/data.”
4. Narrow down the images by file type and click “OK.”
5. Once you find the pictures you’re looking for, select them, and tap the “Recover” button.
6. Choose where to save your recovered images and click “OK.”

How to Recover Permanently Deleted Photos From Google Photos

One of the many ways to back up pictures is through the cloud. If you have such programs running in the background and have permitted them to back up your data, you may be able to get your deleted pictures back.

However, it’s important to note that this is possible if these pictures are permanently deleted from your phone, not the cloud. If they’re permanently deleted from the cloud app, it’s not possible to recover them. Follow these steps to recover your deleted photos from Google Photos:

1. Open the Google Photos app on your smartphone.
2. Tap the menu on the top left corner and select “Trash.”
3. Tap and select the pictures you want to restore.
4. Tap on the “Restore” option.

After completing these steps, you should find the photos back in the same folder from which they were deleted.

How to Restore Deleted Photos From iOS

If you have deleted a photo from your iPhone, you may be able to recover it from the “Recently Deleted” folder that stores these pictures for up to 40 days.

1. Go to the Photos app.
2. Browse through the albums until you find one that is labeled “Recently Deleted.” Select this folder.
3. Select the pictures you want to recover, and then tap “Recover.”

How to Retrieve Deleted Photos From PC

When you delete pictures from your PC, they go to the Recycle Bin. Restoring them is simple and can be done following these steps:

1. Open the Recycle Bin by clicking the Recycle Bin icon on your desktop or searching for it in the search box.
2. Select the photos you want to restore.
3. Right-click the mouse to open a menu and choose the “Restore” option.
4. Once you complete these steps, the photos will be restored to the same folder from which they were deleted.

If you have deleted the pictures from the Recycle Bin, recovering them is significantly harder. You can try using programs like Recuva to do so but this isn’t guaranteed to work, especially if it has been some time since the pictures were deleted.

How to Backup Recovered Photos

Once you’ve recovered your deleted photos, you have to be careful not to lose them again. To ensure this, you can learn how to backup recovered photos.

How to Backup Recovered Photos With Dropbox

1. Download and install Dropbox. Then, follow these steps:
2. Create an account.
3. Go to the pictures you want to backup and select them.
4. Click on “Share” and then click “Add to Dropbox” from the options that appear.
5. You can now choose specific folders on Dropbox to upload to.

How to Backup Recovered Photos With OneDrive

Download and install OneDrive. Then, follow these steps:

1. Create an account.
2. Click on the menu on the top bar and select the “Add Items” option.
3. Select the pictures you want to back up.

With these two methods, you can easily backup photos on all your devices.