Whether your photos are deleted within the last 30 days or removed permanently, this comprehensive guide helps with deleted photo recovery on iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro & iPhone 16 Pro Max.
Whether your iPhone 16 photos are deleted recently or permanently, there are several recovery solutions to get them back.
A wrong tap can delete your photos on iPhone 16 along with those precious memories. Whether you've accidentally deleted them within the last 30 days or removed them for a longer time, there are several ways to recover deleted photos from iPhone 16, with or without a backup.
In this guide, we'll explain different methods for recovering deleted photos on iPhone 16, from checking the Recently Deleted album to restoring photos from iCloud backup or iTunes backup.
If your iPhone photos are permanently deleted and you don't have any backups, reliable tools like iPhone Data Recovery can deeply scan your iPhone 16 to recover deleted and photos from its hidden internal storage.
Whether you have a backup or not, these quick solutions can help with easy photo recovery on iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, & iPhone 16 Pro Max:
Table of Contents
Since iOS 16, there's a default Recently Deleted album built in to Photos app. When you delete your iPhone photos or videos, they move to the Recently Deleted album for additional 30 days, allowing you to either recover or permanently delete them. Launched with iOS 18, it has been made easier to recover deleted photos on iPhone 16 from Recently Deleted album if they were deleted within the last 30 days.
When you are missing or accidentally delete your pictures or videos, here's how to recover deleted iPhone 16 photos from Recently Deleted album:
1. Open the Photos app on your iPhone 16.
2. Scroll down until you reach the Recently Deleted album in Utilities section.
3. Tap Recently Deleted and tap View Album.
4. Enter your iPhone passcode or use your Face ID to unlock the Recently Deleted album.
5. When you're able to, tap the photos or videos you want back.
6. Tap the Recover button and confirm the recover option to move them back.
All selected photos will be recovered to your photo library. If the photos are recovered from Recently Deleted, they will be automatically removed from this folder after 30 days.
In iOS 18 or later, your iPhone 16 can automatically scan for lost and damaged photos or videos on your device and display them in the Recovered album within Photos app's Utilities section. When your pictures or videos are lost due to corruption, unsuccessful saving or other unknown reasons, check out the Recovered album to recover your lost and damaged photos on iPhone 16 and restore them to your library.
You also have the option to permanently deleted your photos or videos from Recovered album. When you do so, they are erased immediately and won't appear in the Recently Deleted folder.
The Recently Deleted album enables you to recover the iPhone 16 photos deleted in the recent 30 days, but what about the photos deleted for over 30 days? Is it possible to recover the iPhone photos deleted after deleting from Recently Deleted folder?
The photos you think are permanently deleted may still remain on your iPhone's internal memory unless they've been overwritten by new data. In such cases, scanning your device can help find and recover the hidden photos on iPhone 16 even without a backup. Alternatively, if you have an iCloud backup or iTunes/Finder backup created before deletion, try recovering the deleted photos to iPhone 16 from the backup.
If for some reasons your photos are not in Recently Deleted area and not backed up, there's still a good chance that the deleted photos can be recovered from your iPhone 16's internal memory if you act quickly before data overwriting.
To recover lost photos on iPhone 16 without backup, iPhone Data Recovery software provides fast scanning and effective photo recovery from iPhone's internal storage, enabling you to unhide all recently and permanently deleted photos and preview them before the recovery.
Moreover, this versatile iOS data recovery tool recovers various data types, including but not limited to photos, text messages, WhatsApp history, contacts, call logs, notes and more.
Supporting the latest iOS 18 and a range of iOS versions and models, here's what to do to recover deleted photos on iPhone 16 without backup even they've been permanently deleted from Recently Deleted folder or removed after 30 days:
Step 1. Launch the iOS photo recovery software on computer and connect your iPhone 16.
Connect the iPhone via a USB cable. If asked, enter your iPhone passcode and trust your computer.
Step 2. Choose Recover from iOS Device and click Start Scan.
When your phone is recognized, start a deep scanning of its entire internal storage.
Step 3. Preview the photos you want and select the ones you want to recover.
Once scanning results show up, move to the picture categories, and you're able to view all hidden and lost photos on your device. Tick the checkboxes next to the pictures you need back.
Step 4. Click Recover button and save recovered photos locally.
Select a local computer's folder to save selected iPhone 16 photos after recovery. It also works if you're looking for photo recovery on iPhone 15 series.
This allows you to recover your permanently lost iPhone photos even without a backup. It also works if you want to recover deleted text messages on an iPhone 16.
Using backups is undoubtedly a good recovery solution for getting back deleted photos on iPhone 16 when you cannot find them neither in Recently Deleted nor from your device's hidden storage. If there're regular iPhone backups before photo deletion, either in iCloud or on computer, it's possible to recover those permanently deleted iPhone photos from an older backup, even if they've been overwritten.
Before iPhone 16 photo recovery from backup, here are a few things worth mentioning:
Ensure you're fully aware before restoring iPhone 16 from iCloud backup or iTunes backup to retrieve photos.
An iCloud backup can be used to recover the photos deleted from your iPhone 16 even if they've been deleted for more than 30 days. Once the iCloud Backup is enabled or you've manually backed up your iPhone to iCloud, your photos, data and settings will be automatically uploaded and stored in iCloud storage, allowing for later restoration.
If you are not sure whether you have iCloud backups available for the recovery of iPhone deleted photos, follow these steps to check:
Make sure there's a backup useful, and follow these steps to recover deleted photos from iCloud backup to your iPhone 16:
1. Erase all content and settings on iPhone.
To restore photos from iCloud, erase your iPhone 16 by going to Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPhone > Erase All Content and Settings, and then enter your Apple ID password to start erasing instantly.
2. When the iPhone restarts, go through the setup process.
When you see the Hello screen, swipe up and quickly go through the setup steps until you reach the Transfer Your Apps & Data screen.
3. Restore from iCloud backup to recover your photos.
Select From iCloud Backup, then sign in to your iCloud account using your Apple ID and password. Once in, pick the most relevant backup that contains your lost photos, and restore all its data to your phone.
It may take a while to download everything from the iCloud backup, depending on your internet speed and backup size. Content including your photos and videos will be restored to your iPhone 16 and reappear in the Photos Library soon.
If you have backed up your iOS photos with other cloud services like Google Photos, OneDrive or Dropbox, use the backup to restore your lost photos when you cannot find them in library or anywhere else.
Having your iPhone backed up with iTunes or Finder before the permanent deletion can help you with the photo recovery. Simply plug in your iPhone 16 with computer and restore your photos from an iTunes backup or Finder backup. However, note that all your current data will be overwritten after the backup photos are recovered onto your iPhone 16 device.
When you find your pictures or videos are permanently deleted or went missing, use these steps to retrieve your lost photos on iPhone 16 using an iTunes backup or Finder backup:
1. Run the iTunes on your computer and link the iPhone 16 to it via a USB cable.
iTunes works with Windows PC and Mac with macOS Mojave 10.14 or earlier. For users who have a Mac with macOS Catalina 10.15 or later, use a Finder backup to restore the iPhone photos you've deleted.
2. When a phone icon shows up in the upper-left corner, click it.
3. Navigate Summary > Backups.
4. Select This Computer and click the Restore Backup button.
5. In the pop-up selector, choose the most relevant backup from the drop-menu and hit Restore.
Don't unplug your device until the iTunes backup restores everything. Once done, open the Photos app on your iPhone 16 and the recovered photos and videos should be back.
To restore only photos from a backup, you'll want to use the iOS Data Recovery software that empowers you to preview and extract specific files from an iTunes backup. It can scan your iTunes backups and recover only photos from it without overwriting your current data. Here's how:
This way, your iPhone 16 photos can be recovered individually from the iTunes backup without overwriting any current phone data.
With the efficient solutions outlined above, recovering deleted photos on your iPhone 16 should be a breeze. Once you get your important pictures back, make sure to create a regular backup of them so that you won't lose anything valuable even when accidental deletion happens.
FAQs on Photo Recovery from iPhone 16
