How to Recover deleted photos on iPhone

It’s very simple to delete an iPhone photo you don’t want — but it’s also very simple to undelete it if you change your mind. Here’s how to go about it.

Delete an image from the Photos app on an iPhone is not the same as deleting it. Instead, unless you take immediate action to delete it, the photo will remain on your phone for up to 40 days.

But don’t put your faith in the 40-day estimate. According to Apple, permanent deletion “may take up to 40 days” in your iPhone’s Photos album. When you delete a photo, Photos labels it with the number of days until it is permanently erased, which is usually “29 days.”

However, you shouldn’t use this to temporarily remove images from albums because you’ll likely forget to do it before the 40-day period is up. After then, they are truly, irretrievably gone.

You can recover lost photos up until the time the limit expires, though.