Photos deleted in the Photos app on a Mac aren’t gone straight away. They go to Recently Deleted for 30 days, and you can recover them there. After that, you need a backup, iCloud, or the original copy, usually on the camera’s memory card. Photos deleted from an SD card or external drive can often be recovered with a free app, because those drives keep deleted data until it’s overwritten.
Try these in order. The first three are built into macOS and iCloud.
1. Check Recently Deleted in Photos
- Open Photos and click Recently Deleted under Utilities in the sidebar.
- If the album is locked, unlock it with Touch ID or your login password.
- Select the photos and videos you want back, then click Recover.
Recovered items go back to your library. Items older than 30 days have already been removed for good.
2. Check iCloud.com
If you use iCloud Photos, deleting a photo on any device deletes it everywhere: your iPhone, iPad and Mac. That also means a photo you deleted on your iPhone can be recovered from any of them, within 30 days.
- Go to iCloud.com and sign in with your Apple Account.
- Click Photos, then Recently Deleted in the sidebar.
- Select the photos, then click Recover.
iCloud.com is useful if your Mac isn’t syncing, or if the photos were deleted on a device you no longer have.
3. Restore from Time Machine
If you back up your Mac with Time Machine, you can restore the whole Photos library as it was at the time of a backup.
- Quit Photos.
- Click the Time Machine menu in the menu bar and choose Enter Time Machine.
- Pick a backup from before the photos were deleted, select your photo library, and click Restore.
Two things to know first. The restored library is the library as it was at that backup, so photos added since then won’t be in it; export anything new from Photos first. And if you use iCloud Photos, Apple warns that photos you deleted after the backup are restored and uploaded to iCloud again. If Optimize Mac Storage was on, the backup may not hold the full-size originals, which are in iCloud instead.
Restore the library with Time Machine rather than copying it out of the backup by hand. A Photos library is a package of many files, and Time Machine puts it back together properly.
4. Go back to the camera card
If the photos came from a camera, drone or another device, the memory card may still hold them, even if you deleted them or formatted the card since. SD and other memory cards don’t erase deleted photos on their own; they stay until new photos are written over them.
- Stop using the card. Don’t take new photos on it and don’t format it.
- Connect it to your Mac with the SD slot or a card reader.
- Scan it with a recovery app and save the photos to your Mac, not back to the card.
Reco is free in full, with no limit on how many photos you recover. It opens the card read-only, shows photos as thumbnails as they’re found, and grades each one Excellent, Good or Partial. It recognizes JPEG, HEIC and PNG photos, camera RAW files (Canon, Nikon, Sony, Fujifilm RAF, Panasonic RW2, Olympus ORF, Hasselblad 3FR and DNG) and MOV and MP4 videos. Photos stored in two pieces on the card are rebuilt. The full steps are in SD card recovery on Mac; for RAW files, see recovering RAW photos.
5. Photos deleted from the Mac’s own disk
If the photos were only on your Mac, in the Photos library or in a folder, and Recently Deleted, the Trash and backups are empty, the chances are low. Macs have a built-in SSD that uses TRIM: soon after something is deleted, the SSD erases that space for good. A scan can still be worth a try if the deletion was very recent, but don’t expect much.
If you do try, use the Mac as little as possible until then, and save anything you recover to another drive. Reco’s Quick check looks in the Trash, Time Machine and the Mac’s local snapshots and keeps file names; the deep scan reads the whole disk. A Photos library or picture folder on an external hard drive is a different story: hard drives don’t TRIM, so recovery from them works much better.
What your chances look like
| Where the photos were | How to get them back | Chances |
|---|---|---|
| Photos app, deleted within 30 days | Recently Deleted on the Mac or iCloud.com | Very good |
| Photos app, older than 30 days | Time Machine or another backup | Only with a backup |
| SD or camera card | Scan the card | Good, if no new photos were taken |
| External hard drive or USB stick | Scan the drive | Good, if little was saved since |
| Mac’s built-in SSD, no backup | Quick check or deep scan | Low (TRIM) |
| iPhone only | Recently Deleted on the iPhone or iCloud.com | Within 30 days |
What about photos deleted on an iPhone?
Look in the Recently Deleted album in the Photos app on the iPhone, or on iCloud.com if you use iCloud Photos. Both keep deleted photos for 30 days. Reco works with drives and cards you connect to a Mac; it doesn’t scan an iPhone. If you imported the photos to your Mac, or they sync through iCloud Photos, the Mac steps above apply.
So it doesn’t happen again
- Turn on Time Machine with an external drive. It’s the only way back after Recently Deleted is emptied.
- Keep camera cards until you’ve checked the photos are safely on your Mac.
- Remember that iCloud Photos syncs deletions; it isn’t a separate backup.
Questions
Where do deleted photos go on a Mac?
Photos you delete in the Photos app go to the Recently Deleted album under Utilities in the sidebar. They stay there for 30 days, then they’re deleted permanently. Image files deleted in Finder go to the Trash instead.
Can I recover photos deleted from Recently Deleted on a Mac?
Only from a backup, such as Time Machine, or from another copy, such as the original camera card. Photos in the Photos library live on your Mac’s built-in SSD, which erases deleted data soon after (TRIM), so scanning the Mac itself rarely brings them back.
If I delete a photo on my iPhone, is it deleted on my Mac?
Yes, if both use iCloud Photos. Apple says a photo deleted on one device is deleted everywhere you use iCloud Photos. It goes to Recently Deleted on each device, where you can recover it for 30 days.
Can Reco recover deleted photos from an iPhone?
No. Reco scans drives and cards connected to your Mac, not an iPhone. For iPhone photos, use Recently Deleted in the Photos app or on iCloud.com.
Can I get back photos from a camera card after importing and deleting them?
Often, yes. Photos deleted from an SD or camera card usually stay on it until new photos are taken. Stop using the card and scan it from your Mac.