Deleted Photos by Mistake? How to Get Them Back on Your Phone

This page walks through each place a deleted photo might be, from the quickest check to the last resort. Work through them in order, and stop as soon as you find what you lost.

Step 1: Check your phone's gallery bin

Many phones come with their own gallery app alongside Google Photos. If yours has one, check its bin first.

1. Open your phone's gallery app

   This is the photo app that came with your phone, not Google Photos.

2. Find the bin

   Look in the menu or the albums list for Recycle bin, Trash or Recently deleted. The name varies by phone maker.

3. Restore the photo

   Select the photo and tap Restore. It should return to its original album.

If your gallery has no bin, or the photo is not in it, move on to Google Photos.

Step 2: Restore from the Google Photos trash

These are the steps from Google's own help pages for Android:

1. Open Google Photos

   Make sure you are signed in to the Google Account you normally use for photos.

2. Go to the trash

   At the bottom, tap Collections, then Trash.

3. Select the photo

   Touch and hold the photo or video you want back. You can select several at once.

4. Tap Restore

   At the bottom, tap Restore.

Google says the restored photo goes back to your Google Photos library, to any albums it was in, and to your phone's gallery app. Remember that items stay in this trash for 30 days, and they cannot be restored once the trash has been emptied.

Step 3: Search your backup, archive and Locked Folder

If the photo is not in the trash, it may never have been deleted from Google Photos at all. Check these places:

1. Recently added: tap Search, type Recently Added and browse. Google notes that photos with wrong date settings can appear under a different day.
2. Search by what is in it: try a place, an object or a person's name if you tag faces.
3. Archive: archived photos are hidden from the main view but not deleted.
4. Locked Folder: photos saved here are kept separately and protected by your screen lock.
5. Device folders: tap Collections, then On this device, to see folders from other apps such as WhatsApp or Instagram.

Step 4: Try WhatsApp

If the photo came through WhatsApp, open the chat first. If the photo is still visible there, you may be able to save it again. The simplest option is often to ask the person who sent it to send it once more.

Restoring a WhatsApp chat backup is a last resort. According to WhatsApp's help center, you restore by reinstalling WhatsApp and tapping Restore during setup, and the backup is linked to the phone number used when it was made. Only one backup is kept per Google Account, each new backup replaces the old one, and videos come back only if Include videos was on before that backup ran. If a newer backup ran after you deleted the photo, it may not contain the photo anymore.

Step 5: Turn on backup so this never happens again

Once you have your photos back, take two minutes to protect the rest:

1. Open Google Photos and tap your profile photo or initial at the top.
2. Open Photos settings, then Back up, and make sure backup is on.
3. Check that the backup account is the one you want to keep.
4. Turn on backup for the device folders you care about, such as WhatsApp images or screenshots.
5. Decide whether backup may use mobile data or should wait for Wi-Fi.

Keep an eye on your storage. Your free storage is shared with Gmail and Google Drive, and if it fills up, you can clean up space or buy more. Google also says that if you are inactive in Google Photos for two years or more, your content may be deleted, so open the app now and then.

Get Google Photos and turn on backup →

Frequently asked questions