How to Get Old Pictures Back on iPhone & PC?

How do I recover permanently deleted photos?

If you’re wondering how to recover pictures deleted from years ago, this comprehensive post could broaden your mind to find deleted pictures on hard drives/iPhones.  

How to recover pictures deleted from years ago?

How to get old pictures back? After deletion, the operating system will move away your deleted photos from the directory and mark the space as free. As you record the new data to your storage devices, the free space will be overwritten.

For the above reason, it could be difficult for you to recover pictures deleted from years ago without regular backups on your iPhone/PC because it’s inevitable for you to take or store new photos. Naturally, you can seek help from iPhone data recovery software or top-rated data recovery software for Windows. 

Part 1. How to get old pictures back on iPhone?

Where do permanently deleted photos go on iPhone? As you can see, plenty of iPhone users are wondering how to get old pictures back on iPhone?

As mentioned above, you can restore your iPhone data from iCloud/iTunes backups. Or you can seek assistance from iPhone data recovery software.

Solution 1. Get old pictures back from iCloud backup

After activating iCloud Photos, your iCloud will save these photos on your iOS device.

You can see the same photos on iCloud.com after logging in with the same Apple ID because iCloud.com can sync and update these photos automatically with Wi-Fi. However, the iCloud backups will not save these photos.  

Please ensure your selected iCloud backup contains the old pictures you want to restore because of the following two points.

You’re not permitted to preview all the data and restore the selected data to iPhone.

After restoration, all the existing data on your iOS devices will be replaced by your selected iCloud backup.

These steps also can help you recover permanently deleted notes from iCloud backups.

Step 1. Click “Settings” > “General” > “Reset” > “Erase All Content and Settings.”

Step 2. Your iPhone will be restarted. Please click the “Restore from iCloud Backup” option on the Apps & Data screen.

Step 3. Sign in to your Apple account and choose an iCloud backup from the listed backups.

Solution 2. Get old pictures back from iTunes backup

Apart from iCloud Photos, the iTunes backup nearly includes all data on your iPhone. Meanwhile, the above two cautions also apply to restoring iPhones from iTunes backups.

Step 1. Run the latest iTunes on your PC. Then connect your iOS device to the computer and click the “iPhone” icon.

Step 2. Select “Restore Backup” after clicking the “Summary” button.

Step 3. After choosing your desired iTunes backup, click the “Restore” button.

Solution 3. Get old pictures back with iPhone data recovery software

If you’re looking for ways to recover permanently deleted photos without backup, you’ve come to the right place. So how to get old pictures back without backups?

At the moment, professional iPhone data recovery software like MyRecover for iOS could tackle your concerns from different perspectives.   

★Tips:

 Preview all the files and restore the partial data before iPhone data recovery.   

 You don’t have to erase all the current data on your iPhone.

 Recover 10+ types of iPhone data: Photos, Videos, Contacts, Notes, Reminders, Calendar, Call History, Voice Memos, etc.  

 Supports iPhone, iPad, and iPod and works well with the latest iOS 15.

Please ensure you can turn on your iOS devices and prepare another PC. The following steps describe how to get old pictures back on iPhones as much as possible.

Step 1. Download and install the tool on your PC. After running it, connect your iPhone to the computer.

Step 2. “Trust This Computer” on your iOS devices and click the “Scan Now” button to begin the scanning process.

Step 3. Select your needed old pictures and “Recover” them.

Please wait patiently because the size of your selected image files will influence the restoration process.

Part 2. How to get old pictures back on Windows?

Are you wondering how to recover pictures deleted from years ago on Windows? This part aims to introduce how to find deleted pictures on hard drives with backups or photo recovery software.

Solution 1. Recover permanently deleted photos Windows 10/11 from Backup and Restore

Let’s take Backup and Restore as an example because this feature made its debut in the Windows 7 operating system. And it can make backup copies of individuals of files and folders.

These steps depict how to recover permanently deleted photos on Windows 10/11. 

Step 1. Open “Control Panel” by typing it in the search bar. Then click “System and Security” > “Backup and Restore (Windows 7).”

Step 2. Click the “Restore my files” button.

Step 3. Select “Browse for files” to locate your needed old pictures.

You can store these recovered old pictures in the original saved path or in a new location.

Solution 2. Recover permanently deleted photos Windows 10/11 with photo recovery software

Without regular backups, there’s no better choice than utilizing photo recovery software to get old pictures back. Deeply engaged in the data recovery field and embedded with advanced technology, MyRecover is ready to help you recover permanently deleted photos on Windows 10/11.

Photo recovery software for Windows could offer maximum possibilities to recover old pictures. For instance, one of the most attractive features of this program is that you can judge the content of the recovered old pictures based on the original path and filenames.

Furthermore, MyRecover can keep the original format for the deleted/lost pictures. Please get an overview of it below.

 Recover the deleted/lost files from HDD, SSD, USB, and other storage devices.

 Recover Word, Excel, PPT, Photos, Videos, Audio, Emails, Compressed files, and other 200+ type of data.  

 During scanning, search your targeted files by entering their filenames in the search bar, or wait to find all the deleted and other lost files on your computers after running Quick Scan and Deep Scan automatically. 

 Support NTFS, FAT32, exFAT, and ReFS file systems in Windows 11, 10, 8, 7, and Windows Server.

Step 1. After running the tool on your PC, you can hover the mouse over the disk/partition that contains your needed pictures before data loss, and click Scan.

Step 2. Search or wait to see all the deleted files and other missing files.

Step 3. Go to the Deleted files folder, and click “Recover x files” to restore your chosen old pictures. After restoration, please go to your specified saved path to find them.

You can also go to the Other missing files folder if you need to.

Part 3. How to get old pictures back on Mac?

Time Machine automatically creates hourly (the past 24 hours), daily (the past month), and weekly backups to back up your personal data such as apps, music, photos, Email, and documents on the Mac.

Assume that you’ve backed up your Mac, you may restore your desired old pictures. These instructions describe how to get old pictures back on Mac.

Notes:✎...

If the backup disk is full, your oldest backup will be deleted.  

Time Machine will take a long time to finish the first backup. After that, it will make incremental backups.

Step 1. Open the window where you lost pictures. Then Click “Launchpad” in the Dock. Find Time Machine and click the “Enter Time Machine” button.

Step 2. Use the up and down arrows to locate the old pictures you want to restore.

Step 3. Click the “Restore” button to restore your chosen old pictures to the original location.

In conclusion

How to get old pictures back on iPhone/Windows/Mac? Read the above content to find your needed targeted solutions.

At the same time, there are some practical data loss prevention measures for you.

• Please think twice before permanent deletion.
• For iPhone, use this free iPhone backup and transfer software-FoneTool to backup or transfer data.
• For Windows, it’s also necessary to make regular backups with Windows features like Backup and Restore, or free backup software for Windows-AOMEI Backupper.