How to Get Photos Back From iCloud

To get photos back from iCloud, sign in with the same Apple Account and turn on iCloud Photos, or open icloud.com/photos in any browser and download them. Recently deleted photos can be recovered for 30 days from the Recently Deleted album.

First, know where your photos live. iCloud Photos keeps your library in sync and viewable anywhere. An iCloud Backup only includes photos when iCloud Photos was turned off, and you can’t browse it; you can only restore a whole phone from it.

Check Recently Deleted

Deleted photos aren’t gone straight away.

1. Open Photos > Albums, scroll to Utilities > Recently Deleted. Newer iOS versions ask for Face ID or your passcode.
2. Tap Select, pick the photos, then Recover.

On a computer, go to icloud.com/photos and open Recently Deleted in the sidebar. After 30 days, they’re deleted for good, and Apple can’t bring them back.

Turn on iCloud Photos on the new device

On a new or reset iPhone or iPad:

1. Sign in with the same Apple Account you used before.
2. Go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud > Photos and turn on Sync this iPhone (called iCloud Photos on older iOS).
3. Leave the phone on Wi-Fi and charging. A big library can take hours to appear.

Choose Download and Keep Originals if you want full copies on the phone, or Optimise iPhone Storage to keep smaller versions and fetch originals when needed.

Use Wi-Fi, not bundles. A library of a few thousand photos can run to many gigabytes, which would wipe out a mobile data plan.

Download from iCloud.com

This works on a Windows PC, a Mac, a Chromebook and even an Android phone’s browser:

1. Go to icloud.com/photos and sign in. Approve the sign-in on your iPhone if asked.
2. Select the photos (click one, then Shift-click or Ctrl-click for more).
3. Click the download button. Several photos download as a zip file.

On Windows, the free iCloud for Windows app from the Microsoft Store syncs your library so photos appear on the PC automatically, which is easier for large collections. More ways to keep copies are in how to back up iPhone photos.

Restoring from a full iCloud backup

Use this only if your photos were in a backup, not iCloud Photos, and you’re setting up a phone.

1. The iPhone must be erased first: Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPhone > Erase All Content and Settings. This wipes what’s on it now, so back up anything new.
2. During setup, choose From iCloud Backup, sign in and pick the latest backup.
3. Keep it on Wi-Fi and power until photos finish downloading.

See how to back up an iPhone to iCloud to check what your backups include, and how to back up your phone for a second copy outside iCloud.

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