User level: Level 1 (4 points)day before yesterday i deleted few photos from recently deleted as well so took icloud subscription to find those photos but those photos are nowhere to be found there as well
Posted on Oct 21, 2026 3:37 AM
User level: Level 6 (8,142 points)Oct 21, 2026 4:00 AM in response to vijaya134
If you deleted the photos from "Recently Deleted" then they are gone from iCloud and your devices permanently. Unless you have backed them up somewhere else, you have lost them for ever.
I'm sorry if that is the case. Now is a good time to think about making backups of your important information.
User level: Level 10 (205,585 points)Oct 21, 2026 5:04 AM in response to vijaya134
iCloud Photos is primarily a synching service, not a backup.
The main purpose is to keep the Photo Library identical on all your devices. iCloud Photos is used as a central storage where the current state of your library is updated and stored, and when you work with your photos on any device, the changes will be updated in iCloud and from there synced to all your other devices.
So it cannot help at all, when you sign up for iCloud Photos after you deleted your photos. That will just upload your current photos into iCloud.
On the other hand, if you made an iCloud backup of your iPhone before you deleted the photos and before you turned on iCloud Photos, the iCloud backup of your iPhone or a backup on a computer might have contained the missing photos. But if iCloud Photos is enabled, the iCloud backup will no longer include your Photos Library.
If you have a backup that includes your photos you can recover the photos by restoring the iPhone from the backup: Restore your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch from a backup - Apple Support
Restoring will reset all documents and data to the time the backup has been made. So you have to save all newer documents and data somewhere else to save them.
Originally posted at discussions.apple.com/thread/256380161