Deleting one, and getting it back
Delete a photograph knowing exactly where it goes, and bring it back again at any point in the next thirty days.
The fear of losing a photograph for ever is one of the most reasonable fears anybody has about a phone. It is worth answering plainly, because the answer is better than most people expect.
When you delete a photograph, it is not destroyed. It is moved into an album called Recently Deleted, where it sits for thirty days. During those thirty days it is still there, still complete, and two presses away from coming back.
It would be dishonest to say nothing is ever lost. Two things are genuinely final, and both of them are visible and both of them ask first.
And a kinder fact: a photograph you sent to somebody else is a separate copy that belongs to them. Nothing you delete on your phone touches it. If the worst happens, the person you sent it to still has it.
Key points
- Delete a photograph knowing exactly where it goes and for how long
- Find Recently Deleted, and read the days left on any picture
- Recover one, or recover all of them at once, back to their own dates
- Name the only two things that are genuinely permanent
What to remember
- Albums, then Recently Deleted, then Recover. Three presses, any time in thirty days.
- Thirty days. Whenever you are unsure whether something is really gone, that album is the first place to look.
- Before we move on — is there a photograph you have lost, or worried about losing?
Try this
Open Albums on your own phone and go into Recently Deleted. Have a proper look at what is in there. Most people find at least one thing they did not mean to delete, and there is still time to bring it back.
Practice: Deleting one, and getting it back. Your first lesson is free, with no account or card; the rest are part of a Lantern plan. Interactive lessons require JavaScript.