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How to Recover Photos From the Cloud/iCloud

Wondershare Recoverit Authors

Mar 04, 2024 • Filed to: Photo/Video/Audio Solutions • Proven solutions

Photo ensembles a great way to cherish good old memories of your life. Nothing could be more annoying than losing all the precious photos of your family, friends, and loved ones. Just because you have backed-up all the photos in the cloud storage, it doesn't mean it cannot be lost.

If you are thinking about how to retrieve photos from the cloud, the article features everything related to cloud photo recovery. You will also learn about various ways to recover deleted photos from the iCloud.

Part 1: Overview of Cloud Photo Recovery

One of the best features of Cloud storage is the proficiency it provides in recovering the data loss from computer storage. When it comes to saving crucial data, people often make a backup just to double ensure everything.

But what if you lose the backup as well? In such a scenario, you can use cloud storage platforms to store photos, videos, or any documents that are important to you.

1. What's Cloud for Photo Recovery?

To understand 'Cloud' for Photo Recovery, you need to understand about cloud storage. It's a service in which the data is backed up and stored on a remote server. Today, almost every business and organization back up essential files and data, as it helps significantly in times of system failure.

The application of cloud storage is not limited to large companies using the services for their business-critical data and applications. Everyone can use cloud storage services to store photos, videos, documents, software, and a lot more.

It has various significant advantages over the conventional method of saving photos by creating backups. Moreover, the backups are also susceptible to data loss. Some of the crucial benefits of Cloud storage are as follows.

2. Different Cloud Backup Platforms

Today, many cloud backup platforms provide services to a backup of different types of data and applications. You can always select from various cloud backup platforms as per your requirements. It includes storage capacity, monthly or yearly packages, and other essential factors.

Some of the common Cloud storage services include Google Drive, iCloud, BackBlaze, Acronis, and many more.

Google Drive: It's one of the efficient file storage service platform developed by Google, Inc.

iCloud: It's another reliable cloud storage and computing service developed by Apple.

3. Different Scenarios of Retrieving Photos from the Cloud

The fact that data loss has become a common issue, you must have the precious photos stored in cloud-based service platforms. But what if you lose your pictures from cloud storage as well? Yes, you can lose data from the Cloud storage as well. Here are some of the scenarios where you can lose your photo collections.

Scenario 1: Delete Photos on Computer

Numerous factors result in data loss from a computer or any storage device. Here are some of the typical cases that lead to the deletion of data.

  • Accidental Deletion

    One of the common causes of deletion of photos from the computer is accidental deletion or formatting. Sometimes people misjudge a file or a folder while deleting it, but only to find out that it was the wrong file. Well, you cannot do much about it if you have emptied the recycle bin as well.
  • Power Failure

    Insufficient power backup can corrupt and delete any photo from your computer.
  • Mechanical glitches

    All mechanical parts of any electronic device tend to degrade over time. If there's an issue in the motherboard or any other part of the computer, it may lead to system failure and deletion of data files.
  • Malware Intrusion

    If you are a regular visitor of any unsecured websites with lots of ads or transferring files without security, a malware intrusion is a possibility. Make sure you use an antivirus to ensure that it doesn't happen.
  • Abrupt Computer Shutdown

    People often shut down their computers directly from the power switch. It's an incorrect way that leads to system failure. A proper shut down is necessary to end all the background processes successfully.

Scenario 2: Delete Pictures on Cloud

While some may think of it as a highly unlikely scenario, Cloud storage often gets wiped out due to numerous reasons. It's like an antivirus got attacked by a virus, which might sound absurd. But yes, cloud storage is vulnerable to data loss. Here are some typical causes of its occurrence.

  • Human Error

    Similar to the data loss scenario in computers, unintentional deletion of photos is a common cause for Cloud storage as well.
  • Data Overwriting

    If you are uploading new information on a limited Cloud storage space, it may overwrite old information. It's one of the reasons why you don't find your photos on the storage.
  • Malicious Programs

    If you have saved some malicious data or application, it may severely affect the entire content of the Cloud storage.
If you optimize your stunning photos on Photoshop, you may also want to know about how to recover deleted PSD files.

Part 2: How to Recover Photos from the Cloud in Different Scenarios

It's a terrible thing to lose your collection of photos. And if you are wondering how to recover pictures from iCloud or any other cloud storage platforms, you can always retrieve them back. In a situation like this, you must not store any new data on the cloud storage or delete anything from the recycle bin.

Below are the cases in which you can recover your photos from cloud storage.

Scenario 1: Recover Deleted Computer Photos from Cloud

If you lose photos from the computer or any hard drive, but already uploaded in the cloud storage, then you can easily retrieve it back. The process of retrieving photos could be different for different data storage cloud services. Here is the step by step process for two of the most used cloud data storage platforms.

Google Drive

Google Drive is one of the best and most used cloud services among its competitors. You can backup all your precious files and transfer of large documents, among many other things. Also, it's easy to retrieve deleted computer photos from the cloud.

Now, if you are wondering how to restore photos from the cloud, Google Drive offers its users a minimum of 30 days to recover deleted photos from 'Trash' folders. After 30 days, it will be permanently deleted. However, if you are a G-Suite user, you can recover the permanently deleted photos using Google Admin Console. Here is the process to restore photos from an individual Google Drive account.

  1. Sign in to your Google Admin Console and click on the 'Users' icon.

select-users-icon

  1. Go to the user name whose data you want to retrieve. Now, tap on the eclipse icon on the right.
  2. Click on the 'Restore Data' tab from the pop-up menu.

select-restore-data

  1. Mention the required range of date, select 'Drive' in the applications, and click on 'Restore'.

select-restore-tab

The above steps will help you retrieve data from Google Drive.

iCloud

Whether you want to sync your contacts, videos, photos, music, or documents, iCloud offers various benefits when it comes to cloud data storage. Recently Apple introduced a new feature that lets the user restore deleted files from the iCloud storage. Here is how to recover pictures on iCloud.

  1. Click on the 'Settings'.
  2. As you move down to the Settings page and tap on 'Restore Files'.
  3. Go to the photos you wanted to restore and check the option alongside the file.

check-the-boxes-before-file-names

  1. Now, select the Restore Files.

If you follow the above steps as mentioned, the photo will be recovered to the original location. It will be specified under the file name in your iCloud Drive account.

Scenario 2: Retrieve Deleted Cloud Photos on Computer

Even when you have deleted photos from the cloud storage, you can still be able to retrieve it if you know the right drill. Here are the two ways to retrieve deleted cloud photos on your computer.

1. Recover from Recycle Bin

Now, you might be wondering how to retrieve pictures from the cloud through Recycle Bin. It's true once a file is deleted goes to the trash. But if your recycle bin is synched with your cloud storage account, the files are sent to the recycle bin instead of permanent deletion.

So, if you haven't emptied your recycle bin, you can retrieve photos.

2. Using Recovery Software

If the deleted photos synced with your Mac computer, you can retrieve the deleted files the same way you restore them on your hard drive. Now, although you can find numerous ways to restore deleted photos on iCloud, Recoverit Data Recovery is one of the best software that can retrieve your lost data in various scenarios. Here are some features of Recoverit that you can benefit from:

deleted data recovery
  • 🖥 Drives & Disks Recovery - Recover photos from all the drives and disks of your system, including from your emptied Recycle Bin.
  • 🔍 Dual Scanning Modes - Comes with 2 different scanning modes, an All-Around scan and a Deep scan for better recovery results.
  • 👁 File Preview - Supports to preview all the scanned files before recovering deleted photos from Recycle Bin.
  • 💪 Powerful - Supports 1000+ file formats recovery, and can help you recover deleted files from all kinds of storage devices like SD cards, hard drives, PCs, laptops, Windows, digital cameras, etc.
  • High Success Rate A high recovery success rate without any quality loss.
article-safe-itemSecurity Verified. 3,591,664 people have downloaded it.

Download and install the software on your computer. Launch Recoverit and follow these steps.

Step 1: Select the location to begin the recovery

To recover pictures from iCloud, select the location from where your files are lost. After selecting the location, click on the 'Start' tab to begin the process.

select-location

Step 2: Scan the selected location

After selecting the location, when you begin the scan the software shows you the progress. When the scanning is in progress, if you find your lost files, you can stop the scan in between any time.

Step 3: Preview and recover lost files

Recoverit allows its users to preview all the files found in the scan. When you are satisfied that your files are recovered, click on "recover" and save them at the desired location.

preview-recovered-files

With Recoverit Data Recovery software, the process is similar even if you are looking to retrieve deleted photos from the cloud on a Windows OS.

Scenario 3: Retrieve Photos from OneDrive on Android

If you're using OneDrive on your Android or Samsung phone, you can try the following ways to recover photos from Cloud on your phone:

  1. Log in to the OneDrive account on your device.
  2. Go to your profile and locate Recycle Bin from the left sidebar.
  3. Find the images you want to recover, and select them. Then, click Restore.

recover photos from onedrive


Part 3: Tips for Cloud Photo Recovery in Different Scenarios

As mentioned earlier, photo deletion from cloud storage or even hard drive is one of the common issues. The fact that these incidents are so random, you never see them coming. But you can still ensure several things on your part to prevent the situation. Below are some crucial insights to follow in different scenarios of cloud photo recovery.

How to prevent further damage on your deleted photos?

As briefly mentioned earlier, when you get to know about the deletion of photos from the cloud storage, avoid uploading any new data to the file. It will overwrite the cloud storage space, and you might not be able to recover it. Now, if you want to restore the photos from the cloud, it might not show up in the list.

How to prevent photo/picture loss?

Whether you lose photos, audios, videos, or any other documents, you can always take some precautionary steps to prevent the situation. Here are some useful tips to avoid photo loss from cloud/iCloud storage and your computer.

  • Avoid Accidental Deletion

    Make sure you pay the utmost attention while deleting anything from the cloud storage. While it's easy to restore a photo from Google Drive from the trash box, it's not that efficient an option in other cloud storage platforms.
  • Use reliable antivirus

    A reliable antivirus helps a great deal in keeping malicious software, files, and documents at bay. If you are not using an antivirus, then you must update the inbuilt features, like XProtect in Mac OS and Windows Defender in Windows OS.
  • Turn-off computer safely

    You can never be in such a hurry that you comprise the integrity of essential data and files. Hence, you must follow a safe procedure to safely eject any external device and avoid abrupt computer shutdown at any cost.

Closing words

It's always good to care about something, even when it's already too late to realize its value. But this adverb works when you have lost your photos from cloud storage, as it can be retrieved. The article will help you retrieve photos from the cloud storage platform. Moreover, Recoverit Data Recovery software enables you to recover deleted photos from your Mac or Windows computer.

Recoverit author

Eleanor Reed

staff Editor

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