Recovering accidentally deleted videos from iCloud Photos

Question

Recovering accidentally deleted videos from iCloud Photos

Hello,

I need urgent assistance with iCloud Photos.

Last night, I accidentally deleted a folder of video files from my iPhone. My iPhone storage was full at the time. The deleted videos also disappeared from iCloud Photos. Initially, iCloud storage still showed the space as almost full, but I could not find the videos in the Photos app or in “Recently Deleted.”

Later, I synced my iPhone with iCloud, and now my storage shows around 20GB free. This confirms that the videos are gone from both my iPhone and iCloud.

The videos are very important to me, and I am hoping there is a way to recover them. Given that this deletion happened last night, I wanted to ask if it is possible to:

Restore the iCloud Photos library to the state before the deletion (rollback to yesterday).
Check if any older iCloud backup exists that may still contain the deleted videos.

These videos are personal and very valuable, and it would mean a lot if you could check all possible recovery options.

Thank you very much for your urgent support.

Kind regards,

Stefana

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: accidentally deleted important videos

Posted on Oct 3, 2025 12:47 AM

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Answer 1

Oct 3, 2025 10:02 AM in response to stefanamiladinovic

A great safety feature on the iPhone is that deleted pictures remain in the "Recently Deleted" view for 30 days before they are removed permanently. This safety feature can be defeated by choosing to prematurely delete pictures from the "Recently Deleted" view. If you use iCloud Photos, then that "synchronizes" its Photos Library with the phone, so what you see on the phone is what is at iCloud. iCloud Photos doesn't keep pictures in "Recently Deleted" any longer than the phone does.

You can see this:

If you're missing photos or videos in the Photos app - Apple Support

Basically the above says to look in Recently Deleted and in Hidden. Be sure to check your Library thoroughly-- the pictures may not be where you expect, as dates may have changed. You can use the search field with the date or location. And remember, you can sort the Library by date captured or by date added. Also, your Library view now has filters, and you may not have your filter set to "All Items’.

If you don't keep your own backups to an external drive, then there really isn't any place else to look.

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