by Juli Clover
iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia include a new Photos app feature designed to help users recover images and videos that are lost or damaged, providing a way to get missing content back.
There is a “Recovered” album in the Utilities section of Photos, and it shows up if there are pictures or videos on a user’s device that are not part of their Photos Library. If you see the Recovered album in your Photos app, tapping into it will provide an option to permanently delete or restore any pictures or video stored in the album.
Photos and videos can be lost due to database corruption issues, images taken with a camera app that did not properly get saved to the Photos library, or third-party apps that are provided with access to manage a Photo Library. Here’s how to recover a lost image or video:
- Open the Photos app and tap into Albums.
- Scroll down to Utilities, and choose the Recovered album.
- Tap on a photo or video in the album, or use Select to select multiple items.
- Tap on Permanently Delete or Restore to Library.
When upgrading to iOS 18, iPadOS 18, or macOS Sequoia, an iPhone, iPad, or Mac will automatically scan for photos and videos that are able to be recovered, providing immediate access to any missing content.
Note that the Recovered album only shows up in the Utilities section of the Photos app if lost photos or videos are located on a device. If there are none, you will not see the album.
With iOS 17.5.1 and iPadOS 17.5.1, there was a fix for an unusual bug related to a database corruption issue. After installing iOS 17.5 and iPadOS 17.5, some users saw long-deleted images reappearing in their Photo Library. Apple later said this was due to a database corruption issue that had caused the photos to reappear even after being deleted.
The Recovered album feature in the latest software updates should prevent something like this from happening again, while also giving users access to photos and videos that are in limbo.
iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia betas are available to developers and public beta testers at this time. The software updates will see a public launch this fall.
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