Access and restore deleted photos

Starting from Lightroom desktop version 2.4 and Lightroom for mobile (iOS and Android) version 4.4, you can access and retrieve photos that you have deleted, within 60 days of deleting them. The photos that you delete are synced across the various platforms - Lightroom desktop, Lightroom for mobile (iOS and Android), and Lightroom on the web. Photos that are deleted and synced from Lightroom Classic can also be accessed in the same place. If your deleted photos are not yet synced to the cloud, you can still access them from the application in which you had deleted them. You can then choose to retrieve the photos or permanently delete them so that they cannot be viewed or restored later.

View deleted photos

  1. Open Lightroom desktop, Lightroom for mobile, or Lightroom on the web.

  2.  Click the My Photos icon .

  3. You can view the Deleted album which displays the total number of deleted photos from Lightroom desktop, mobile, and the web. Open Deleted to view your deleted photos. 

Note:
  • You can view and restore deleted photos within 60 days of deleting them. 
  • Based on the number of days left to restore, Lightroom desktop and Lightroom on the web displays the photos in ascending order. Lightroom for mobile groups the photos and displays them in the same order.

Restore deleted photos

  1. Open the Deleted album (see View deleted photos to access this).

  2. Select the photos that you want to restore.

  3. Click the Restore icon .

    In Lightroom desktop, you can also Control-click (macOS)/right-click (Windows) and select Restore Photo.

    Your selected photos are then restored in All Photos and any albums that the photos were previously in.

    Note:

    All the associated metadata will be restored except the stack information. You may need to restack photos that were deleted as a stack.

  4. (Optional) If you want to restore all the photos in the Deleted album, click the three-dots icon in the upper-right corner of the screen and select Restore All.

Permanently delete photos

  1. Open the Deleted album (see View deleted photos to access this).

  2. Select the photos that you want to permanently delete.

    Note:

    Once you permanently delete the selected photos, they cannot be restored later.

  3. Click the Delete icon . In the Permanently Delete dialog box, click Delete.

    In Lightroom desktop, you can also Control-click (macOS)/right-click (Windows) and select Permanently Delete Photo.

  4. (Optional) If you want to permanently delete all the photos in the Deleted album, click the three-dots icon in the upper-right corner and select Permanently Delete All.

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