Recently Deleted is a nifty iOS feature that lets you restore photos or videos you might have accidentally deleted. Items in this folder are automatically and permanently deleted after 30 days and cannot be recovered. During these 30 days, you can either recover your recently deleted photos or delete them permanently.
Can’t find recently deleted photos on your iPhone?
In iOS 17 or earlier, users could easily access recently deleted pictures by navigating to Photos > Albums > Utilities > Recently Deleted. However, the redesigned Photos app in iOS 18 and later completely changes how you see Recently Deleted photos on iOS 26 and iOS 18.
Photos on iOS 18 and iOS 26 drop the old tabbed interface, and instead show the photo library, albums, and collections in a unified layout. Even sections like Memories, Featured Photos, and Pinned Collections appear on the same screen. Meanwhile, frequently used areas such as Media Types and Utilities are moved to the bottom, making it slightly less convenient to view or recover deleted photos or access the Hidden album.
Thankfully, you can customize and reorder various collections in the new Photos app to suit your preferences. For quicker access, you can also pin the Recently Deleted folder to your Pinned Collections.
Now let’s see how to find Recently Deleted in iOS 18 and iOS 26 on iPhone or iPadOS 18 and iPadOS 26 on iPad, and how to bring back the Utilities collection if it’s missing.
How to See Your Recently Deleted Photos on iOS 18 and iOS 26
- Open the Photos app.
- Scroll down to the bottom of the app and locate the Utilities section.
- On iOS 26: Tap the Collections tab first, then scroll to Utilities.
Photos App on iOS 26
- On iOS 26: Tap the Collections tab first, then scroll to Utilities.
- In Utilities, tap on Recently Deleted.
- Tap View Album and use Face ID or Touch ID to access your Recently Deleted album.
- Open the photo or video you want to recover or permanently delete.
- To restore:
- Tap Recover, then select Recover Photo.
- To recover multiple photos at once, tap Select and choose the desired items. Then tap the ellipsis button (3 dots) at the bottom right (iOS 18) or top right (iOS 26), and select Recover. Confirm to proceed.
- Tap Recover, then select Recover Photo.
- To delete, choose Delete. Then tap ‘Delete From This iPhone‘ to permanently remove the selected photo.
Note: You can only restore content from Recently Deleted within 30 days. The number of days left before each item is permanently deleted is also shown.
Fix: Utilities Not Showing in Photos App on iOS 18
Don’t worry if you can’t find the Utilities section in the Photos app – it also contains your Hidden, Recently Deleted, and other collections.
In iOS 18, the app lets you reorder or hide collections. You may have accidentally hidden the Utilities collection, which removes it from the Photos app, and it no longer appears below Media Types.
To get Utilities back in the Photos app on iOS 18:
- Open the Photos app on your iPhone.
- Scroll to the bottom and tap Customize & Reorder.
- Check the box next to Utilities to unhide it.
That’s it! Utilities will now reappear, and you can view your Hidden, Recently Deleted, Recently Saved, Recently Edited, and other directories.
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