If you’ve turned on automatic backup of your files to Google Drive, you don’t have to worry about accidentally deleting important photos from your device. all of them will be available in your linked gmail account. however, sometimes even backed up photos are deleted or lost.
so can you recover deleted or lost photos from gmail account?
The answer is – yes. there are some methods to recover them depending on the period during which they have been lost. In this article, we will show you all those methods one by one, but first, let’s see the reasons why this problem occurs in the first place.
reasons for losing photos from gmail account
It doesn’t matter if you use google drive or google photos to back up your photos, the causes of file loss are still the same:
- When you open multiple gmail accounts on one device, but forget to sign in with the correct one to save the photos you need.
- accidentally delete photos from apps and not be aware of it.
- turn on auto sync in google photos removes photo from cloud automatically when you delete it from device.
- if you selected the option to “free up space” in google photos, your photos and videos may be deleted from your device and also from the backup.
- opt to hide view photos and forgetting about them is another reason why photos are lost from gmail.
- technical issues due to network issues or errors in google photos or drive.
Now, let’s understand how to recover lost photos from gmail account.
how to recover lost photos from gmail account
1. use google’s restore function
Most of the users already know that files deleted from google drive stay in trash only for 30 days and photos deleted from google photos only stay for 60 days. once this period ends, they are gone forever. that is why we have divided photo recovery methods into two categories: before the moment of permanent loss and after that.
scenario 1
if you lost or deleted your photos from google drive 30 days ago, follow these steps to recover them.
- open the google drive app and go to the trash option.
- in the trash folder, you will see two options: restore and delete forever.
- Select the files or photos you want to recover and click on the Restore option to get them back.
- You’ll have all your photos saved back to their original location on Drive.
scenario 2
if you lost or deleted your photos from google photos 60 days ago, follow these steps to recover them.
- open the google photos app and click on the three vertical lines on the left.
- from the menu, click on the trash can option.
- Now you can see all the deleted photos in the folder.
- Select the photos you want to recover.
- Once you confirm the photos, click on the Restore option.
- All the photos will get back to Google Photos Library.
If it’s been more than 60 days since you lost your photos, know that they will be permanently deleted from both google drive and your photos. In this case, you can approach these two methods below to help you recover lost photos.
2. recover photos via google support
after permanent deletion of your photos, you can contact google support team for help within 21 days. you can ask them to return your photos, which in all likelihood exist in their database. you just need to give a genuine reason for your recovery and if they find it successful, all your photos will be restored to google photos.
Follow these steps to contact Google Support.
- first, go to the google drive help page.
- click the lost or deleted files option from the problem list.
- After that, two options will pop up – Request Chat and Email Support.
- Choose any one option to contact the team according to your preferences.
- Now mention the reason in your request why you want the photos back.
- If your reason is valid, then your photos will be restored, else not.
3. use photo recovery software
If you don’t get help from google support team, there is only one thing you can do to recover your lost photos: get help from a reliable photo recovery app. Such software can recover any photo that has been lost due to any reason. You can easily download and install the photo recovery tool to get your photos back, whether it’s on your mobile device or desktop.
In our opinion, stellar photo recovery is the most viable tool to help you in this situation.
Stellar Photo Recovery is an application specially designed to recover photos and videos from SD cards (mini, micro, SDHC and SDXC), hard drives, portable drives and USB flash drives. follows an easy three-step data recovery process that even beginners can use to restore lost, damaged, or deleted data. Compatible with multiple photo and video file formats and equipped with a user-friendly interface, this software allows users to preview images before recovering them.
here is a quick overview of the steps [pd1] you can take to recover photos with stellar photo recovery:
- From the software’s official website, download its installer and install it using the default settings. Once installed, launch the software.
- From the home screen, select the location to scan for photo recovery. after selecting, click the scan button to start the scan.
- When the scanning finishes, all recoverable photos will be listed in a tree-view list in the left-hand sidebar of the software interface. Click on any photo to preview it in the right-hand side panel. If you can preview the photo, that means it can be recovered.
- Select the photos you wish to recover and click on the Recover button. You will be asked to select a destination folder for the photos. Select it to proceed.
- The recovery process will take some time depending on the number of photos to be recovered.
summarize for recovery
If you are trying to recover lost photos from your gmail account within 60 days of loss, it will be an easy task in most cases. but after this period it becomes difficult to restore lost photos from your google photos. If this happens, we hope that the methods mentioned above will help you to restore your image files easily. It is also recommended to always make multiple backups of your important photos so you don’t have this problem in the future.