Where Do Deleted Photos Go on a Mac [With Methods to Recover Them]?

If you like taking photos or videos of memorable moments and you're a Mac user, you're probably familiar with the Photos app on your Mac – the built-in photo manager that comes with macOS.

For many photography enthusiasts, most of the Mac storage space is taken up by various photos and videos. You may encounter a strange phenomenon: when your Mac storage is full, you delete some photos to free up Mac storage space, but your available Mac storage does not increase. Why doesn't freeing up space on Mac after deleting files? Then, where do deleted photos go on Mac?

In this article, we'll discuss where do photos go when deleted on Mac, how to find them, and how to recover them if you want to. Read on to learn the details.

Where Do Photos Go When You Delete Them on a Mac?

When you delete a file on a Mac, it's moved to the Trash, where it remains for 30 days. During that time, you can restore deleted files by using the “Put Back” feature in the Mac Trash. After 30 days, however, the files in your Trash are permanently deleted.

However, photos you delete from the Mac Photos app don't go in the Trash. By default, when you delete photos from your Mac's Photos app, they're moved to the Recently Deleted album, where they stay for 30 days. After that, any deleted photos in the Recently Deleted album are permanently removed.

This is why your Mac still has no space even after you've deleted photos stored on it. Knowing that the deleted photos don't actually vanish but are moved to the Recently Deleted album, you can easily recover them from Recently Deleted. Or delete them again from Recently Deleted to permanently remove files from Mac and free up Mac storage space.

Keep reading to learn how to restore deleted photos from the “Recently Deleted” album.

How to Recover Recently Deleted Photos on a Mac

When you delete photos on your Mac, you can see an album called Recently Deleted in the sidebar. Open it to view all your deleted items. Follow these steps:

Step 1: Open the Photos app on your Mac, and then click Recently Deleted in the sidebar.

Step 2. Select the deleted photos you want to recover from the album, and then click “Recover” to restore them to their original location.

Alternatively, if you have iCloud Photos enabled, you can find a backup of the photo in your iCloud Drive and download it to your Mac to restore the deleted photo. If you can't find the Recently Deleted album, don't worry; you can read this article to fix the issue.

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How to Find the Recently Deleted Folder on Mac

This article discusses how to locate the "Recently Deleted" folder on your Mac's Photos app. Read More>>

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# How to Recover Permanently Deleted Photos on a Mac

If you can't find the photos in the Recently Deleted album, it's because they were deleted more than 30 days ago, and have been permanently removed. However, the photos haven't actually been erased, and they're still stored on your Mac – they're just not accessible to you anymore.

You can't recover them from the "Recently Deleted" album or the Trash on your Mac; instead, you'll need to use third-party software to find them. The Mac Data Recovery Wizard is a professional and reliable photo recovery tool that can restore permanently deleted files on Mac, including photos deleted over 30 days ago.

With photo recovery software for Mac, you can quickly and securely get back your important pictures. Its user-friendly interface makes the recovery process a breeze, even for those without significant computer experience. Follow these steps to permanently recover deleted photos on Mac:

Note: For added safety and reliability, you can create a backup first by clicking "Disk Backup" on the left and then restore from that image to prevent further damage to your photos in the Mac library.

Step 1: Search for the Missing Photos

Launch the Data Recovery Wizard for Mac. Hover the mouse over the system drive where the “Photos Library” is stored, and click on “Search Lost Files.”

Select the location to scan for lost Mac pictures

Step 2: Find the image from the gallery

When the scan is finished, click “Photos” under the “Paths” tab. All of your missing photos will be listed here.

Step 3: Recover photos from the gallery

Double-click the preview to select the right photo, and then hit “Recover” to save the picture to another secure location on your Mac.

Conclusions

Where do photos go when you delete them on a Mac? After you delete a photo on your Mac, it moves to the Recently Deleted album in the Photos app, where it stays for up to 30 days. If you want, you can recover a deleted photo by clicking Recover in the Recently Deleted album.

However, if a photo has been deleted for over 30 days, you won't be able to find and restore it from the Recently Deleted album. In this case, the Data Recovery Wizard can help you permanently recover the deleted photos in 3 steps!

"Where do deleted photos go on a Mac?" FAQ

Here are some common questions people ask when they search for where deleted photos go on a Mac:

**1. Where do permanently deleted photos go?**

When you delete photos on your Mac, they move to the Recently Deleted folder, where they remain for 30 days before being permanently erased, and you can't access them on your Mac. The only way to find them is by using a third-party app, such as Data Recovery Wizard for Mac.

< strong > 2. Why can't I find the Recently Deleted folder in my Mac Photos?

If the “Recently Deleted” album is missing from your Photos library on your Mac, it's probably because you haven't deleted any photos in over 30 days, or the 30-day waiting period has passed and your deleted photos have vanished.

How to Permanently Delete Photos on a Mac?

Permanently Delete Photos on Mac:

Step 1: Delete the photos from the Photos app.

Step 2: Go to the Recently Deleted album and delete all the photos again.