Apple’s New ‘Recovered’ Album in iOS 18: Recover Lost or Damaged Photos

Apple’s New ‘Recovered’ Album in iOS 18: Recover Lost or Damaged Photos

If you’ve ever lost or damaged your photos and struggled to retrieve them, Apple has a solution with the new ‘Recovered’ album in iOS 18. This album will function alongside the ‘Recently Deleted’ album but will not replace it. This feature was introduced following the recent controversy over an iOS 17.5 bug that caused old deleted photos to reappear due to database corruption. This update is part of the iOS 18 rollout and will assist users in recovering previously lost files.

Apple’s New ‘Recovered’ Album Feature in iOS 18 Helps Users Retrieve Lost or Damaged Files

With the iOS 18 update, the Photos app has been revamped to include a new feature designed to help you access content that was previously inaccessible. The ‘Recovered’ album allows users to restore lost or damaged images that remain on their devices. This new functionality will be available in iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia.

Users simply need to update to the latest software version, and their device will automatically scan for any videos or photos that remain in the database but are not visible, likely due to database corruption. Photos can also be lost if not properly saved in the Photos album.

The ‘Recovered’ album appears only when there are recoverable files and will not show otherwise. To find the new album in the Photos app, follow these steps: open the Photos app > scroll to Utilities > tap on Recovered > authenticate via Biometric verification, and select the photos you wish to restore to your photo library. You also have the option to permanently delete the recovered files.

Users should not confuse this with the ‘Recently Deleted’ album, where deleted pictures can be recovered within 30 days of deletion. The ‘Recovered’ album is a separate feature dedicated to recovering lost or damaged content, working alongside the existing feature.

The addition of this new feature in iOS 18 could be a response to the issues caused by the iOS 17.5 bug, which led to long-deleted or lost images reappearing. Apple addressed these concerns by suggesting that database corruption was the cause of the reappearing images, as they remained in the database even when deleted. Including the recovery option provides users with greater control over their content, ensuring a more transparent data retrieval process.