Where Do Deleted Photos Go on Mac [with Methos to Restore Deleted Photos]

If you love to take photos or videos of memorable moments, and if you are a Mac user, then you must be no stranger to the Photos app on Mac, which is a pre-installed photo manager on macOS.

For many photographers, most of the storage space on a Mac is taken up by photos and videos of all kinds. You may notice a strange phenomenon: when the Mac storage space is full, you delete some photos to free up your Mac storage, but your Mac's available storage space doesn't increase. Why does Mac deleted files not free space? And where do deleted photos go on Mac?

In this article, we will discuss where deleted photos go on Mac, how to find them, and, if you want, how to restore them. Read on to learn detailed information.

Where Do Deleted Photos Go on Mac

Deleting files on a Mac will move them to the Trash bin, and the deleted files remain in the Trash bin for a month. During the remaining period, you can recover deleted files on Mac by using the "Put Back" feature in Mac Trash, but after a month, files in the Trash bin will be permanently deleted.

However, photos you deleted from your Mac's library will not go to the Trash bin, and, by default, deleting a photo from your Mac's library will move the photo to the Recently Deleted album, and the deleted photos will remain there for 30 days. After a month, the deleted photos in the Recently Deleted album will be permanently deleted.

That's why even after you've deleted the photos stored on your Mac, your Mac still remains out of space. Knowing that the deleted photos are not really gone but moved to the recently deleted albums, you can easily restore them from the recently deleted. Or delete them again from Recently Deleted to permanently deleted files on Mac and free up Mac storage space.

Read on to learn how to restore the deleted photos in the Recently Deleted album.

How to Restore Recently Deleted Photos on Mac

After you delete photos on your Mac, you can see the Recently Deleted album in the sidebar, open it, and view all the deleted items. Check out the following steps:

Step 1. Launch "Photos" on Mac, and click "Recently Deleted" in the sidebar.

Step 2. Choose the deleted photos in the album, and click "Recover" to return them to their original storage location.

Or if you have opened iCloud Photos, you can find the backed-up photos on iCloud Drive and download them to Mac to retrieve accidentally deleted photos. If you can't find the Recently Deleted album, don't worry; you can read this article to solve this problem.

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Recover Permanently Deleted Photos on Mac

Suppose you can't find the deleted photos in the Recently Deleted folder because you deleted them 30 days ago, so they were permanently deleted. In fact, these photos haven't really been erased, and they're still stored on your Mac, and you just don't have access to them anymore.

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

With the EaseUS photo recovery software on your Mac, you can retrieve your essential photos quickly and safely. Its user-friendly interface helps people without any computer experience perform the recovery process easily. Follow the steps below to recover permanently deleted photos on Mac:

Note: You can create a backup by clicking the "Disk Backup" on the left first and then recover from the backup image, it can prevent further damage to the photos in Mac Library, making it safer and more reliable.

Step 1. Search for lost photos

Launch EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac, hover the mouse over the system drive where the Photos Library is, and click "Search for lost files".

Step 2. Find pictures from the library

After finishing the scan, click "Photos" under the "Path" tab. All your lost photos will list here.

Step 3. Recover photos from the library

Double-click to preview the photo, select the right one and click "Recover" to save the images to another secure location on your Mac.

Conclusion

Where do deleted photos go on Mac? Deleting a photo on Mac will move it from the Photos app to the Recently Deleted album, which stores all deleted photos within 30 days. If you want, you can restore the deleted photo by clicking the "Recover" option in the Recently Deleted album.

However, if a photo has been deleted for more than 30 days, you can't find and recover it in the Recently Deleted folder. In this case, EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac can help you restore permanently deleted photos with 3 steps!

Where Do Deleted Photos Go on Mac FAQs

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

1. Where do permanently deleted photos go?

When you delete photos on Mac, they will move to the Recently Deleted folder, remain there for 30 days, and then they will be permanently deleted that you can't access on Mac. The only way to find them is to use third-party software, like EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac.

2. Why is there no recently deleted folder in my photos on Mac?

If the Recently Deleted album in your Photo Library on your Mac is missing, it means you haven't deleted a photo in 30 days, or the 30-day waiting period has expired, so your deleted photos have disappeared.

3. How do I permanently delete photos on my Mac?

To permanently delete photos on your Mac:

Step 1. Delete photos in the Photos app

Step 2. Go to the Recently Deleted folder to delete them all again.