iOS 18 is now in public beta, so if you've been waiting to jump in, now may be the time — though you might prefer to wait for the final release. In any case, this latest iOS 18 beta includes some new features, including a handy way to recover photos.
MacRumors has discovered that this beta adds a “Recovered” album to the Utilities section of the Photos app, and this album will house any photos or videos that are on your iPhone and are not part of your photo library.
You might expect all of the pictures on your device to be in your main photo library, but whether it's due to database corruption, third-party apps not properly saving an image or video to the photo library, or other issues, sometimes photos and videos can get stuck in limbo.
This folder is meant for those images and will give you the option to restore or delete any images or videos that appear in your Recovered album. Keep in mind, however, that you'll only see this album if there are photos or videos on your device that aren't already in your photo library. If there's nothing to recover, the Recovered album won't be present.
Find lost photos and keep deleted ones
The emergence of this Recovered Album feature could have been triggered by a database corruption issue in iOS 17.5, which caused previously deleted photos to reappear for some users. With this new album, it's likely that if that error occurs again, the images will appear in the Recovered Album, rather than in the main Photo Library; so, in addition to helping you recover lost photos, the feature could also ensure that photos you delete stay deleted.
If you want to try out this feature, you can check out our guide on how to download the iOS 18 public beta. But keep in mind that it is not a final or stable version yet, so we recommend waiting until the final release, which will likely be released in September.
