How To Recover Deleted Screenshots on Windows

Screenshots are the easiest way to capture important information or simply share something with friends, family, and coworkers. Its ability to capture precisely what is on your screen makes the function helpful in various circumstances.

Like any data, screen capture can also mysteriously disappear & we cannot find it. This can happen for several reasons.

Reasons why screenshots go missing or are deleted on Windows 11, 10

Unintentional deletion of images
A virus attack.
Malfunctioning storage media.
Disk corruption.
Power outage.

Screenshots, like any other data, can be lost for various reasons. If you have been losing screenshots and other data regularly, check out the reasons below to understand why it’s happening.

Corrupt Disk – A disk can become corrupted due to sudden power failure, interruption while formatting the disk, or simply because there are too many bad sectors. When either of these cases occurs, the files saved on the disk become inaccessible and disappear from your PC.
Accidental deleting files – Human error is the primary reason for mistakenly deleting files. Everyone once in their life faces this issue.
Malware or virus attack – Viruses and malware are designed to target files & make them useless or worse.
Formatting – When a drive is formatted, all its contents are deleted. If the screenshots were stored on the formatted disc, most likely, they were erased during the procedure.

Whatever the reason, it becomes easy if you know how to find lost/deleted screenshots. Without further delay, let’s look at some workable ways and practical approaches to recover screenshots from Windows.

Tip: If the screenshots are permanently erased, act quickly to prevent them from being overwritten. The sooner you take action, the higher the chances of recovery.

How To Recover Deleted Screenshots Windows 10?

Problem	Solution
The screenshot in question has been recently deleted. How can I recover and find my screenshot?	Method 1: Look for Screenshots in the Recycle Bin (Windows).
I have mistakenly deleted a vital screenshot and cannot find it in Recycle Bin.	Method 2: Using Image Recovery Software for Windows to get back lost/deleted screenshots

Where Do I Find My Screenshots on Windows?

There are multiple ways to take a screenshot, but where screenshots are kept depends on how you took them.

If you have taken screenshots using the Snipping Tool, remember there is no default location. This means the screenshots will be saved in the location you decide.

However, if the screenshot is taken by pressing the Windows + Print key, it will be saved in the Screenshots folder. When you use the Xbox Game Bar, the screenshot will be saved to C:\Users\[User Name]\Videos\Captures.

In short, regardless of how the screenshot is taken, all are saved on the PC.

Ways to Recover Deleted Screenshots from Windows?

The percentage of retrieving deleted screenshots from Windows dramatically depends on the time range. You can recover them if they were lost lately because the data hasn’t been overwritten. Let’s look at the many methods for recovering lost or deleted screenshots.

These methods also have the answers to the following:

Can I recover the lost screenshot in Windows?
Is the recovery of deleted screenshots in Windows possible?
What are the ways to recover deleted or lost screenshots in Windows?
I do not have a backup, how can I recover screenshots?

Method 1: Restoring Deleted Screenshot from Recycle Bin

When a file is deleted from Windows, it is stored in the Recycle Bin by pressing the Delete key for 30 days. To restore it from the Recycle Bin, follow these steps:

Note: Recycle Bin limits how much data it can retain, which varies from machine to machine, and the total disk space.

Double-click the Recycle Bin icon on your desktop and open it.

Find the screenshot you want to undelete. Select it > right-click > Restore. To retrieve all deleted data, click Restore the selected items.

This will recover files and will save them in their original location.

However, if the Recycle Bin is emptied, don’t worry. You can still recover your files using the Photos Recovery app, developed by Systweak.

Method 2: Search for Screenshots

Sometimes, the file is not deleted but is saved elsewhere on your system that you cannot find. To confirm that is not the case, sign the search tool, look for the file on Windows, and save yourself from wasting time attempting to retrieve a still present file.

Windows

Press Windows + E to open File Explorer
Click on This PC > to the folder where you saved the screenshot. However, if you don’t know the folder name, use the Search This PC field to find the screenshot you want.

If you don’t remember the name, just type in the generic terms like “screenshot” and search for deleted screen capture.

This should help find the screenshot if it is present on the PC.

Method 3: Restore Deleted Screenshot Using Photos Recovery

Photos Recovery software designed for Windows helps restore lost or destroyed data. In the sections below, we’ll discuss how to use the picture recovery tools to receive screenshots from Windows.

Click the Download Now button below to get the photo recovery tool and restore deleted screenshots.

Double-click the setup file to install the screenshot recovery tool.
Launch Photos Recovery and select the storage media from which you want to scan and retrieve images.

Note: If you want to scan removable media, connect it before launching the product and click the Removable Driver tab to select the drive.

Select from the two scanning modes – Quick Scan and Deep Scan.

Quick Scan – helps restore recently deleted screenshots.

Deep Scan – Scans the complete system and each folder thoroughly.

Click the START SCAN button to start the scanning process.

Preview scan results before recovering and select the files to restore.

Note: Photos Recovery, by default, selects all the images.

Click RECOVER to retrieve selected screenshots. The location where you restore images should differ from the drive you are scanning.

Let the recovery process finish. That’s all.

With the help of these simple steps, you can restore deleted screenshots on Windows.

Conclusion

The above steps will help locate and retrieve deleted screenshots from Windows PCs. Using Photos Recovery, you can get back any image, video, or audio file. The tool is easy to use; even a beginner can use it without training. So, what are you waiting for? Take advantage of the steps explained above and recover unsaved screenshots from Windows.

Note: You can use the trial version of Photos Recovery to see if you will be able to recover screenshots or not.

Preeti Seth

A UX writer who loves explaining technical details in a clear, crisp, and concise manner. She loves writing about technical troubleshooting, How-To's, product reviews, etc. In her free time, she loves reading, meditating, and traveling.