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The social network “VKontakte” provides its users with many different services for adding various media files to their page, photographs are no exception. For various reasons, a photo can be deleted randomly and not have a copy of it, which is quite annoying. Unfortunately, VK has not yet added an option to protect against accidental clicks, because deleting an image requires two clicks. While to restore you will have to search the entire Internet in search of a solution to the problem that has arisen. In our article we will look at the question of how to view deleted VK photos using currently available methods.
Recovery methods
Despite the fact that the deleted photo is still somewhere out there, on one of the VKontakte servers, it is almost impossible to find it. To open this file, you need to know the exact link to it (many, many letters, numbers and at the end “.jpg”). Even if we knew part of this link, selecting the remaining options would take a very long time (longer than you might imagine).
Therefore, you need to try to take advantage of other, more realistic chances. The main thing is not to waste time.
If I deleted a photo from the wall, how can I restore it?
This is the easiest way. When you delete a post from the wall, the photos attached to it remain in a special album - “Photos on the Wall”. Go to your photos, look at the list of all albums, and you will find it.
Look at the saved copy
The last approach to figuring out how to restore a photo in VK involves viewing the saved copy in Google. To do this, you do not have to send special requests, since you need:
- Write the address of your own page in the search bar.
- Find the link in the list of suggested options.
- Click on the small green arrow.
- Select to open the saved copy.
If there is no green arrow, the copy was not saved. In addition, it is impossible to return old photos from deleted conversations.
Is there a photo left somewhere?
If it was a truly valuable photo or profile picture, then most likely it is somewhere else. For example, on your computer in a folder with photos, on your phone, somewhere on a disk or on a flash drive. Perhaps your boyfriend or girlfriend. If someone else made you an avatar, then that person probably still has it. One of your VKontakte friends can help you restore a deleted ava, if he liked it and saved it somewhere at home. Don't be shy to ask people!
Photo restoration using standard VK tools
The developers of the social network foresaw the risk of the user accidentally deleting a photo, so they introduced a mechanism for restoring it. If a snapshot has been deleted, you can immediately get it back by doing the following:
- After clicking the “Delete” link located under the picture, the message “Photo has been deleted” will appear.
- Click on the “Restore” button in the upper right corner of the image.
- The photo will return to its place.
Reference. The recovery link will be available even after exiting full-screen viewing mode. The main thing is not to go to another page and not to reload the current one.
A copy of the page in the Google search engine
If your page was open to everyone (or the album with the photo you were looking for was not closed), then the deleted photo could be saved in Google. From time to time, Google makes copies of all pages on the Internet and stores them for a while. This is called "in cache". There is a chance of recovery if not much time has passed since the deletion (no more than a week). But even if the photo remains there, most often it is possible to restore only the miniature (photo in a small size).
Check if your page is still in the Google cache - enter the address of your VKontakte page in the search bar (below) - for example, https://vk.com/id126494354 . The easiest way is to open your VKontakte page and copy the address here from the address bar of your browser.
Finding a saved copy of the VK page
Then click “Find”, a new page with search results will open. If you find something, open your saved page:
- Click on the small green triangle next to the page address.
- Select "Saved Copy".
- Click on it.
An example of what it looks like:
Now the saved copy of your page will open. If there is a photo there that you want to restore, open it and save it somewhere to yourself (usually you need to right-click on the photo and select “Save image as...”).
If there is no green triangle at all, then there is no copy of the page in Google, and this method will not work.
Is it possible to recover deleted photos in VK - current methods
It is possible to return a deleted photo, regardless of where it was located (in a dialogue, on a wall, in an album, with likes). But it is necessary to restore the recording within a few minutes after destruction, since the missing frame is stored on the server for only a few minutes.
The following methods and approaches are available to users for recovery:
- undoing a previously completed action (permissible immediately after an error has been made);
- extracting a frame from a saved copy of a Google page;
- retrieving a file from the browser cache.
It is important to emphasize that it will not be possible to return the entire album. Its deletion is final; it will not be possible to cancel the completed action.
Browsing history or browser cache is a chance!
If you recently looked at this photo in full size, then it could remain in your browsing history or in the cache (temporary files) of your browser - the program with which you view websites. This is one of the real chances. And if you opened the photo using the “Open original” button, then maybe you can even find a link to the VK website where this photo is still stored.
How to find a deleted photo in your browser history
Typically, the browsing history in the browser can be viewed using the Ctrl-H or called up through the menu. It is especially useful to search there if you have recently opened a photo using the “Open original” link.
How to find a deleted photo in temporary files
You will need a program to view the cache. There are different programs for different browsers, download and run the one that is designed specifically for yours (Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Internet Explorer). If you're not very good with computers, it's time to stop touching anything and call a boy who is good at it to continue from there.
A page with programs for viewing the cache of various browsers: Web Browser Tools. Download the program for the browser used on this computer. Run it and look in the cache for image files (.jpg) of a sufficiently large size - among them may be the same deleted photo.
How to restore photos in VK after deletion?
The next approach involves checking the browser cache. It is extremely simple and requires:
- Open cash in the browser system files.
- Find a file with the jpg extension.
- Open, look at it and check that the selected option is correct.
- Extract the file to a suitable folder.
For simplicity, you should focus on the time the file was created.
It should be added that there are no special applications or programs on Android that allow you to restore old pictures, since it is impossible to return what has disappeared forever. Don't believe scammers who claim otherwise, even when they show convincing video.
How to recover photos through support?
The last chance is to write to VKontakte technical support and ask to recover deleted photos. Do it as quickly as possible, you literally have only a few days! Give them the following information:
- I accidentally deleted a photo, please restore it.
- How many photos did you delete?
- When exactly did I delete them and how exactly?
In order not to search, you can create a new support request about deleted photos using this link: Create a new support request (it may not open in the mobile application, you need to use a browser; it is better to do this from a computer, not from a phone).
Recovering deleted data is not guaranteed in any case. We don't know whether they will help you. Good luck!
Deleted VKontakte pages in the web archive
Other services that specialize in storing old copies of pages are called web archives. They record all the changes that occur with those sites that are “monitored” by the archives. On some of them you can “remember” what the deleted VK page used to look like. The procedure here is as follows:
- First you need to go to one of these sites, for example, https://web.archive.org/;
- Here in the address field you need to insert a link to the remote VK profile;
- If the page was saved in a web archive, a special calendar will appear at the bottom. Here you need to select the date for which you want to view the deleted page.
After all these actions, a saved copy of the old VK page will appear, on which you can study all the available information.
Ways to view deleted VKontakte photos
There are not many truly effective ways to view deleted VKontakte photos. Once you have deleted an image, in the vast majority of cases it will be impossible to get it back. However, methods that provide the ability to view a deleted image still exist, although not all of them are truly effective. Below in the material we have given four ways in which you will again be able to see deleted photos.
If you deleted a photo and have not yet reloaded the page, but stayed on it and immediately started looking for a solution, read the material presented below. I would also like to note that if the image was deleted quite a long time ago, it is unlikely to be restored. As a rule, data on the servers of the VKontakte website is stored from three hours to five days, according to various information. Some users even believe that all data is not deleted from the VK page, but only becomes hidden. One way or another, it is necessary to restore a photo as soon as possible after it is deleted from the page.
Using standard VK tools
The standard viewer for a deleted image involves its instant recovery immediately after it is deleted from a profile wall or photo album. You can use this method only if, after you deleted the photo, the page in VK was not updated, or you did not go to other tabs, such as “My Page”.
To instantly view and recover your deleted image, follow the quick guide below:
- After you click the “Delete” button, a window will appear in front of you in which the “Restore” button will be highlighted in blue.
- You are required not to refresh the page or navigate to other tabs.
- Click on the “Restore” button, as in the above image, after which you will see your photo again.
As was said earlier, in order to use this method expediently, you should not refresh the page, otherwise you will not be able to view the deleted photo.
Through search engines
The next fairly effective way is to view the image using search engines. This method is universal and in half the cases it helps to revive erased data using a saved copy of your VKontakte page.
