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This article was co-authored by Victoria Sprung and by wikiHow staff writer, Darlene Antonelli, MA. Victoria Sprung is a Professional Photographer and the Founder of Sprung Photo, a wedding photography studio based in Chicago, Illinois. She has over 13 years of professional photography experience and has photographed over 550 weddings. She has been chosen for Wedding Wire's "Couple’s Choice" Award eight years in a row and The Knot's "Best of Weddings" award five years in a row. Her work has been featured in People Magazine, Time Out Chicago, Chicago Magazine, the Chicago Reader, Rangefinder, The Chicago Sun-Times, and Pop Sugar.
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Have you accidentally incorrectly cropped an image, saved, and want to get back the original photo? With many apps and programs, like Google Photos, any edited versions are saved as different files than the original files, so you should never run into this problem.[1] However, there are some applications like Preview on Mac and Photos for iPhone and iPad that let you rollback edits. This wikiHow will teach you how to revert photos you've cropped back to their original versions on an iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
Steps
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Open Photos. You'll see this app icon on one of your Home screens.
- You can only use this method using the default Photos app on iPhone and iPad. You can revert any edits you've made to a photo even after you've saved it and closed the app.
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Tap the edited photo you want to reset. If you can't find your photo in the timeline, you can tap the "Albums" tab at the bottom of the screen.Advertisement -
Tap Edit. You'll see this in the top right corner of your screen. -
Tap Revert. You'll see this in the lower right corner of your screen, and then some more options will slide up from the bottom of your screen. -
Tap Revert to Original. All your edits will be removed and you'll be left with the original photo.[2]
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Click File. You'll see this in the horizontal menu that runs along the top of your screen.- You'll need to have the edited image open in Preview to do this. If you didn't edit the image in Preview, you cannot use this method.
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Hover your cursor over Revert To. A menu will pop out to the right. -
Click Browse All Versions. A few windows will open with different versions of the photo.- Click the arrows to cycle through the versions.
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Click Restore. When you find the original photo, you can click the restore button that you'll see below the thumbnail.[3]
Expert Q&A
Reader Videos
Tips
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Many apps have Undo, Undo History, Redo, and Revert options available that will roll back any edits you've made before saving and closing the file. If you've saved and closed then re-opened the file, you might not have these options available.Thanks
Tips from our Readers 
- If you have an iPhone there should be a "restore" option if you accidentally save a cropped image over the original. Just make sure in the future to always save cropped images as new files and not overtop the original file!
- On an Android you can go to the image, click "crop" again, then zoom out and you should be able to restore it back to how it originally was.
References
About This Article
1. Open Photos.
2. Tap the edited photo you want to reset.
3. Tap Edit.
4. Tap Revert.
5. Tap Revert to Original.
