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If you saved an edit in the iPhone Photos app, open the photo, tap More, then tap Revert to Original. If you are still editing, use Undo to step back through changes, or tap Cancel and Discard Changes to abandon unsaved edits. Apple’s Clean Up tool also has a separate Reset option for saved Clean Up changes.

Choose the right action for your photo

Photo’s state What to tap What it does
You are still editing Undo Reverses an edit step. Undo and Redo can handle multiple edit steps.
You want to abandon unsaved edits Cancel, then Discard Changes Closes the editor without keeping those changes.
You saved edits in Photos More, then Revert to Original Restores the photo or video to its original state.
You saved a Clean Up change Open the editor, choose Clean Up, then tap Reset Undoes Clean Up changes.

Apple’s official steps are in its guides to undoing and reverting photo edits, editing photos and videos, and using Clean Up. Labels and screen layout can vary with the iOS version installed.

Undo changes while the photo editor is open

  1. In Photos, open the photo and tap Edit if the editor is not already open.
  2. Tap Undo to reverse the most recent edit step. Repeat as needed to back out of more steps.
  3. To compare the edited image with its original while editing, tap the photo.

If you want to throw away all unsaved changes rather than undo them one by one, tap Cancel, then tap Discard Changes.

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Restore a photo after saving the edit

  1. Open the edited photo in Photos.
  2. Tap More.
  3. Tap Revert to Original.

This is the documented route for restoring a saved Photos edit. It reverts the item to its original state; it is not a way to recover or switch back to the saved edits afterward. If you may want to keep both versions, make a separate copy or export before reverting.

Undo an Apple Intelligence Clean Up edit

While Clean Up is still open

Tap Undo in the editor to reverse a Clean Up change, such as restoring something removed from the image.

After saving a Clean Up change

  1. Open the photo and enter the editor.
  2. Choose Clean Up.
  3. Tap Reset to undo the Clean Up changes.

Clean Up is an Apple Intelligence feature, and availability depends on iPhone model, language, and region. If Clean Up is unavailable, a photo edited and saved in Photos can still use the standard More > Revert to Original action.

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What if the original does not seem to be on another device?

When iCloud Photos is enabled, edits to photos and videos are saved across devices. A second device using the same iCloud Photos library is therefore not guaranteed to hold an untouched copy of the pre-edit photo. Whether you have a separate original depends on whether you independently made a copy, export, or backup.

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