How to Recover Deleted CapCut Projects and Videos in 2026 — Complete Step-by-Step Guide

Check These in Order — Most Likely to Work First

1. CapCut’s own Trash/Recently Deleted (check this immediately, before anything else).

• Mobile: Projects tab → More/Settings icon → Trash or Recently Deleted → Restore.
• Desktop: Home → Trash or Recently Deleted → Restore.

If it’s still within the retention window, this is a one-tap fix — don’t skip straight to recovery software.

2. CapCut Cloud (My Space) — if you had it enabled. Open CapCut → My Space/Cloud Backup → log into the account you were using → locate the project → Download/Restore. This only works if cloud sync was turned on before the deletion — it doesn’t retroactively back up anything.

3. Your device’s own trash, if you deleted an exported video (not the project).

• Android: Gallery → Albums → Recently Deleted.
• iPhone: Photos → Albums → Recently Deleted.
• Windows: Recycle Bin — search “CapCut.”
• Mac: Trash — look for the project folder, then “Put Back.”

4. Check the raw project folder directly — sometimes a project looks “deleted” in CapCut’s UI but the files are still on disk:

• Windows: Documents\CapCut\Projects
• Mac: Movies/CapCut/Projects

If you find it here, copying it back manually can work even if CapCut’s own Trash has already expired.

5. File-recovery software — last resort, and time-sensitive. Once retention windows and manual folder checks are exhausted, tools like DiskDigger or Dr.Fone (Android), iMyFone D-Back (iOS), or MiniTool Power Data Recovery / 4DDiG (desktop) can sometimes recover deleted files, but success depends entirely on whether the storage space has been overwritten since deletion. Stop using the device for anything else the moment you realize a file is gone — every new photo, download, or app install increases the chance of overwriting the exact sectors you’re trying to recover. Scan for file types/names like “CapCutProject,” .json, .mp4, or .pak, and always restore to a different drive than the one you’re scanning, never back to internal storage.

When Recovery Genuinely Won’t Work

• Trash has been emptied or the retention period has passed, with no cloud backup
• You’ve kept using the device heavily since deletion (likely overwritten)
• The raw footage/clips linked to the project are also gone — even if the project file itself is recovered, an empty timeline with missing clips isn’t much use

Preventing This Going Forward

The single highest-value habit: turn on CapCut Cloud Sync (My Space) now, before you need it — everything else here is a fallback for when that wasn’t on. Beyond that: export drafts periodically during long edits (not just at the end), avoid third-party “cleaner”/junk apps (they’re a common cause of CapCut cache and project data getting wiped without warning), and keep a manual backup of in-progress project folders to an external drive or cloud storage on any project you can’t afford to lose.