How to uncrop a photo on Windows 11

Sometimes. Unlike phone photo apps, the Windows Photos app has no documented way to revert a photo after you save over it. You can cancel a crop until you save, and after that you need another copy of the file. Windows often has one: Snipping Tool saves each capture before you crop it, and OneDrive and File History can restore earlier versions of a photo.

Quick answer

Situation	Can you undo it?	What to use
Cropping in Photos, not saved yet	Yes	Reset
Cropped in Photos and saved over the file	Not documented	OneDrive or File History
Screenshot cropped in Snipping Tool	Often	The auto-saved capture
File stored in OneDrive	Yes, for 30 days	Version history
Folder backed up by File History	Yes, if it was on before	Restore previous versions

Before you save: Reset in the Photos app

Microsoft’s help documents one way to undo edits in Photos: Reset, at the top left of the screen, cancels all the edits applied to the photo (Microsoft).

1. Open the photo in Photos.
2. Select Edit image (Ctrl+E) at the top of the screen.
3. If you have cropped and want to go back, select Reset at the top left before you save.

After you save: what Microsoft does not document

Microsoft describes a choice between Save as Copy and overwriting the original only for trimming videos (Microsoft). Its photo editing help does not describe a save-as-copy option for photos, and it does not describe any way to revert a photo after you have saved over it.

In practice, if you kept a copy, the original is still in its folder. If you saved over the original, assume the cropped pixels are gone from that file and look for another copy, starting with the sections below.

Snipping Tool: look for the auto-saved capture

By default, Snipping Tool saves every capture to your Screenshots folder automatically, as soon as you take it (Microsoft). Cropping with the Image crop button happens afterwards, in the Snipping Tool window. That means the copy in the Screenshots folder may still be the full, uncropped capture, unless the cropped version was saved over it.

1. Open File Explorer and go to your Screenshots folder.
2. Sort by date and find the capture taken at the time you cropped.
3. Copy it somewhere safe before editing it again.

You can change the folder, or turn automatic saving off, under See More > Settings in Snipping Tool. While a capture is still open, Undo and Redo work on your annotations (Microsoft).

Some third-party guides also point to a cache of recent captures in %LocalAppData%\Packages\Microsoft.ScreenSketch_8wekyb3d8bbwe\TempState (Windows 11 Forum). Microsoft does not document this folder, so treat it as a long shot, and copy files out of it rather than editing them in place.

Old Snipping Tool screenshots and aCropalypse

Before Microsoft’s March 2023 fix, Snipping Tool on Windows 11 and Snip & Sketch on Windows 10 could leave part of the original image inside a capture that was cropped and saved over the same file. The fix arrived in Snipping Tool 11.2302.20.0 and Snip & Sketch 10.2008.3001.0 (Microsoft), but files saved before the update are unchanged. Check such files with our cropped photo checker, and read the screenshot guide for the details.

Restore an earlier version from OneDrive

If the photo is in OneDrive, version history keeps earlier versions for 30 days (Microsoft).

1. Right-click the photo in File Explorer (with the OneDrive app installed) or at onedrive.com.
2. Select Version history.
3. Next to the version from before the crop, select the ellipses (…), then Restore.

With a work or school account, your administrator may have turned versioning off.

Restore with File History

File History can bring back an earlier version only if it was turned on before the crop, with a backup drive or network location connected (Microsoft).

1. Open File Explorer and go to the folder that contains the photo.
2. Right-click the folder and select Restore previous versions.
3. Pick a version from before the crop. To check it first, expand Open and select Open in File History.
4. Select Restore, or expand Restore and choose Restore to to save it somewhere else.

Restoring over the current file replaces it, and Microsoft warns that this cannot be undone, so Restore to is the safer choice.

Pictures cropped in Office or Photoshop

A picture cropped inside a Word, PowerPoint or Excel file usually still has its hidden part; see how to uncrop a picture in Word, PowerPoint and Excel. For Photoshop, Lightroom and GIMP, see the Photoshop guide.

When the crop cannot be undone

If there is no uncropped capture, no OneDrive version and no File History backup, the cut-off area no longer exists on this PC. Look for the original where it came from: the phone or camera that took it, the cloud service it synced to, or the person who sent it.

When nothing turns up, you can extend the picture for free on the uncrop.si home page, right in your browser. The tool adds new canvas and fills it with generated pixels, so treat the result as a new image rather than a recovered one. To fit a set shape such as 16:9 for a desktop background, use change aspect ratio.