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Restoration Guide

How to restore old photos on your iPhone

That shoebox of faded prints doesn't need a professional restorer. With a phone camera and one tap of AI, a damaged, blurry, or black-and-white photo becomes a clean, vivid digital picture. Here's the whole process.

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Four steps

From faded print to vivid memory

The full workflow, start to finish — it takes minutes for your first photo.

  1. 1

    Digitize the print

    Lay the photo flat in bright, even light — near a window works well — and photograph it straight-on with your iPhone camera. Avoid glare, shadows, and angles; fill the frame with the print.

  2. 2

    Open FxAI's Restore tool

    Pick the captured image in the Restore tab. FxAI scales it to Full HD so the AI has clean detail to work from — no cropping or preparation needed on your side.

  3. 3

    Tap Restore

    One tap repairs scratches and creases, sharpens blur, recovers faded detail, and colorizes black-and-white pictures. The whole pass takes seconds, not hours of manual retouching.

  4. 4

    Compare and save

    Drag the before/after slider to see exactly what changed, then save the restored photo to your library or share it with the family group chat.

Best results

Tips that make a big difference

The AI does the restoration — your only job is giving it a good starting image. These habits produce noticeably better results.

How Photo Restore works
  • Photograph prints instead of screenshotting them — resolution matters
  • Clean dust off the print (and your lens) before capturing
  • Capture the original, not a photo of a photo in a frame with glass
  • Restore first, then crop — the AI uses surrounding context
  • For badly damaged prints, run Restore, save, and run again on the result
The magic next step

Restored it? Now watch it move.

A restored portrait is wonderful — a restored portrait that smiles is unforgettable. PicAlive, FxAI's sibling app, animates old photos with gentle, realistic motion. Restore in FxAI, animate in PicAlive.

FAQ

Photo restoration questions

Can FxAI restore very damaged photos?
Yes — Restore repairs scratches, creases, water spots, and fading, sharpens blur, and rebuilds lost detail. Severely damaged areas are reconstructed plausibly by the AI, and you can always compare against the original with the slider.
Does FxAI colorize black-and-white photos?
Yes. The Restore tool colorizes black-and-white and sepia pictures automatically as part of the same one-tap pass, with natural skin tones and period-appropriate colors.
Will restoring change how people look?
Restore aims to recover the photo, not reinvent it — faces stay recognizably themselves, just clearer. The before/after slider makes it easy to confirm the result stays faithful.
Do I need a scanner to restore old photos?
No. A careful iPhone photo of the print is enough. A flatbed scan gives the AI slightly more detail if you have one, but most people restore straight from a camera capture.
Can I make the restored photo move?
Yes — pair FxAI with its sibling app PicAlive, which animates old photos with natural motion. Restore the image in FxAI first, then bring it to life in PicAlive.

Rescue your first photo today

Download FxAI free, add an old picture, and watch a lost moment come back.

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