Check the scanning service’s raw, uncropped files first if they offer them, and if not, use your editing app to recrop and straighten each affected scan individually against the original print if you still have it.
What you need
- The scanned files from the service
- The original prints, if you still have them, for comparison
- Google Photos, Apple Photos, or Photoshop Elements
- 10 to 30 minutes depending on how many scans are affected
Check what your service offers
Many scanning services offer both a finished, auto-cropped file and a raw, uncropped version — check your delivery folder or account for an originals or uncropped option before doing manual recropping, since the raw scan may already solve the problem without any editing.
How to fix the crop yourself
- Check your scanning service’s website or app for an option to download the uncropped or raw version of each scan, separate from their automatically cropped result.
- If a raw version is available, use that as your starting point instead of the auto-cropped file, and crop it yourself using your editing app’s crop tool.
- If only the badly cropped file is available, compare it against the original print (if you still have it) to see exactly what has been cut off or skewed.
- Use your editing app’s straighten tool first if the scan is at an angle, following the same approach as in Fix a photo scanned at an angle.
- Then use the crop tool to adjust the frame, aiming to match the original print’s proportions as closely as the file allows.
- If the file has already permanently cut off part of the image with no raw version available, there may be no way to recover that lost edge — in that case, note it and consider re-scanning that particular print yourself, or asking the service to redo it.
Check nothing important was cut off
Compare the recropped scan against the original print side by side, if you have it. Check nothing important — like the edge of someone’s head — has ended up cut off in the new crop.
If the original scan wasn’t saved
If the service does not offer raw files and will not provide one on request, it is worth checking their terms or contacting their support — some services will redo a batch on request if the cropping was clearly a fault, not a deliberate choice. If you are scanning future photos yourself instead, most flatbed scanner software has a setting to scan without automatic cropping, which avoids this problem entirely.
Next step
What a professional scanning service does differently from a phone scan is useful background if you are deciding whether to continue using a service or switch to scanning yourself.
Sources and date checked
General guidance drawn from common photo-scanning service documentation and flatbed scanner software help files. Checked 22 September 2026.