Keeping the stability of photocatalyst is vital important for its practical application, especially to the inorganic silver-salt system. In this paper, the deactivated Ag3PO4 photocatalyst was successfully regenerated through controlling the amount of H2O2 oxidant. In the oxidation process, the surface metallic Ag-0 on Ag3PO4 decreased gradually meanwhile the visible light phototalytic activity of Ag3PO4 was renewed even exceeded that of the fresh Ag3PO4 for the removal of methyl orange. Appropriate H2O2 amount provided suitable oxidation degree for the surface metallic Ag-0 and endowed the regenerated Ag3PO4 excellent photocatalytic performance. We offered an efficient partial oxidation way to recover the activity of inorganic silver-salt semiconductor photocatalysts. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.