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Description: Visual working memory has a limited capacity. This limitation can be mitigated by the use of focused attention: if attention is drawn to the relevant working-memory content prior to test, performance improves (the so-called retro-cue benefit). This study tests two explanations of the retro-cue benefit: (1) Focused attention protects memory representations from interference by visual input at test, and (2) focusing attention enhances retrieval. Across six experiments using color recognition and color reproduction tasks, we varied the amount of color interference at test, and the delay between a retrieval cue (i.e., the retro-cue) and the memory test. Retro-cue benefits were larger when the memory test introduced interfering visual stimuli, showing that the retro-cue effect is in part due to protection from visual interference. Yet, when visual interference was held constant, retro-cue benefits were still obtained whenever the retro-cue enabled retrieval of an object from visual working memory but delayed response selection. Our results show that accessible information in visual working memory might be lost in the processes of testing memory due to visual interference and incomplete retrieval. This is not an inevitable state of affairs, though: Focused attention can be used to get the most out of visual working memory.