Transfer photos between iPhone camera rolls

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Transfer photos between iPhone camera rolls

I got a new iPhone and I went through the setup process using the iCloud backup of my old iPhone. But I screwed up and I didn't realize that on the old phone the backup was set to not include the photo library. I also don't use iCloud Photos. So as a result none of the photos from the old phone were transferred to the new phone. And I didn't realize this until I'd already taken a bunch of photos on the new iPhone.

My goal is to get all the photos old and new into the camera roll on the new phone. My initial thought was that I could do a new backup of the old phone that includes the photo library and then set up the new phone again from backup. But this would actually lose the photos that have been taken on the new phone.

My only other idea is to turn on iCloud Photos on the old phone, wait for it to upload everything, and then turn it on on the new phone. But I'm not experienced with iCloud Photos and I'm nervous that this won't be the same as if I'd included them in the backup in the first place.

How can I solve this?

iPhone 14

Posted on Oct 19, 2022 12:48 PM

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Answer 1

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muguy

Level 10

81,307 points

Oct 19, 2022 1:17 PM in response to jam27

I'd enabled iCloud Photos upload the pictures and then download on the new phone (Settings > Photos). Be sure that you make a backup of your devices first (just a good practice but there shouldn't be issues). You may need to increase your iCloud storage space, even if just for one month. Upgrade to iCloud+ - Apple Support

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Answer 2

jam27 Author

Level 1

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Oct 19, 2022 1:58 PM in response to muguy

Thanks, I guess I'll try this approach. Do you know if the photos that come from iCloud appear in the Recents album along with the photos that were taken on the phone? When you restore from a backup everything that was in Recents on the old phone will appear in the Recents on the new phone. Also when using iCloud Photos do you have control of which photos stay on the device and which are offloaded?

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Answer 3

muguy

Level 10

81,307 points

Oct 19, 2022 2:30 PM in response to jam27

jam27 wrote:

Thanks, I guess I'll try this approach. Do you know if the photos that come from iCloud appear in the Recents album along with the photos that were taken on the phone?

Yes, every photo and video that you take appears in the recents album.

When you restore from a backup everything that was in Recents on the old phone will appear in the Recents on the new phone.

Yes, all of your albums appear on both devices.

Also when using iCloud Photos do you have control of which photos stay on the device and which are offloaded?

Nothing is offloaded. All pictures and videos remain on all iCloud-connected devices. You have the option to enable optimization (Settings > Photos) to save space on your device. In that case, full-resolution images are kept in iCloud and lower-resolution images stored on your device.

As with everything, maintaining good backups of your most important data is a good practice. Typically 3 copies of your data made 2 different ways with 1 copy kept offsite is an optimal practice.

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Answer 4

jam27 Author

Level 1

5 points

Oct 19, 2022 7:17 PM in response to muguy

Terrific, thanks. So if you don't turn on the optimization setting then it will keep all full-size images on the device?

There's a piece of the puzzle I left out, which is that I use Google Photos (which is why I don't use iCloud Photos). The Google Photos app basically does what iCloud does and syncs everything into Google. My concern was that turning on iCloud Photos might get in the way of Google Photos — specifically if iCloud was removing the full-size photos from the device then it might do so before Google was able to sync them to Google cloud. It sounds like that won't be an issue if I turn off the optimization option.

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Answer 5

muguy

Level 10

81,307 points

Oct 20, 2022 11:31 AM in response to jam27

Correct. Without optimization, original files are saved on the device

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Transfer photos between iPhone camera rolls

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