You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

How do I get my photos back if they disappear

How do I get my photos back if they disappear because my phone didn’t get backed up

iPhone X, iOS 16

Posted on May 7, 2023 9:03 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on May 7, 2023 9:05 AM

You don’t if you didn’t back them up, sync them to iCloud or use some other method to preserve them.


There are many ways of preserving photos and videos. Did you do any of these?


  • emailed, texted or messaged the photos to friends or family
  • iCloud photo sync
  • Manual iCloud backup
  • Automatic nightly iCloud backup
  • iTunes backup
  • Transfer your photos to your computer via USB cable
  • Apple Photo Stream
  • Sync to Google Photos
  • Sync to some other photo archiving service such as Shutterfly
  • Sync to Dropbox
  • Sync to box.com
  • Sync to Microsoft OneDrive
  • Sync to Amazon Photos
  • back up to Livedrive
  • Backup to any other backup or archiving service
  • Transfer them to a Flash drive through the lightning port on your iPhone, using a product such as SanDisk 64 GB iXpand Flash Drive Go - Apple


A final option is if you synced your photos to iCloud, you have a Mac, and you use Time Machine to back up your Mac automatically, you can open Time Machine and restore the photo library to an earlier date. To do this on your Mac open Finder, then click on Pictures in the sidebar and launch Time Machine. Go to a time before the photos were deleted and restore

Photos Library.photoslibrary. (If you had ever changed the name of the photo library restore that file instead).


If the answer is no to all of the above your photos are gone forever.

3 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

May 7, 2023 9:05 AM in response to goldie257

You don’t if you didn’t back them up, sync them to iCloud or use some other method to preserve them.


There are many ways of preserving photos and videos. Did you do any of these?


  • emailed, texted or messaged the photos to friends or family
  • iCloud photo sync
  • Manual iCloud backup
  • Automatic nightly iCloud backup
  • iTunes backup
  • Transfer your photos to your computer via USB cable
  • Apple Photo Stream
  • Sync to Google Photos
  • Sync to some other photo archiving service such as Shutterfly
  • Sync to Dropbox
  • Sync to box.com
  • Sync to Microsoft OneDrive
  • Sync to Amazon Photos
  • back up to Livedrive
  • Backup to any other backup or archiving service
  • Transfer them to a Flash drive through the lightning port on your iPhone, using a product such as SanDisk 64 GB iXpand Flash Drive Go - Apple


A final option is if you synced your photos to iCloud, you have a Mac, and you use Time Machine to back up your Mac automatically, you can open Time Machine and restore the photo library to an earlier date. To do this on your Mac open Finder, then click on Pictures in the sidebar and launch Time Machine. Go to a time before the photos were deleted and restore

Photos Library.photoslibrary. (If you had ever changed the name of the photo library restore that file instead).


If the answer is no to all of the above your photos are gone forever.

May 7, 2023 9:06 AM in response to goldie257

If it is not in the Recently Deleted Album then either you have deleted them 30 days earlier or have never deleted any.


Please check the following

  1. If you sign out of Apple ID sign backing with another Apple ID after you had turned on Messages in iCloudiCloud Photos, your content is safely stored in iCloud and is available on all devices that use the same Apple ID.
  2. If you have restored your iPhone with a backup that does not contain the Photos that you are looking for then please look for the correct backup on your PC/Mac --> Locate backups of your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch - Apple ...
  3. Do you have a correct backup (iTunes) --> Restore your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch from a backup ...
  4. If you have restored from iCloud backup, then note the following
    1. iCloud backup doesn’t include information that is synced and stored in iCloud, like Contacts, Calendars, Bookmarks, Mail, Notes, Voice Memosshared photosiCloud Photos*, Health data, call history, and files you store in iCloud Drive.
    2. *-If you had turned on iCloud Photos, your content is automatically stored in iCloud and is not backed up.
  5. Probably you may have un-synced photos with Mac / PC, sync them again
    1. For PC: --> Sync photos in iTunes on PC with devices - Apple Support
    2. For Mac --> Sync photos between your Mac and iPhone or iPad - Apple ...
  6. Have you ever imported your photos to Mac/PC and used "Delete After Import" --? Transfer photos and videos from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod ...
  7. If not found anywhere, have you ever uploaded them to any Cloud Drives (iCloud Drive, Google Drive, OneDrive, DropBox, Flickr, box, AmazonDrive, Adobe Creative Cloud etc)


How do I get my photos back if they disappear

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.