I lost all my photos from my previous iPhone. I had iCloud backup running but when I cleaned the old phone to turn it in the photos disappeared on my new iPhone. Anyway to get my photos back?

Hi there shark2410,

Welcome to Apple Support Communities. We understand you're hoping to recover Photos to your new iPhone. You mention you had an iCloud backup on your old iPhone before turning it in. To have the backup include your Photos, it will depend on if you had iCloud Photo Library enabled or not.

What does iCloud back up?

Our article linked specifics what iCloud will back up. If you had iCloud Photo Library enabled, your Photos are then synced through iCloud and not included in the backup. You can check your iCloud account at the iCloud website, then click on Photos.

iCloud

Or, on your new iPhone, walk through the following steps:

1. Go to Settings > [your name]
2. Tap iCloud
3. Tap Photos (you may need to tap Show All first)
4. See if iCloud Photos is already enabled
5. If it isn't, try enabling it to see if photos will sync to this device

If not, or you don't see any photos in your account at the iCloud website, they weren't synced through iCloud Photo Library. They should have been restored from that iCloud backup. You would have to have a backup, iCloud or computer, to restore your photos if the old iPhone has already been erased.

Reply back with any questions or concerns.

Take care.

If you deleted the photos and then cleared them from the Recently Deleted album, they are irrecoverable.