CaptainKK
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Q: Lost/Blurry photos after iCloud restore

I got my iPhone 4 replaced last week due to audio problems. Before I went into the store for my appointment I backed up my entire phone (photos and videos included) to the cloud about an hour before I went in. They told me that the phone I brought in had to be replaced, but that all my saved data/information/apps/etc would be restored on my new phone from the cloud. I was very anxious about losing my pictures and the "genius" assured me there would be no problems with this. Its been a week since my phone was replaced and my data restored, and not only have I lost a bunch of pictures but also the pictures that were restored from the cloud are super blurry. What gives? Within an hour of backing up my phone, replacing it, and restoring my old data, my photo rolls are a mess. Is there anything that can be done? Should I set up another appointment at an apple store to get this sorted out?

iPhone 4, iOS 5.1.1

Posted on Jun 7, 2012 8:11 AM

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CaptainKK

Q: Lost/Blurry photos after iCloud restore

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  • Helpful answers

  • by IronsideNev,

    IronsideNev IronsideNev Jun 14, 2012 5:15 AM in response to CaptainKK
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 14, 2012 5:15 AM in response to CaptainKK

    I have also had this problem, I'm only hoping this is some kind of glitch, and I haven't lost my photos!! This would be very bad news...

  • by Sittinidle ,

    Sittinidle Sittinidle Jun 19, 2012 5:05 AM in response to IronsideNev
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 19, 2012 5:05 AM in response to IronsideNev

    My photo are fine on iCloud but in my camera roll there fuzzy

  • by Qtrmiler347,

    Qtrmiler347 Qtrmiler347 Jul 11, 2012 7:56 AM in response to CaptainKK
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 11, 2012 7:56 AM in response to CaptainKK

    This just happened to me. Not too happy about it. I hope I can find a fix. If I do I will let you know.

  • by IronsideNev,

    IronsideNev IronsideNev Jul 11, 2012 8:06 AM in response to Qtrmiler347
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 11, 2012 8:06 AM in response to Qtrmiler347

    Right I finally got round to sorting this out the other day and for me all was not lost. I backed up my iPhone to my laptop making sure it wasnt going to upload anything to iCloud. I then wiped my phone from the phone settings menu, then when it rebooted it asked me where i wanted to restore my phone from, I chose the cloucd back up but from an earlier date and hey presto my photos were fine, I did the same again on a later backup and still everything was fine I think it just glitched in the middle of the process the first time round. The only thing I lost were a few text messages and a couple of free apps so no biggy really. Try it what have you got to lose....

  • by ezyjules,

    ezyjules ezyjules Sep 9, 2012 4:08 PM in response to IronsideNev
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Sep 9, 2012 4:08 PM in response to IronsideNev

    I fixed this issue after a lot of time and pain (see below)

     

    Seems to have come up on various threads so it seems to be an issue and should be escalated by Apple. They were none the wiser at the genius bar apart from telling me the iCloud backup is probably corrupted and I should call Apple care (as if that is going to do anything)

     

    https://discussions.apple.com/message/18829957#18829957

    https://discussions.apple.com/message/17988389#17988389

    https://discussions.apple.com/message/17887940#17887940

    https://discussions.apple.com/message/18811914#18811914

    https://discussions.apple.com/message/18688593#18688593

    https://discussions.apple.com/message/19426061#19426061

    https://discussions.apple.com/message/19203831#19203831

    https://discussions.apple.com/message/18390030#18390030

     

    I experienced the same problem with the iCloud restore not working properly. I had my iPhone 4 replaced as the home button was defective. When attempting to restore an 9.5GB iCloud backup from the day before it just would not work properly. Firstly, half my apps did not restore, they would begin to download showing the progress indicator then just disappear, leaving my home screen naked. No big deal as apps can be downloaded again.

     

    However, what was a big deal for me was the 1,625 photos on my camera roll, including many of the first year of my kid's life. The camera roll would say downloading x of 1,625 photos, download a few of them, then simply stop downloading any new shots. When I would restart the phone it did not show any downloading message, it believed the restore was complete. I tried about ten different restore scenarios, listed below, all of which gave me varying results (some resulting in all my apps restoring) but all of which would only give me some of my photos back.

     

    What was a comfort was that I once got about 700 of the shots back. So the photos were still in the cloud rather than gone and this indicated that it was the restore process or the iCloud backup on my phone that was the problem. These are the things I tried in sequence as I despairingly tried to get my photos back...

     

    Things I tried that DID NOT work

     

    1) Erase all settings and attempt to restore again from scratch (four times)

    2) Tried the restore from a different WiFi network (once)

    3) Tried the restore from one WiFi network then switched to another once the restore 'hung' (once)

    4) Tried the restore from an Apple store WiFi network (once)

    5) Tried the restore from a previous iCloud backup (twice)

    6) Had Apple replace the iPhone 4 (once)

     

    With all of these I got a varying amount of my photos and apps back before it stopped restoring. I was also making the mistake (I learnt afterwards) of opening and moving between apps during the download to check progress.

     

    Thing I tried that DID work

     

    1) Did not plug the phone into my MacBook, I used the wall charger only to prevent any iTunes sync activity

    2) Erase all settings and data, restore from the iCloud backup and input passwords in all the pop up windows once it reboots.

    2) Open photos app gallery to see photos downloading and show the progress message "downloading xx of x,xxx"

    3) Left it on this photo screen and did not touch the phone at all for the entire restore. I did not close the photo galley/camera roll app once, open any other apps.

     

    Finally this time round it work and all my photos and apps restored in full. I am going to go back to syncing with iTunes as I don't trust iCloud for restores. It seems that iCloud does not handle photo restores that well, especially if the gallery is large. In short: Wall charger only, restore from iCloud, open Photos app, don't touch. Really hope this works for you too if you've had the same issue.