Q: How do I recover photos?
A few days ago my phone screen went black. Tried charging it, etc. Later that day, it started ringing when I received a call, but still the screen was black. I erased my iphone and then tried to restore my iPhone. Every time I clicked on the backup from either my iPhone or iPad, it would say "Cannot restore backup." So I had to restart it under new phone. Is it still possible to recover my photos, etc? I had over 5,000 precious moments on my phone.
Sincerely,
Heartbroken
iPhone 5, iOS 9.3
Posted on Mar 28, 2016 10:28 AM
By any chance, did you have them backed up to BOTH iCloud & iTunes? If so, are both backups corrupted? If the iTunes backup is corrupt, do you have a (maybe an old) backup of you computer that you can restore the iTunes backup from? I know its of little comfort now, but in the future you should periodically copy the photos to your computer by any this:
Import photos and videos from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to your computer - Apple Support
or one of theses three other methods:
via USB cable: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201302
via Photo Stream (photos only, not videos): My Photo Stream FAQ - Apple Support
via 3rd party apps such as http://www.photosync-app.com/
BTW, did you have them stored in the cloud with Photo Stream? If so, they should still be there for 30 days:
About iCloud Photo Library and My Photo Stream - Apple Support
Posted on Mar 28, 2016 10:54 AM