Icloud deleted everything taken before 30 days

Question

Icloud deleted everything taken before 30 days

Okay this is a big story here we go:

I went on Vacation back in October and I took a lot of photos

Usually I can just transfer them to my windows PC just fine, however, this time, they were transferring as unusable HEIC photos and not JPEG. By the time I realized this, I deleted my photos on phone via PC.

I used Icloud to get them, however, I only got half resolution photos.

By bad timing, my internet went kaput for several hours and had to have maintenance come by and fix it before I could request the full resolution from Icloud.

When the internet came back on, all the photos were gone from Icloud except the ones I had taken in the past 30 days, aka after the Vacation.

I have been told from https://support.apple.com/guide/icloud/recover-deleted-files-mmae56ea1ca5/icloud

that it's supposed to delete 30 days after deleting them, not 30 days after they were taken.

Is there a way I can still recover the full resolution versions? Please, I really want to be able to recover the full resolution photos from my vacation in October.

iPhone 8 Plus, iOS 14

Posted on Dec 2, 2020 1:51 AM

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Answer 1

léonie

Level 10

202,393 points

Dec 2, 2020 5:27 AM in response to ShadowDragon777

I have not tested any of the commercial data recovery software on the iPhone, so I cannot recommend any. If you want to use data recovery, stop using the iPhone immediately, before more data will be overwritten before you can recover them.

On my Mac I found DiskDrill very convenient and it recovered a lot images. Perhaps it is available on your PC as well. Did you download the HEIC files to your PC before you deleted them from the iPhone? Then Data recovery may be able to recover them on the PC. https://www.cleverfiles.com/data-recovery-software.html

There is also a version for the iPhone, but it will not be of much use, if your photos have been in iCloud and not the iPhone.

Perhaps you can sweet talk Apple Support into helping you to recover the photos from iCloud - only Apple has access to the backup of iCloud Data, it is not accessible for the users.

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Answer 2

Dec 2, 2020 4:09 AM in response to léonie

Thank you for replying. It was helpful. Looks like I am fortunate to have even been able to have gotten the reduced resolution photos before the internet went out. Is there any software that could possibly recover them before being overwritten?

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Answer 3

léonie

Level 10

202,393 points

Dec 2, 2020 2:41 AM in response to ShadowDragon777

Your recently Deleted album is empty? The photos will be deleted from the Recently Deleted album thirty days after you deleted them, but there are exceptions: if you removed the photos from Recently Deleted they will be immediately permanently deleted. And if you have used all your iCloud Storage and are low on iCloud Storage the photos will not even be saved in Recently Deleted, to help you free your cloud storage quickly. And I am not sure, if your photos have been moved to Recently Deleted at all, if you used the PC to delete them and not Photos on the iPhone.

To recover permanently deleted photos you need a backup you made before you deleted the photos. The iCloud backup of your iPhone will not include the photos, if you have been using iCloud Photos. Did you make. a backup of your iPhone with iTunes on your PC, when you returned from your vacation? Then use this backup to recover the photos. How to back up an iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch be able to Recover Accidentally, Permanently Deleted Photos - Apple Community

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Icloud deleted everything taken before 30 days

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