Local photos deleted when re-open iCloud photo sync

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Local photos deleted when re-open iCloud photo sync

I have an iPad and an iPhone both with iCloud photo sync (hereinafter called iCloud) on at the begining, and it worked well, which means files in the "Photos" app on both devices remained the same.

Then one day I turn off the iCloud on my iPhone, and delete the photos on iCloud to prevent syncing. Note that at this point I've already chosen "Download and Keep Originals" on it. Which means to me that the photos should be kept as local files on the iPhone, and they did.

But when I turn it back on after several months, it began to sync automatically, and before I could notice, those "local photos" are permenently gone (of course form all devices). So doesn't that means that the local files are overwritten by an iCloud sync? How can I do to recover my data at this point?

Posted on Jun 17, 2022 7:47 AM

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Lindsay_B.

Community Specialist

Jun 18, 2022 10:56 AM in response to IL0veGoogle

Hi there!

Thanks for visiting the Apple Support Communities to get information on iCloud Photos.

When you enable the feature, its intention is to sync your photos, and changes to them, across all devices. This includes edits you make to the photos, as well as deleted photos. When you download and save originals to your device, you are saving the original photo file to the device, but iCloud continues to sync (so if you delete the original file from your device later, iCloud will delete it as well, and sync that to the other devices).

While turning iCloud Photos off will stop the sync from occurring, when you turn it back on it resumes syncing. If photos were deleted from iCloud while it was off on a device, then turned back on, the changes (deletion) will then begin to sync.

Deleted photos will be placed into a Recently Deleted folder for up to 30 days. If it has not been 30 days since you initially deleted the photos, you can try to restore them from there: If you're missing photos or videos in the Photos app - Apple Support

If it has been more than 30 days, you won't be able to recover the photos from iCloud. To prevent this from occurring in the future, you can copy or archive your iCloud Photos following Archive or make copies of the information you store in iCloud - Apple Support

More information on iCloud Photos can be found here: Set up and use iCloud Photos - Apple Support

Best.

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Local photos deleted when re-open iCloud photo sync

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