Recover an old inactive backup from iCloud

Question

Level 1

13 points

Recover an old inactive backup from iCloud

Hi everyone, I am trying to solve a problem with my mother-in-law's phone (iPhone SE 3rd gen, iOS 16.1.2).

She had another iPhone SE (2nd gen) that broke and she had to buy a new one. I helped her manage the setup of the new phone, and since the old one no longer worked properly, I set it up as a new iPhone instead of restoring it from the backup of the old one. By doing so, however, she loses the photos taken with the old phone.

From the iPhone settings I can see the old backup (see screenshot attached): what I need to do is download the backup to the Mac and extract the photos so I can transfer them to the new phone and free up iCloud space.

How can I do this?

Thank you in advance.

Alessandro

iPhone SE (Gen 3)

Posted on Dec 11, 2022 10:00 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Best reply

Michael Black

Level 10

80,274 points

Dec 11, 2022 4:24 PM in response to Tounnaz

Make a current backup of the device as it is now. Then erase it and restore the old backup. Transfer the photos from that backup to a computer (see -> Transfer photos and videos from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to your Mac or PC - Apple Support).

Now erase the device again and restore from the recent backup you just made previously. Then connect the iPhone to the computer with the saved photos and sync them back onto the device. With iTunes in Windows or Finder in MacOS you can sync selected material, like photos, from the laptop to the iPhone without deleting what is already there (see -> Sync your iPhone, iPad, or iPod using your computer - Apple Support).

Reply

Answer 2

Dec 11, 2022 12:19 PM in response to Tounnaz

You cannot download an iCloud backup to a Mac or any other computer and extract specific data from it. iCloud backups are encrypted and can only be decrypted by restoring them to an iPadOS or iOS device. A MacOS device cannot decrypt an iOS or iPadOS iCloud backup.

So the only way to see those photos will be to restore that backup to an iPhone, then save the photos to a Mac or MS Windows computer so you can sync them back to the device with iTunes or finder.

Reply

Answer 3

Tounnaz Author

Level 1

13 points

Dec 11, 2022 4:23 PM in response to muguy

Ok, muguy, thank you then.

At this point I think that the best solution for me is also the most time consuming:

I'll backup the new phone on my Mac
then I'll go through the factory reset to restore the old backup
then I'll save those photos, and finally
I will go through the factory reset again, restoring the new backup + adding the photos manually.

Thanks

Reply

Answer 4

Tounnaz Author

Level 1

13 points

Dec 11, 2022 2:37 PM in response to Tounnaz

Thanks everyone for your replies, but this is not the right solution for me because the old backup from which I only want to recover the photos dates back to July: I would lose the last 5 months of data.

That's why I was hoping for some third-party software to help me with this. I did some googling, so far without success.

Reply