Can I recover lost photos and videos from an old iPhone with iCloud storage upgrade?

So my previous iPhone is broken and I ran out of storage on that iPhone so some of my photos are not backed up. If I was to go on another phone and log into that same iCloud and buy more storage, would I get them photos and videos back?


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iPhone 8 Plus, iOS 16

Posted on Mar 11, 2024 8:19 PM

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Posted on Mar 12, 2024 1:46 AM

Servant of Cats is correct.

I would advise against signing into your iCloud on someone else's Apple device to try and sync your iCloud photos to that device as it can cause uncontrollable cross contamination.

You can sign into icloud.com using another device's browser just to look what photos you have.

However either way, you will need a trusted device already on your apple account to get two factor authentication codes. If your only Apple device is broken and you have no trusted numbers set up you will fail to sign into anywhere with your Apple ID.


I suggest you wait til you have your replacement iPhone on your old SIM, set it up, ensure iCloud photos is turned on then wait to see what sync's to your new phone. Anything else is gone.

6 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Mar 12, 2024 1:46 AM in response to Michaelrender2007

Servant of Cats is correct.

I would advise against signing into your iCloud on someone else's Apple device to try and sync your iCloud photos to that device as it can cause uncontrollable cross contamination.

You can sign into icloud.com using another device's browser just to look what photos you have.

However either way, you will need a trusted device already on your apple account to get two factor authentication codes. If your only Apple device is broken and you have no trusted numbers set up you will fail to sign into anywhere with your Apple ID.


I suggest you wait til you have your replacement iPhone on your old SIM, set it up, ensure iCloud photos is turned on then wait to see what sync's to your new phone. Anything else is gone.

Mar 11, 2024 8:30 PM in response to Michaelrender2007

If you were using iCloud Photos, and syncing of photos from your old phone had been put on hold because you ran out of iCloud storage, I don’t think upgrading your iCloud plan is going to get back the unsynchronized photos.


They would still be only on the broken phone … which, since it is broken, isn’t going to start uploading them just because storage has become availabile.

Mar 12, 2024 6:17 AM in response to LD150

LD150 wrote:

I would advise against signing into your iCloud on someone else's Apple device to try and sync your iCloud photos to that device as it can cause uncontrollable cross contamination.
You can sign into icloud.com using another device's browser just to look what photos you have.
However either way, you will need a trusted device already on your apple account to get two factor authentication codes. If your only Apple device is broken and you have no trusted numbers set up you will fail to sign into anywhere with your Apple ID.


Something that people may not realize is that you can set up a trusted phone number for use with two-factor authentication of your Apple ID. That is, if you have a landline phone number, or if you have a cell phone number for a non-Apple-phone (dumb phone or Android smartphone), you can add that as a way of getting two-factor authentication codes. I think the idea is to make it easier to log in in situations like the one where your Apple device is broken (or stolen and marked as Lost).


Two-factor authentication for Apple ID - Apple Support

Get a verification code and sign in with two-factor authentication - Apple Support

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Can I recover lost photos and videos from an old iPhone with iCloud storage upgrade?

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