How to recover Photos from stolen iPhone?

Your only hope is if you synced with iCloud. On your new iPhone open Settings > Tap your Name at the top. Tap iCloud. Make sure the services are turned on for Photos, all the way through Show All.

You MUST be using the same Apple ID on your new iPhone you used on your stolen iPhone. Anything that was synced with iCloud will be downloaded to your new iPhone. But if you didn't sync with iCloud, nor backup since 2021, there will be no way to get back what wasn't backed up. Backing up MUST happen before catastrophe strikes.

AmandaHens52 wrote:

I thought my phone was automatically backing up. New contacts and calendar events synced so I don’t understand why the photos didn’t?

iCloud has separate synchronization settings for several types of data.

When iCloud Photos is turned off, the iPhone can include photos in iCloud backups (manual or automatic). I say can because there is a switch that lets you control whether to include photos in the backups. If it is turned off – e.g., because you decided (as one other poster did) that backups were "taking too much space" – your backups won't include your photos. So you won't be able to get your photos back from them.

When iCloud Photos is turned on, the iPhone will try to save full-size versions of photos and videos to iCloud. If you have enough iCloud storage space, all of your photos and videos (except ones that the phone hasn't gotten the chance to upload yet) will be in iCloud. Any other device using iCloud Photos (for the same Apple ID) will be able to see them, and you can view them using a Web browser by going to https://www.icloud.com/ .

It's hard to recover photos from a stolen iPhone that hasn't been backed up since 2021. Here's what you need to know:

iCloud Photos: If you don't have iCloud Photos turned on, the photos aren't stored on Apple's servers and likely can't be recovered.

Law enforcement: If you report the theft to the police, they may be able to recover the stolen phone. However, they won't be able to access the deleted data. You can try contacting Apple Support or using data recovery software.

Data Recovery Software (limited success): There are data recovery software available for iPhone, such as iMyFone D-Back, Dr. Fone, but these usually require a physical connection to the phone itself. Since your phone was stolen, this is not an option.

Here are some things you can do:

Protect your new iPhone: Enable iCloud photo backup on your new iPhone. This will ensure that your photos are automatically backed up in the future.

Enable Find My iPhone: Activate Find My iPhone to locate your device in the event of a future theft.

While it may not be possible to recover your photos, hopefully, these steps will help keep your data safe.

AmandaHens52 wrote:

Can data recovery apps help with this?

No. Your missing photos were never backed up and that's unfortunate, but there are no tools which you can use to find something which no longer exists.

AmandaHens52 wrote:

Can data recovery apps help with this?

No. If you've never made any backups or done any synchronization via iCloud Photos or some other cloud photo service, there are no pieces of data in your possession for a data recovery app to try to recover.

If you really have no copies of the photos except the ones on the phone itself, the only way you will get the photos back is if

• You get your phone back (chances: extremely slim and none), and
• The thieves did not do anything to trigger the loss of the photos on the phone – such as entering an incorrect passcode so many times as to trigger a security lockout ("have to erase the phone to get back in")

If you didn't have the switch for photos turned on on the phone which was stolen, the photos weren't syncing and if thats your reality, they are gone as there is nowhere to get them back from. Sorry

Now that you have a new phone, you should make sure everything you want to sync with iCloud syncs and you should turn on iPhone backup, so your phone backs up every night, when the phone is plugged in to charge and connected to Wifi.

AmandaHens52 wrote:

Can data recovery apps help with this?

No. Your missing photos were never backed up and that's unfortunate, but there are no tools which you use to find something which no longer exists.

No

Chuabobo wrote:

Data Recovery Software (limited success): There are data recovery software available for iPhone, such as iMyFone D-Back, Dr. Fone, but these usually require a physical connection to the phone itself. Since your phone was stolen, this is not an option.

So why recommend it at all? Could it be you that have some interest in putting the names of questionable software in the forum?