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Photos has suddenly disappeared on my iPhone 12 Pro. How do I get them back?

Yesterday (6 April 2024) I took photos. Today they are gone! Some of these photos I shared so I know I made them / had them on my device. I did not manually delete them.

Photos I took the day before and the day after are there.

What could be the cause?


Details:

Device; iPhone 12 Pro, 31GB storage available.

iOS; 17.4.1

Device settings; Photos is using iCloud,

Photos app; The pictures are not in Recently Deleted folder, Search on location; no pictures shown there.

Photos app settings; iCloud Photos (yes), Optimise iPhone storage (yes).

iCloud+; 2TB, 1,5 TB available. Pictures are not there when I log in.



[Re-Titled by Moderator]

iPhone 12 Pro

Posted on Apr 7, 2024 3:01 AM

Reply
11 replies

Apr 30, 2024 9:52 PM in response to Stay safe

I just had a similar issue

Photos and video from one whole day have gone- they are not in recently deleted, hidden or anywhere else.


They were retained for about 3 days until I noticed.


Strangely if I search for subject matter that I know was in the pictures, or the location they were taken the number of photos it states it as found is higher than those the phone shows.

Phone has plenty of memory left, did not delete them.


2 other things that happened between taking them and now The phone began slow to turn on/wake up a little, then in the morning on charge the screen would not turn on, so I had to press the vol buttons multiple times to wake it up and the restarted the phone


iPhone 14 pro

ios 17.4.1

1TB/ 697 GB available



May 17, 2024 1:44 PM in response to Stay safe

Issue Solved with the help of Apple Support.


  • Upgraded to the new 17.5
  • Restarted phone- photos all appeared


Videos returned to library but had white thumbnails, would not play and were ‘all white’- no content.


While in photos

  • tap select
  • select the videos you want to restore
  • share
  • save to file


photos will ‘download to phone’

  • then cancel


all selected videos are restored into library



May 1, 2024 2:04 AM in response to Stay safe

Is your iPhone also using the Shared iCloud Photos Library, not just your personal iCloud Photos Library?

Then you may want to check the Settings > Apple ID > iCloud > Photos >Shared Library.

If you have "Share from Camera" enabled you photos will be removed from your personal library and moved to the Shared library right from the camera and you will only see them, if you are setting the toggle switch to "Both Libraries" or to the "Shared Library". If you have the automatic sharing enabled, I would turn it off. It might be annoying for the people you are sharing the photos with, if they are receiving each and every photo you are taking, before you can weed ou the bad shoats.


May 1, 2024 3:59 AM in response to léonie

Thanks for the guess, however this is not the case in my situation.


The strange thing is that if I search for the photos with a key content or location the amount of images and videos it finds (eg. 171) makes sense- but when you tap on see all- only a fraction of the 171 show up - and none from the location or date that have gone ‘missing’

May 1, 2024 12:18 PM in response to léonie

Oh, I see, sharing can in multiple ways. In this case, WhatsApp. I didn’t make the pictures IN WhatsApp, to be clear. I made the pictures with the camera and shared them via WhatsApp. I know this for sure because some where ‘laughing’ at me about my labour intensive way of working (making pictures and then sharing them via WhatsApp instead of making pictures IN WhatsApp).

May 1, 2024 12:38 PM in response to Stay safe

So, it happened ‘as we speak’.

I made a screenshot of an existing picture in a album in my Photos app. I saved it to my photos app (the question that you get after ‘done’).

I checked if it was in my recents pictures; yes.

I restarted my iPhone (long story why I did that, I think not relevant).

After powering up, it was gone. Also not in ‘Screenshots’. Also not in ‘recently deleted’.

My guesstimate is that Apple screwed up iCloud synchronisation.

Photos has suddenly disappeared on my iPhone 12 Pro. How do I get them back?

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