Lost my cell in the snow. Got my replacement, been trying to sync and regain all my photos/media files but nothing is syncing and importing whatsoever. Had years worth of pics and now I have none. How come I can’t get my photos and ONLY my photos to sync from the cloud?? I’m going nuts trying to figure this out.
iPhone 15 Pro, iOS 18
Rolote wrote:
I’ll be honest I was under the impression photos automatically saved in the iCloud.
Apple makes it very easy to enable iCloud Photos, and to enable automatic backups to iCloud. But you must set up these features on the device. You cannot remotely enable them after the device is lost.
I don’t have the other cell like I said it’s lost. So I can’t turn on the old one even if I wanted to.
is there any way without using old phone to sync photos to new one?
If you were using iCloud Photos on the lost phone, any photos that made it to iCloud will be in the iCloud Photos area, rather than in iCloud backups. If the new phone is logged into the same Apple Account, turning on iCloud Photos on it would cause the new phone to grab copies of the photos and videos in iCloud. (Whether they were full-size copies or reduced-size ones might depend on how you had "Optimize iPhone Storage" set.)
If the photos and videos are in iCloud Photos, you could see them now by logging into https://www.icloud.com/ . What do you see when you log in there?
If you were not using iCloud Photos, but you were making iCloud backups, and you were including photos in the backups, then they might be in an iCloud backup. You would need to restore the backup to a phone, wiping the contents of that phone in the process, to see what was in the backup.
based on what your suggesting/asking does that mean all my vids and photos were saved on my lost cell storage?
We don't know if you were using iCloud Photos, or if you were making iCloud backups that included photos and videos. That's why we have been running through the possibilities – to see if you might have had copies of any photos and videos in any place other than the local storage of the lost phone.
Rolote wrote:
I’ll be honest I was under the impression photos automatically saved in the iCloud.
Apple makes it very easy to enable iCloud Photos, and to enable automatic backups to iCloud. But you must set up these features on the device. You cannot remotely enable them after the device is lost.
I don’t have the other cell like I said it’s lost. So I can’t turn on the old one even if I wanted to.
is there any way without using old phone to sync photos to new one?
If you were using iCloud Photos on the lost phone, any photos that made it to iCloud will be in the iCloud Photos area, rather than in iCloud backups. If the new phone is logged into the same Apple Account, turning on iCloud Photos on it would cause the new phone to grab copies of the photos and videos in iCloud. (Whether they were full-size copies or reduced-size ones might depend on how you had "Optimize iPhone Storage" set.)
If the photos and videos are in iCloud Photos, you could see them now by logging into https://www.icloud.com/ . What do you see when you log in there?
If you were not using iCloud Photos, but you were making iCloud backups, and you were including photos in the backups, then they might be in an iCloud backup. You would need to restore the backup to a phone, wiping the contents of that phone in the process, to see what was in the backup.
based on what your suggesting/asking does that mean all my vids and photos were saved on my lost cell storage?
We don't know if you were using iCloud Photos, or if you were making iCloud backups that included photos and videos. That's why we have been running through the possibilities – to see if you might have had copies of any photos and videos in any place other than the local storage of the lost phone.
"Lost iPhone now I can’t sync my photos onto new iPhone: Lost my cell in the snow. Got my replacement, been trying to sync and regain all my photos/media files but nothing is syncing and importing whatsoever. Had years worth of pics and now I have none. How come I can’t get my photos and ONLY my photos to sync from the cloud?? I’m going nuts trying to figure this out."
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Are you using a new device for this? If so, enable Photos in iCloud Settings...
Troubleshooting Lost Photos and Videos:
Loss of data is something you would have agreed to upon opening an Apple Account. So, if the following does not work, then they are gone. That's just the way it is :(
Troubleshooting Lost Photos:
Try iCloud:
A. Sync through iCloud:
Was Photos enabled in iCloud Settings on this iPhone you lost? If so, enable Photos in iCloud on your other Apple devices, and see if the data shows up. If your iPhone has items synced with iCloud on them, then they should pop right up.
Enabling iCloud Photos on an iPhone:
B. Check iCloud, Directly:
You can check iCloud, using a Web browser on another device, and see if you can access them that way. For instance, go here for Photos: https://www.icloud.com/photos
Other Things to Try:
A. Start here: If you're Missing Photos or Videos in the Photos app - Apple Support
B. Check iCloud, Directly:
Go here, and see if they reside in iCloud: https://www.icloud.com/photos
C. Where Else to Check:
Are you sure you stored them in iCloud in the first place?
Did you turn on photo syncing both on the old device and the new one??
Set up and use iCloud Photos - Apple Support
Were you syncing photos to iCloud (NOT backing up to iCloud, which is different), or were you syncing them to your computer?
I’ll be honest I was under the impression photos automatically saved in the iCloud.
I don’t have the other cell like I said it’s lost. So I can’t turn on the old one even if I wanted to.
is there any way without using old phone to sync photos to new one?
based on what your suggesting/asking does that mean all my vids and photos were saved on my lost cell storage?
im so annoyed and disappointed all at once ….so many family memories lost :/
Lost iPhone now I can’t sync my photos onto new iPhone
