I have an iPhone 16. I’ve been using iPhone since they were invented. I keep loosing more and more photos from my photo library. Right now it only goes back to 2017. I’m not deleting my photos. Where are they going? I’ve looked in iCloud and they are not there either.
iPhone 16 Pro Max, iOS 18
Jenjenpost wrote: … Where are they going? I’ve looked in iCloud and they are not there either.
Of course, we can't know what's happened on your phone. You mentioned that you looked at iCloud--does that mean that you are using iCloud Photos? If so, then that "synchronizes" its Photos Library with the phone, so what you see on the phone is what is at iCloud. iCloud Photos doesn't keep pictures in "Recently Deleted" any longer than the phone does.
Have some of your pictures come from "syncing" them from a computer through iTunes or the Finder? Those pictures are assumed to be temporary and, while they are shown in Photos, they aren't really controlled by the Photos app. In that case you would look on the computer that they came from.
Unfortunately, if you don't keep your own backups to an external drive, then there really isn't any place else to look.
Old photos keep disappearing from library
