Photos before 2026 missing from iPhone and iCloud

Orangejuicy wrote: … I have my icloud synced with my PC aswell and a while ago i deleted all of the pictures in th icloud folder in the file explorer, …From what i‘ve read i basically deleted them from icloud in general not just the PC.

On a Mac or an iPhone we get a message like this:

If the PC doesn't warn you-- well, wow!

As muguy and the warning say, it can't be undone. For pictures that are important we try to keep a backup copy on an external drive. On an iPhone 16, you can just plug in a drive to the USBc port, select pictures, and choose "Share>Save to Files" to make safe copies of your pictures.

If photos were included in your device backup (from September 2025), you can factory reset your device and restore it using the backup (you'll lose anything created on the device since September.

If you use icloud photos, the images are not included in your device backup as they sync to iCloud. Deleted photos can be recovered from the Recently Deleted album in photos. If the folder does not exist, there are no recoverable images.

You may need to recover from your backups that you keep elsewhere of your most important data.

I Haven't called yet-have appointment try. Apple Support , ask for iCloud advisor at 800-692-7753

marietta163 wrote: I Haven't called yet-have appointment try. Apple Support , ask for iCloud advisor at 800-692-7753

Before you get your hopes up-- Apple will likely tell you that you should keep backup copies of your work, and that they can't really help because, for reasons of Privacy and Security, Apple doesn't have access to your personal data.

Thanks got it. Think I just may switch to Android. This is BS

By all means choose the phone that's best for you--but, even if you pick a type that isn't so secure, don't ignore backups!