Missing 570 photos after iOS update

Hello,


After updating my iPhone to the latest iOS version yesterday, approximately 500 photos and videos disappeared from my iCloud Photo Library.


The photos were available two days ago, and I did not manually delete them. They are not in Recently Deleted and not available in Data Recovery.


This appears to have happened immediately after the system update. I urgently request a full iCloud Photo Library recovery check from your side, including any temporary or server-side backups prior to synchronization.


Please escalate this case if necessary, as the missing data is very important to me.

iPhone XS Max, iOS 18

Posted on Feb 28, 2026 11:40 PM

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Mar 1, 2026 8:15 AM in response to latifa30

We are not Apple; folks who read these posts are just users like you. We certainly cannot run a "full iCloud Photo Library recovery check," and Apple engineers don’t read the stuff, here. Frankly, Apple expects you to rely on your backups that you keep on an external drive. And for our security they can't go rummaging around in users' personal files.


Were these pictures taken on your phone, or were they transferred to the phone? Some pictures transferred from a computer can be viewed in Photos but they can't be modified by Photos, so there may be some operations that produce a warning about those being at risk. So if you’re missing pictures that were transferred from a computer, then you should look on the computer for the originals.


You can see this:

         https://support.apple.com/en-us/118558

Basically the above says to look in Recently Deleted and in Hidden. Be sure to check your Library thoroughly-- the pictures may not be where you expect, as dates may have changed. You can use the search field with the date or location. And remember, you can sort the Library by date captured or by date added. Also, your Library view now has filters, and you may not have your filter set to "All Items.”


If you don't use iCloud Photos, but you have Settings>Apple ID>iCloud Backup turned on, then you may be able to recover data. You should look here:

Restore your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch from a backup - Apple Support 

“Restore” is what you do when you buy a new phone, so this safety, if you have it set, requires you to erase everything on your phone and replace it with the backup.


Unfortunately, if you don't keep your own backups to an external drive, then there really isn't any place else to look. For the future, you can backup pictures to a computer or just save them to an external drive. You can see this:

Transfer photos and videos from your iPhone or iPad to your Mac or PC

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Missing 570 photos after iOS update

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