I've recently bought a new Iphone 16 (IOS-version 26.5.2), and only some of my photos have been erased - the pictures that were erased, are from March - July - everything else is there. Although I bought extra iCloud Data for all pictures and made a backup of the iPhone as well.
Does anyone know if I can restore the missing pictures, and if so, how?
iPhone 16, iOS 26
Pictures are included in the iCloud Backup only if you don't use iCloud Photos. iCloud doesn't keep extra doubled copies.
Were these pictures taken on your phone, or were they transferred to the phone? Some pictures that were 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.
Pretty much, if you don't keep your own backups to an external drive, then there really isn't any place else to look. You can try contacting Apple Support
but they will first ask about backups. The are generally helpful, but there may be nothing that they can do.
To back up your pictures you can just plug in an external drive, select the pictures, and use Share>Save to Files. Alternatively, you can backup to a computer:
Transfer photos and videos from your iPhone or iPad to your Mac or PC
If you haven't done one of those backups, then your remaining pictures continue to be in peril.
edvard80 wrote: …Before resetting my old iPhone, I also made a backup, so all the photos, contacts, etc. didn't get deleted.
As I had said, an "iPhone Backup" does not include pictures. Which things get included depend on your settings.
My computer (Macbook) is also synchronized to my iPhone,
In case there is a misunderstanding, Macs don't synchronize with iPhones. Macs and iPhones can synchronize certain data with iCloud. iCloud Photos is completely separate from iCloud Drive, etc. Macs can transfer pictures to Photos, but in some cases what's transferred is lower resolution copies.
Unfortunately, it looks like there is no place else to look. I'm sorry that it's a bit late for this now, but it's important for us to keep backups of our precious data. iCloud is only a very limited sort of backup-- we need to backup to a computer and to an external drive.
You can see this:
Understanding iCloud Photos - Apple Community
Thank you for your response!
The now missing photos, were taken on my old iPhone. Before resetting my old iPhone, I also made a backup, so all the photos, contacts, etc. didn't get deleted. My computer (Macbook) is also synchronized to my iPhone, so the pictures taken on my phone are transferred to my computer directly via iCloud. But none of them are there, except from a few photos taken In the same time frame as the ones missing...weird enough.
How to restore some photos missing from iPhone 16?
