icloud not restoring ALL my photos

There have been quite a number of posts about photos not being restored from iCloud. My take on this, after reading other posts on this issue, is that it is the user's responsibility to sync photos off an iPhone or other device to a computer for storage and processing - that's the recommended way of "saving" photos. Photostream is that easy way of syncing photos to a computer (or other device), but you can do it with USB to computer. On a mac, you use iPhoto to sync photos via USB off a device.

The iCloud backup of photos is only from the camera roll, not other photos, so that might explain why you are getting some but not all photos back.

The only way to restore from iCloud is to perform a reset to factory default on you device, then restore from one backup in iCloud. Any new data you have since the last backup will be lost.

I had a similar problem... restored from a backup and all of my vacation photos were missing. The album stayed, but the contents were deleted, just a blank album was left. It's really annoying, I shouldn't have to backup my photos manually. Guess everything isn't "just there", and it doesnt "just work".

I was finally able to get all my photos after 5 attempts. This is what I did. I'm not entirely sure which of the process made it successful but here are the steps:

Keep in mind that icloud only keeps the last 3 backups. So if you good back up with your complete photos is past the last 3 back up then there no use to complete the steps below. I'm am sorry to say that you have already lost all your photos. Otherwise proceed. I happen to try different ways to restore because I really wanted my photos back. Luckily the steps below worked for me. I hope this helps.

1. Erase all contents and settings (note that this will clean up your phone's storage, so backup your current files, photos, music, etc.)

2. Do a restore from icloud. (when you do this step make sure you have a strong wifi connection and plugged into a power charger)

3. Once the restore starts don't let the phone go to sleep so keep touching your screen every 30 secs.

4. Once the phone restarts and you now have your icons available, go to settings and set the auto lock to never.

5. Let the restore complete before opening anything. Make sure you do not lock or turn off your screen or play around with your apps. You might get a message the restore is not fully successful and incomplete. Select OK but let the phone install all your apps.

6. I know it's tempting but do not open the PHOTO app until all the apps have been installed. (this took about 2 hours). Once everything is completed I have all my photos in the camera roll.

I know how heart breaking it is for some people to lose their photos. I had my new born daughter photos in my iphone. I'm glad I was able to retrieve all the photos.

Good job, JTSC!

A reminder to all who depend on iCloud for photo backup:

iCloud is good, but it is not perfect. It is still your responsibility to make sure that your important data is backed up on a permanent device, such as an external hard disk, or two. Your computer is not a permanent device; your iphone certainly isn't.

iCloud works pretty darn good most of the time. This does not mean there are no glitches. In software and the internet, is anything ever 100%? Anyway, please make sure that your important data is indeed backed up to more than one source, maybe not continuously, but occasionally. I do an iCloud backup but still back up to my Mac every two weeks or so. I also run Time Machine on a regular basis. I'm paranoid about data LOL