How to get photos from iCloud

I posted this before, what worked for me and since then apparently for quite a few others...

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I fixed this issue after a lot of time and pain (see below)

Seems to have come up on various threads so it seems to be an issue and should be escalated by Apple. They were none the wiser at the genius bar apart from telling me the iCloud backup is probably corrupted and I should call Apple care (as if that is going to do anything)

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4081689

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3835232?answerId=17988389022#17988389022

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3813084?answerId=17887940022#17887940022

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4076441?answerId=18811914022#18811914022

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4009825?answerId=18688593022#18688593022

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3925963?answerId=19426061022#19426061022

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4188985

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3952443?answerId=18390030022#18390030022

I experienced the same problem with the iCloud restore not working properly. I had my iPhone 4 replaced as the home button was defective. When attempting to restore an 9.5GB iCloud backup from the day before it just would not work properly. Firstly, half my apps did not restore, they would begin to download showing the progress indicator then just disappear, leaving my home screen naked. No big deal as apps can be downloaded again.

However, what was a big deal for me was the 1,625 photos on my camera roll, including many of the first year of my kid's life. The camera roll would say downloading x of 1,625 photos, download a few of them, then simply stop downloading any new shots. When I would restart the phone it did not show any downloading message, it believed the restore was complete. I tried about ten different restore scenarios, listed below, all of which gave me varying results (some resulting in all my apps restoring) but all of which would only give me some of my photos back.

What was a comfort was that I once got about 700 of the shots back. So the photos were still in the cloud rather than gone and this indicated that it was the restore process or the iCloud backup on my phone that was the problem. These are the things I tried in sequence as I despairingly tried to get my photos back...

Things I tried that DID NOT work

1) Erase all settings and attempt to restore again from scratch (four times)

2) Tried the restore from a different WiFi network (once)

3) Tried the restore from one WiFi network then switched to another once the restore 'hung' (once)

4) Tried the restore from an Apple store WiFi network (once)

5) Tried the restore from a previous iCloud backup (twice)

6) Had Apple replace the iPhone 4 (once)

With all of these I got a varying amount of my photos and apps back before it stopped restoring. I was also making the mistake (I learnt afterwards) of opening and moving between apps during the download to check progress.

Thing I tried that DID work

1) Did not plug the phone into my MacBook, I used the wall charger only to prevent any iTunes sync activity

2) Erase all settings and data, restore from the iCloud backup and input passwords in all the pop up windows once it reboots.

2) Open photos app gallery to see photos downloading and show the progress message "downloading xx of x,xxx"

3) Left it on this photo screen and did not touch the phone at all for the entire restore. I did not close the photo galley/camera roll app once, open any other apps.

Finally this time round it work and all my photos and apps restored in full. I am going to go back to syncing with iTunes as I don't trust iCloud for restores. It seems that iCloud does not handle photo restores that well, especially if the gallery is large. In short: Wall charger only, restore from iCloud, open Photos app, don't touch. Really hope this works for you too if you've had the same issue.

THANK YOU! so much for posting this! I cannot thank you enough. My heart was almost broken until I found this post, I felt a little bit of hope! and it worked for me as well. My pictures are now downloading ( : I was freaking out when I didn't see my pictures after I restored my phone. Good luck to everyone else!

Thank you RDTruncellito

It did help though its been more than 5 hours and only 20 out of my 222 pics have appeared and the most of the apps didnt appear at all

Now i have to leave from my office and will get disconnected from the wi-fi .So will i have to start afresh or it will automatically start from where i leave it & disconnect from wi-fi 😕

Thanks !!

Ok, so here's one for everyone....

I did as ezyjules said... and did a back up with phone plugged into wall charger...

it is saying on my photostream "downloading 353 of 650" but there are only 136 pictures showing in the photo stream... what gives?

The download is still progressing, but as it DL more and more photos, only the same 136 actually show....

Ok, so here's one for everyone....

I did as ezyjules said... and did a back up with phone plugged into wall charger...

it is saying on my photostream "downloading 353 of 650" but there are only 136 pictures showing in the photo stream... what gives?

The download is still progressing, but as it DL more and more photos, only the same 136 actually show....

Thank you so much for posting this, your method working beautifully!! You saved me from having a crisis!!

Hey

I read all your smart way of getting the photos from icloud and i tried it many times the first time got 371 photos out of 650 the second time i got 250 and third time i got 56 and now i'm afraid to try it again coz i think that this time im gonna loose them all any idea about whats happening or what can i do!!

I only restored my backup from iCloud and then I spotted the most annoying glitch by the photos not being able to be retrived from iCloud and it was all gray. I went to camera roll, and everything was gray. I decided it to load all night, and woke up to check its status. It was still gray, so then I restarted my celluar device and went to Photos again and I had the same problem again. So I hit one of the grey pictures, and let it hold there for a few minutes and it automatically started to stream my photos back so I continued doing the same thing and it came back. Hope it helps some of you.

Thanks, this is working for me too!! Panic over 🙂

I tried this and did everything that you said, but when I went to my camera album it said that there was a error message and said something in the effect that it couldn't retrieve the files and all these little gray boxes keep poping up where my pcitures should be. Does anyone know how to fix this problem?

This worked.

I didn't realise iCloud was so badly implemented. I am never trusting it again. Backing up everything using Dropbox from now on.

Thank you!

This is really so frustrating. I have tried everything you mention above, - kind regards to everybody-, but it doesn't work. Have been providing all the passcodes and everything required but when i come to the point ''open photos app, don't touch'' nothing happens. I can't see any single photo being downloaded. After a while a message appears on the screen: "Restore Incomplete. Some items could not be downloaded from the Store. If they are on your computer, you can restore them by syncing with iTunes." Well, why, thanks a lot apple.

Could it be of any significance that my photos app was inside a folder with several other apps? Or that the device on which the photos where, from which i am trying to retreive my (some thousands) photos was at the time of last backup operating with the last version of iOs6.something (*last backup september 8/2013)? (was it iOs6.7 or so? i don't remember) and by syncing now, it gets iOs7.1 by deafult?

Thank you everyone and good luck to the next ones. Apple, you could be such a brighter star..

a.

I was mugged in Colombia a few weeks ago, they took my bag and 4s which had been backed up to iCloud 1 week previous. The phone contained over a thousand photos and videos of our sons first year + 6 months of travelling around South America with him. I have my replacement 4s which is still sealed because I have changed to Sony Xperia Z1 Compact but I wondered if there is any way at all that I can retrieve these precious photos. I have no other Apple products and I am reluctant to open the new replacement phone as I intend to sell it sealed.

Many thanks

I tried to do this but the icloud backup would not go back far enough. It said that previous backups are not compatible with the current version on my ipad. PLEASE HELP. My brothers first 5 years were deleted including a lot of very important videos.

First, check if their physical footprint still exists. Go to Settings > General > Usage and check the amount of storage available, do you notice that there is a lot of used storage ? You can also check it through iTunes, which might show used memory labeled as Other.

I lost all my pictures and videos after jailbreaking my phone, yet iTunes showed that they are still taking physical memory (labeled as Other - iTunes did not recognise my pics or vids anymore). This means they cannot be viewed via Camera Roll but they are still stored in the phone.

To fix that, download iFunBox ( http://www.i-funbox.com ) and use it to locate and extract the images from the phone (no need for iTunes to access the phone). I managed to extract all my photos from the phone to an external USB, which accumulated to over 20GB of photos and videos.

Use this method and you should recover your photos and videos with no previous backup. If your phone shows that there is a lot of empty storage, then your photos might have actually been completely removed.