icloud restore photo stuck!

cancel. make sure you are on wifi. resync. sometimes gets hung up

and if that doesn't work sync through usb to get everything first. hope this all helps.

you can just power off the phone

I was having problems restoring my photos and videos as well. It even happened that after restoring my 1000+ photos and videos after completion of the restore about 600 photos and videos were wiped from my phone for some strange reason. I don't know why the photos and videos were removed, might have something to do with the fact that the iPhone is too busy installing apps and that makes the photo import fail or whatever?

Anyway: At this point I managed to get everything back by CANCELLING EVERY login box I received after applying the restore. That means that I did not login to the App store, messages, facetime and such. Then I waited for my photos and videos, which was now the only action in progress on my iphone, restore to complete. This worked!

gald it all worked. hope i was able to help. have a good day

Thank you thebillcarroll....was having the same issue...powering off the phone and restarting worked for me!

no problem.

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.

I got my stuck camera roll restore to continue by turning Wi-Fi off and on.

On 'Downloading 831 of 1409' at the moment. Each picture takes minutes, but at least it's not stuck anymore.

@ezyjules

Hi I'm sorry to bother you but I'm completely clueless as to how to do all this. I would backup my phone at least once a month through my iCloud setting, according to my thoughts, it didn't have to be connected to a computer it would automatically back up my photos and all when connected to the Wi-fi.

Now my dilemma is that yesterday I took my phone to Apple where they gave me a "new" phone, and I was afraid I would lose all my pictures, he told me that I had backup my phone the day before so once I signed back onto to iCloud everything would be restored. Well that didn't happened. When I go back into my iCloud setting it gives me a backup option but not a restore option so I'm really afraid to do something or press something and then I will lose all my pictures can you please help me here. I know it sound like I shouldn't even have an iPhone if I don't know how to use it but it was a free upgrade phone!!!!

Ezyjules--

I just replaced my iPhone 5 with another iPhone 5 as the top button was sticking. I lost my camera roll and the whole month of October from photostream. I read your post, Is this what you did? you got your old camera roll back on your new replacement phone? please advise. I'm missing all pictures from when I got engaged, which is why I care so much.

Thanks,

Julie

@ezyjules

I got lucky after following your method under the "Thing I tried that DID work". So basically started over again, then no messing with any non-essential settings but straight into gallery/camera roll and stay there until the restore from iCloud is done. In my case that was about after 9 hours.

Thanks very much for your post.

Martyn

This is exactly what worked for me! After having a "genius bar" appointment at the apple store and being told "the back up may just have been corrupted" (like losing 2000+ photos was no big deal) - my photos started backing up while I was at the store (from the oldest on forward) but I had to leave and, sure enough, just at the spot where the photos had dowloaded to - is exactly where my download/restore seemed to get stuck. When I got home and re-connected to wifi, the photos started restoring in the opposite direction - from the most recent on backwards. And then it all just stopped and the restoring of the "middle" photos - about 1000 - just got stuck. They seemed to be numbered but nothign appeared and the screen contiued to read "downloading" but nothing new was appearing for hours. I tried turning wifi on and off but that did not help. Then I powered down my phone and turned it back on a few minutes later ... I checked back in about 20 minutes and noticed the rest of my photos were downloading without any diffculty. About two hours later they were all there! Thanks so much!

Power off worked for me. Downloading rest of photos now! Thanks for your help!