Has anyone backed up their iPad to I cloud and it didn't save their photos?

As this article explains, iCloud backup for "Photos and videos in Camera Roll":

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4859

Is that where the photos in question were before you reset your iPad?

Did you have photos turned on for backups?

Many users have lost photos thinking they were in an icloud backup but weren't. Remember that users shuold always sync photos to a computer or other service like Dropbox to archive them. icloud is not foolproof as you found out. (And no, I'm not calling you a fool.)

If by chance you have been syncing photos to a computer, then you can sync them back to the device.

On what were the pictures taken - ipad or camera? You said they were all on your computer. Did they start out from a camera with SD cards? If so, then did you keep the pictures on the sd cards, or did you format them and wipe the cards clean? ( I keep them on the cards as an extra external, number them, and list on paper the events on each card.)

The picures from your computer have to be somewhere on your computer. If you have a mac search pictures and even your trash. Do you have iphoto or Adobe Elements or another editing program turned on? Elements tends to take over your pictures when you upload them from your camera. Did you use a program that came with your camera to first get them on your computer? Were they edited?

Do you use Picasa or Snapfish or another program to share them? See what you can find there if you did.

If the ipad/icloud doesn't solve your problem you might have to go the expensive route and take it to someplace like Best Buy. We had to do that in 2010 when a microsoft security update fried our computers and therefore, our hard drives. I had well over 9,000 pictures on mine, and I had scanned, edited and cleaned more than 3,000 by hand that were taken in the days before digital. Best Buy got back all of our data and all of my pictures, even those that were deleted by Adobe Elements edits. (Because of my hopes over four years, I never emptied trash, and those original photos that had disappeared were there in trash!)

The hard drive on your computer is not fried, only full, and it might not be too expensive to do. If you know how, you can take out your hard drive from your computer and try it in another computer and see if you can find the pictures. If you have laptops, it's easier to do that. If that works, you can put all your pictures from the computer on cd's, and then put them on what sounds like a much needed new computer. A Best Buy could even help you with that for les$ than dealing with a fried hard drive.

Another option is to buy and set up an external hard drive to your computer and MOVE (not copy) all of your pictures to it. It will free up space. (Check to make sure they got to the external safely!) Then use another computer by setting the external up on that one, and copy the pictures to cd's that way. And again, your lost pictures might show up.

I know I went on, but I know the feeling of trying to save all of those valuable pictures.

Hope this helps. (Meanwhile, in the time I took to write this, many more might have responded with a simple solution.) If that solves your problem, great!!!

Brooksmom92 wrote:

I took the pictures with a camera with an sd card and uploaded them to my iPad.

That answers my question in my first post above. The photos were not taken with your iPad, and therefore were not in Camera Roll, and therefore never backed up as part of an iCloud backup.

As appleuser1322 suggests, photos not taken on your iPad are assumed to be backed up elsewhere (on your computer), not in a backup that is specifically aimed at iPad content.

Hi Brooksmom92,

I'm not sure that I really helped you. You still don't have the pictures. And I apologize for all the ques. that follow, but if one can lead to a possible solution...

How did you get the pictures onto your ipad? With a camera connection kit?

You first said you reset your ipad then you said you restored it. Which did you do or did you do both? If you reset it, there could still be hope.

Did you go to the bottom of your ipad and click on the photos icon? I assume you did and it might have been how you discovered the problem.

And I agree that if the jpeg squares are there, that must mean something, but I'm not sure what. Not long ago someone here... did you import them to the ipad and icloud as raw or jpegs? Sounds stupid, but that can make a difference (which I do not quite understand.)

Does anyone in your family have a computer where you could get into your icloud account and see if the pictures show up? (PLEASE do not sync your ipad to anyone else's computer!)

If I think of anything more, I'll get back to you. Meanwhile, again, in the time I've been responding, I hope someone has been on here with a solution for you!

I get where you're coming from. I'm the Mom who takes the pictures in our family and our extended families, and even at school events, etc. And I'm glad I did and still do that.

Hi again,

You said you have an ipad 1? How long have you had it and how old are the pictures there? Did you ever back up your ipad 1 (sync) to your computer when you still had room? If so, I think those pictures would be there.

Again, though, did you reset and or restore?

Is your ipad updated to ios 5? If not, don't update it yet.

Could this possibly help?

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4795498?answerId=21204668022#21204668022

There are many with your problem. Please read all of these, too. I've read some of these in the past, but didn't write down solutions because my husband doesn't use pictures. (I first came to these forums to learn about ipad, and I've learned a lot.)

https://discussions.apple.com/search.jspa?start=15&q=pictures%20backed%20up%20by %20iCloud&peopleEnabled=true&dateRange=all&rankBy=relevance

I just can't give up on trying to get your pictures back to you.

Hi Brooksmom92,

Did you get your pictures back yet?