My phone has gone into recovery mode, but I want to save my pictures before I restore it. What do I do?

Had a iPhone 6s that lost power during an iOS update and went into recovery mode. Followed the instructions of Digital311 and it worked exactly as described. Wonderful result and everything, including photos, was recovered. This was my daughter's phone and she had many, many photos that were not previously saved elsewhere - they are now.

I was amazed at how many people told me this was not possible - including Apple Tech Support.

Thanks for your help.

Jbobd10 you are trying and you are right about this guy being a d0uche but I tried to save my pictures from my iPad that's in recovery mode but it's not recognizing the iPad in my computer so I can't save my pictures. If you know of any other way to try to save my photos please let me know here or if you can email me I would greatly appreciate it thank you in advance. Or if anyone knows how to save my photos please please let me know I don't want to lose my sons baby pictures.

<Email Edited by Host>

I know this post is too late to help the OP, but hopefully it will be of some help to others. This very thing happened to my wife's iPhone while attempting to update to iOS 7. If you have a recent backup on your computer, the process is easy and straightforward. However, you probably wouldn't be reading this if you did. With any luck, you had the auto backup feature of iCloud turned on. Whether you did or didn't, you will need to perform a restore or your phone will simply live out it's life as a paperweight.

If you can not get restore to work, you may need to put your phone into DFU mode first. This was the case with my wife's phone. The process is simple and quick. There are tons of how-tos all over the web, so a Google search is all that is needed. Once your phone is in DFU mode, the restore process should complete. Once it does, you will either need to select to treat the phone as new or restore from a backup. If you don't have a recent backup, any backup will do. If no backup is available at all, no worries.

When the restoration process is complete, go to Settings -> General -> Reset -> Erase all. Once you erase all data and settings from the iPhone, using the phone itself, complete the activation process. Part of that process will be choosing an iCloud backup to restore from. If you have a recent iCloud backup, you're good to go. If not, you'll have to use whichever backup (computer or iCloud) is most recent. Unfortunately, that does mean you will lose the data from that point to the present.

My wife's most recent iCloud backup was only two days old, so she barely lost anything. Which was good, because she had a lot of pictures of our newborn son. Needless to say, we are now backing up our data in three different locations. Live and learn. I hope this helps!

P.S. using Google+ to auto backup your photos is a great option.

Message was edited by: btmead

Your second sentence is the state I was referring to, not an actual State.... 😀

So, if you are seeing the Connect to iTunes screen, then you are going to have to erase the device using one of the methods outlined in this support article: If you see the Connect to iTunes screen on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support.

You can erase your device using iCloud if you have a cellular or Wifi connection on the device. Otherwise, you can follow the first or third set of steps as applicable to connect to iTunes so you can erase and restore the device.

Cheers,

GB

Indeed jbond110 is correct. Recovery mode is just a state where your iDevice believes that a major problem has occurred in the system and will refuse to start up correctly. Purposes for going into recovery mode can be for escaping the ever so terrible boot loop that causes your device to constantly restart until drained (or destroyed (physically)). Your data is still on there but currently is unaccessible. In about 1 year I have already gotten my iPod Touch 3g into 4 boot loops because I tweak around with it a lot. And currently I am stuck in 1. If anyone knows any possible way to restore my iPod without losing my important file data, please inform me. Even if you have the slightest bit of knowledge that would be of use too. Thank You...

Regardless of how the phone ended up in recovery mode, I'm trying to help this person save their pictures. That is what these communities are for. For you to be so rude and closed minded to new things isn't right. If you don't want to try and help these people than you don't need to be on this site.

Did you get an answer? o_O

I'm having the same problem; and the only thing I want are the pictures. But my Windows8 Laptop doesn't recognize it. I got to My Computer and it only shows 'Local Drive' and 'DVD Drive'.

same exact problem here too. iphone5 spontaneously went into recovery mode this morning while i was on it, no update or prior issues... now it will not open and i am trying everything i can to get my photos off of it before i do a restore... my Windows PC also does not recognize the device.. HELP!! I did a back-up in june but have way too many pictures since then to lose. ..also, if i were able to somehow get it to do a back up now, does it erase the backup i have from june, or add it on. how does this happen, seems to be a known problem as so many others have had the exact same issue!!! 😟 .. any suggestions???

To anyone who is searching through this post looking for an answer to the original question, let me tell you this. NO.. YOUR INFORMATION IS NOT GONE AND YOU CAN STILL GET IT BACK. If your iphone is stuck in recovery mode, you can still get your photos, contacts, and any other information needed back again.

I know you're probably frustrated like I was of people saying things like "just restore from back up", or "you have to restore the iphone first to get it working again"...or suggesting tools like Dr. Fone, and TinyUmbrella which don't work at all because the phone isn't being recognized in Windows explorer or by the USB in general.

This is what you have to do. Repeat, this is ONLY for an iphone that is able to be turned on an all you get is the usb plug saying plug into itunes screen (the Recovery Mode screen).

This process is for Windows. I think some MAC users will be able to follow it also, but the instructions are for PC users.

1.) Turn your iphone on if it isn't already.

2.) Load up itunes (make sure you have the latest Itunes. I would even suggest that you uninstall your itunes if it isn't up to date, through Control Panel Add/Remove programs, and then go to the Itunes website and download the latest version.)

3.) When you load up Itunes, it will tell you that your iphone needs to be updated or restored. Just click okay or cancel to get that dialog box out of the way. Then just minimize the itunes for right now.

4.) Download the LATEST firmware for your correct model of iphone. Just choose your model from the drop down boxes. Once you've chosen everything, click the Download button. It will produce a link. Just click the link and take note of where that file downloads on your computer.

5.) Once the download finishes, go back to Itunes...and you'll have two buttons to click... Restore and Update. VERY IMPORTANT: Hold down the SHIFT key and click UPDATE (SHIFT + UPDATE) .

6.) A box will pop up to search for a file. Navigate to the folder that you downloaded the firmware file in step 4 to. And choose that file.

7.) Then Itunes will tell you things like Blah blah..this file might not work, if your phone can't be updated it will have to be restored....blah blah. Just click OK through all of that and start the update.

8.) Your phone will update to the latest firmware after a pretty lengthy process, maybe about 30-40 mins. Could be longer, but it will work. Don't get anxious, don't unplug the iphone because you think it's frozen or something. There will be times when it seems like it's not doing anything. Just sit back, put on a netflix movie, and continue to monitor the process from time to time. Soon your iphone will turn back on...and everything will be updated and back to normal.

BACK IT UP IMMEDIATELY 🙂

I hope this works for a lot of you out there, and I hope it gives those of you like me who felt there was no hope.......a little bit of relief.

<Edited by Host>

I tried to respond to the original post but it kicked me out with an error message. It's probably too late now, but I had the same issue (that's what brought me here) and I've saved my phone twice from saying it's in recovery mode.

If your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch doesn't respond or won't turn on - Apple Support

What was edited out was spam attempting to get you to pay for junkware that would not have solved your issue. If your phone is in Recovery mode it is too late to save any content. If you don't regularly make backups to iTunes or iCloud, or enable the built in daily automatic backup, or don't sync photos to iCloud, Dropbox, upthere.com, google photos or the dozen or so other photo storage services on the Internet they are gone.

Two posts just above yours contain a link to the Apple tech note on this process. Here it is again: If your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch won't turn on - Apple Support

For getting the phone to show up, see: If iTunes doesn't recognize your iPhone, iPad, or iPod - Apple Support

Sounds like you might have iCloud Photo Library turned on? Also, if you have 11,000 photos on your device, then you need to import them somewhere, or you are going to lose them at some point:

PHOTO IMPORT IOS TO MAC/PC

A backup does not save all of your photos unless all of them are in the Camera Roll (if iCloud Photo Library is not on).

Cheers,

GB

If you have a windows computer once you plug the phone in the computer you should get a prompt message that asks you if you want to import photos and videos. doing it that way you should be able to save photos and videos.

No recovery mode does not mean that the phone is wiped, its has just locked you out. Restoring the phone is what wipes it. I HAVE DONE THIS BEFORE AND IT WORKED. If the prompt message does not come up go to the start menu and click on computer, the device will show up along with the hard drive of the computer. Right click on the device and you will have the option to import pictures and videos. This only works with Windows computer though.

Again recovery mode does not wipe the phone -- even after a full erase all content and settings the data is not truly erase the hardware key is merely removed making the data inaccessible (apple article ht2110). However when in recovery mode you can still retrieve - only with a windows computer - and only pictures.