How to recover photos after restore without backup?

If you did not have a backup of the device with the pictures on it, then they are gone. When the device is in Recovery Mode, the data is already compromised, and that is why you could not perform a backup of the device. Did you not use Photo Stream, or iCloud for anything? When is the last time you created a backup of the device? Were photos on the device the last time it was backed up?

If you have an iTunes backup, you can restore to that backup. Just remember, that anything done on the device since that date will be gone. Up to you how you want to do it. Just a suggestion, either take the time to import photos to the computer on a regular basis to ensure safety, or at least ensure you backup the device much more often than once a year.

Maybe from the restored iPod via How to perform iPad recovery for photos, videos

Wondershare Dr.Fone for iOS: iPhone Data Recovery - Wondershare Official

http://www.amacsoft.com/ipod-data-recovery.html

iPod recovery software to restore lost music files

http://www.pcrecoverytools.com/ipod-data-recovery.html

Yu also said:

I think this is because

I backed up a long time ago, and the iTunes update may have erased the back up?

No, updating iTunes does not delete any iOS device backups.

Sometimes the Recovery programs work and sometimes they do not. The programs are not free. If the programs do not work and yo do not have a backup them maybe a data recovery company can help. Not cheap.

I have a similar issue with my iPad. I logged on today, restarted it after some updates it required, then the activation lock screen came up as it switched back on.

I spent about an hour this evening on the phone to Apple Support. Although they tried to be helpful, they only gave me two options:

1. Provide proof of purchase of the iPad (which I can do) and they will restore it. However this will lose all data on it including very precious photos

or...

2. Get the Apple ID and password of the person who set the iPad up initially and go into the iPad with those details then remove their account, replacing it with my own. This is the only way to keep the photos.

The iPad was bought through Amazon from a company in Hong Kong, with no direct contact details for the seller. I have tried to contact them through Amazon but do not think that they will have the details of the person they got the iPad from. And if they do, I feel it is unlikely that they will be willing to give such data over. I sadly expect to lose pictures and memories of the last 4 years of my family's life, including some images of close relatives who have recently passed away.

If I knew that this would happen today I would have emailed myself every picture on my iPad before restarting it as I had had full access to my emails until I restarted it. I have been searching online for the last 3 hours to see if there is any other way I can rescue those images. This is a very distressing situation for any one to find themselves in and there is no support or care from Apple other than a polite outline of the options.

These options have, as far as I can see, also only become applicable since iCloud was set up, which was after I bought the iPad. I thought I had uploaded my pictures to iCloud earlier this year but it doesn't seem to have worked which is very frustrating and the lady I spoke to at Apple Support had no real reason for this. I have never been told that if I did not double check iCloud to ensure that these images were indeed backed up there, that I would certainly lose them. I thought owning the iPad and having my apple ID linked directly to it would be sufficient to secure them, as well as what I had thought was setting up iCloud earlier this year.

I am incredibly disappointed that Apple do not consider that a lot of people may be given their iPads second hand and be unable to contact the original owner at a much later date. Apple's new system means that the client's data is fully at risk of being lost, even though they may try to back it up in good faith. This system needs a considerable re-think.

I will continue to try and contact the previous owner of this iPad and wish everyone else luck in their iPad/iPhone issues.

mac1issues2buy3 wrote:

I have a similar issue with my iPad. I logged on today, restarted it after some updates it required, then the activation lock screen came up as it switched back on.

The only way in which your situation is really similar is in that you apparently also didn't back up regularly. If I had nickel from every time someone said, "If I had only known I was going to lose all my data, I would have backed it up," I could buy a very nice dinner. Especially with portable devices that can easily be lost, stolen or broken, it's not a question of if you will lose data, it's a question of when. Apple provides a ridiculously easy way to back up your phone. Every night, plug it in and lock the screen. If it's connected to WiFi and you've turned on iCloud Back Up, it will automatically back up. Every night. You're then unlikely to lose more than a few hours of data.

Note that Apple will only remove the activation lock on the device for the original owner. Receipt from a secondary seller isn't going to help.