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Lost contacts and photos when restoring from back up

I backed up my old iPhone and went to restore from back up to my new iPhone. Apart from apps, I've lost everything including photos and contacts. Any ideas?

iPhone 5s, iOS 8.2

Posted on Apr 2, 2015 1:06 AM

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5 replies

Apr 2, 2015 1:21 AM in response to simmo_06

If you have backed up the phone using iCloud, photos are not part of the backup. Same for contacts. But turning on contact syncing in Settings/iCloud will sync the contacts again back to your device.



Here’s what iCloud backs up:

  • Purchase history for music, movies, TV shows, apps, and booksYour iCloud backup includes information about the content you have purchased, but not the purchased content itself. When you restore from an iCloud backup, your purchased content is automatically downloaded from the iTunes Store, App Store, or iBooks Store. Some types of content aren’t downloaded automatically in all countries, and previous purchases may be unavailable if they have been refunded or are no longer available in the store. For more information, see the Apple Support article iTunes in the Cloud availability by country. Some types of content aren’t available in all countries. For more information, see the Apple Support article What can I buy from the iTunes Store in my country?.
  • Photos and videos on your iOS devices, unless you turn on iCloud Photo Library beta on your iOS 8.1 device. If you turn on iCloud Photo Library beta, your photos and videos are already stored in iCloud, so they aren’t included in your iCloud Backup.
  • Device settings
  • App data
  • Home screen and app organization
  • iMessage, text (SMS), and MMS messages
  • Ringtones
  • Visual Voicemail

Your iOS device backup only includes data and settings stored on your device. It doesn’t include data already stored in iCloud, for example contacts, calendars, bookmarks, mail messages, notes, shared photo albums, iCloud Photo Library beta, My Photo Stream, and documents you save in iCloud using iOS apps and Mac apps.

copied from iCloud: iCloud storage and backup overview

Apr 2, 2015 2:06 AM in response to simmo_06

If you activated syncing contacts in Settings/iCloud on your phone, that's where your contact info is going.

If you used iTunes to sync the contacts between your device and the address book on your computer, the info should at least be on your computer's address book.

Sync your iPhone with iTunes using USB


Do you have any older backups listed in iTunes that may still have at least part of your info?

Check iTunes/Edit/Preferences/Devices about that.

Create and delete iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch backups in iTunes

Lost contacts and photos when restoring from back up

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