Recover videos permanently deleted in Photos

As you can imagine, backing up my photos and videos on iCloud was an activity I engaged in diligently. Imagine my horror when I discovered that despite backing up all my albums on iCloud, they vanished when I cleared up space on the iPhone. I read online that iCloud is only a snapshot in time of the data that is available on one's phone. I am surprised that a company dedicated to building intuitive devices, uses a misleading word like "backup" for this.

Misleading word "backup"? That is a common misconception about the purpose of iCloud Photo Library. Apple does nowhere say that iCloud Photo Library is a backup, if you read the description of what iCloud photo library is all about. It is the primary storage for your photos for syncing your devices or freeing storage on your devices.

See this link: iCloud Photo Library - Apple Support

And in the last paragraph Apple says two important things:

1. This refers to the iCloud backup of iPhones and iPads, saying clearly that the iCloud device backup does not include the photos for these device:

When you turn on iCloud Photo Library, your photos and videos automatically upload to iCloud. They're not duplicated in your iCloud backup.

2. And for the photo library on the Macs:

But we always recommend that you keep back up copies of your library. You can download your photos and videos from iCloud.com to your computer and store them as a separate library, transfer them to another computer with Image Capture or Photos, or store them on a separate drive.

Restore the iPhoto library backup copy that was made just prior to your deletion of the video files. Restore it to a different location than where your working library is located so you don't overwrite it.

Find and export the videos you want from the restore library to a folder on the Desktop. Verify they will play in Quicktime Player before importing into your working library.

In Photos when you delete things they go to the recently deleted folder (file menu ==> show recently deleted) are are available for 30 days to recover - so there is no possibly way to "accidentally permanently" delete something - it takes two overt steps

If you do intentionally delete something then it is gone and can only be recovered from restoring you backup from before you deleted it or from another source (it is is in your iPhoto library still then launch iPhoto and export it - this does require the current version of iPhoto version 9.6.1 - if you do not keep your system up to date see Can't Update iPhoto because it is not available in the App Store

LN

Posting this on the thread because Apple feedback has a word limit.

I fall in the league of ardent supporters of Apple products. I have been using the iPhone 6 since its launch and the phone has traveled all over the world with me, very often in terrains with no connectivity - I'd get network once in 15 days. As you can imagine, backing up my photos and videos on iCloud was an activity I engaged in diligently. Imagine my horror when I discovered that despite backing up all my albums on iCloud, they vanished when I cleared up space on the iPhone. I read online that iCloud is only a snapshot in time of the data that is available on one's phone. I am surprised that a company dedicated to building intuitive devices, uses a misleading word like "backup" for this. My iPhone is 16GB and I pay Apple a dollar a month for 50GB storage. What is the point of extra storage if iCloud only stores what is already there on your phone. Unless I lose my phone or crash it, the service would be of no use to me. I spoke to Apple Support and there isn't even a way I can restore previous backups.

It's just devastating to lose all memories when you were so sure they were backed up.

You realize that Apple engineering doesn't monitor these posts, right. This is only a user to user forum. Unless you use the feedback route Apple won't know of your concerns.

How to do this?