photos on 4s back up to where with itunes

You cannot "see" the Photos contained in a backup. Photos need to be imported to your computer where they are then stored in a Photos folder on Windows or to the iPhoto or Photos app on a Mac.

Cheers,

GB

Well, you were initially asking about backups, and again, you cannot "see" what is on a backup unless you restore the device to that backup. If you restore the device to the backup, it restores the device to exactly what it looked like at the time the backup was made, so anything that happened after the backup would be overwritten.

Photo Stream syncs across all devices, but it is not backed up since it is "live" data. iCloud keeps the last 1000 photos or the last 30 days of photos in Photo Stream (whichever comes first). You may see more than that on your device, but if you were to sign out of iCloud and then sign back in and turn Photo Stream on, you would only get the last 1000 or 30 days back on the Photo Stream.

If you are using iCloud Photo Library, that would also sync your entire photo library across all devices.

Here is a support article that provides the info you need to import your photos to your laptop:

PHOTO IMPORT IOS TO MAC/PC

Cheers,

GB

On a Windows computer, when you connect the iPhone and there are photos in the Camera Roll, you should be prompted to import those pictures with the Windows Import Utility, depending on your AutoPlay settings. The Windows Import utility is what you normally use to import photos. Syncing with iTunes does not import photos to the computer, it just will back them up in the iTunes backup. And as Gail has noted, you cannot look at the photos there, they are just contained in the backup if you want to restore the device. Once you change the content of the Camera Roll, the photos in the iTunes backup will change as well. You can try connecting the device to the computer and see what happens with Windows. If you do not see the AutoPlay dialog box open, then go to Computer, where you should see the iPhone listed as a Removable device. Right-click on the iPhone and you should be able to select Import photos.

iCloud will populate your Photo Stream to a iCloud on a computer if you have Photo Stream options set up on that computer and on the device.

What type of computer are you using? If it is a Windows computer, then as Chris noted, you may have been automatically prompted in the past to import as soon as you connected your device to that computer. Have you upgraded your Windows OS recently?

If you are using a Mac and running Yosemite, then you can also use iCloud Photo Library which houses all of your photos on iCloud and then allows you access to them from any device running iOS 8 or above and on any Mac running Yosemite:

https://www.apple.com/icloud/photos/

iCloud Photo Library FAQ - Apple Support

Cheers,

GB

ezrider714 wrote:

Using Win 7 as noted in my OP Always apply updates, so it's current as of today...

I believe the problem started when updating my IPhone operating system, as in the disappearance of the camera roll

I can import them using the Windows Import Utility, however it does not put them in the folder created by Itunes for Photos

I'll look into Photo Stream settings on my phone and on my laptop

All I know is something changed, and not manually and this lead to Photos on my Phone not being automatically transferred to my Win 7 laptop

You have two different things going on here. First off, at no time when importing pictures does Windows put photos into a folder created by iTunes for Photos, since there is no folder created by iTunes for Photos, except if you are using Photo Stream. That folder is now called iCloud Photos. The user, you, determines what folder you wish to use for photos to sync with iTunes. It is selected when the device is connected to iTunes. You can select whatever folder and how many folders you wish to sync. When importing folders, Windows Import Utility has settings to determine where photos will be imported to, as well as videos imported and what to do with them after they are imported. By default, photos go to your Pictures Library in Windows 7. You have the option to change that in the Settings area of the Import utility. Videos will go to the Videos Library. You can go into Control Panel, AutoPlay and set it to automatically import your photos from the Camera Roll of the phone to your computer without any input from you if desired. Those settings are made in AutoPlay.

I believe you may be confusing things with Photo Stream, which is what will automatically update photos in the Camera Roll to the computer, again dependent on the settings. Those settings are determined in iCloud. Here is a support document on Photo Stream. My Photo Stream FAQ - Apple Support