Restoring photos from an iTunes Backup

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Level 1

5 points

Restoring photos from an iTunes Backup

While trying to upgrade from iOS 7 to 8, I didn't have enough space so had to backup my device and factory reset.

All my photos are backed up in my iTunes Backup, and now that I'm on iOS 9, was wondering how I can extract my photos from my iTunes Backup and save them to my iCloud Photos?

I'm aware of apps such as Picturesque, which allow one to extract photos from an iTunes Backup to a PC/Mac, but how do I get the photos into my iCloud Photos, without having to restore my iOS 7 backup, since I didn't have enough space on my iPhone originally to backup my photos to iCloud or else I would have?

Thanks

Mark

iPhone 4S, iOS 9.0.2

Posted on Oct 9, 2015 4:22 PM

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Answer 1

FoxFifth

Level 10

468,741 points

Oct 9, 2015 4:42 PM in response to markberapple

If you are able to extract the photos from the backup to your computer, one option would be to then log in to https://www.icloud.com/ from your computer, click on the Photos icon there and then click the Upload button in the bar at the top.

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Answer 2

markberapple Author

Level 1

5 points

Oct 10, 2015 8:02 AM in response to FoxFifth

Thanks, that does work ... but it doesn't seem to preserve either the date the photo was taken i.e. if I upload a photo that was taken say last year, iCloud reflects the photo was taken on the same day as the upload / export from the iTunes Backup. How does one resolve this?

Also, when I view my photos on my iOS device, there appears to be metadata that is used to group my photos by where they were taken. When I export the photos from my iTunes Backup, how does one preserve this metadata?

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Answer 3

FoxFifth

Level 10

468,741 points

Oct 10, 2015 8:29 AM in response to markberapple

That's not something I have much knowledge about but I would guess that both issues are due to the loss of the metadata and that whatever program you used to extract the photos from the backup may be responsible. You may want to see if you can find one that preserves the metadata. One possibility is https://www.wideanglesoftware.com/ibackupextractor/ It has a free trial which allows you to extract 50 items, so you could use it to at least verify whether it preserves the metadata.

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