Notes, photos, videos - not in cloud. Help! Switching phones tonight!

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Notes, photos, videos - not in cloud. Help! Switching phones tonight!

Hi, so my new phone arrives today (6S) and I currently have a 5S. I backed up all of my photos to flickr in anticipation of getting a new phone (I had 15K pics on that thing, whoops), but now I've deleted all but 3K off of my device (including videos). I pay $3 additional a month for extra storage... so imagine my surprise when I signed into the cloud from my laptop last night just to double check on everything and there is nothing in the cloud except my contacts. No notes, photos, videos... I did the "backup now" from my phone and it only added in about 200 photos (about a month's worth)... still no notes, and nothing more than a few weeks old. I have tried to backup several times and either get an error message, or it says it completed, but there is nothing new added when I look.

And, yes, I do have the iCloud drive "on" and my photos, and my backup, and everything except keychain and email.

I'm at a loss and want to get this fixed before I switch phones over tonight.

iPhone 5s, iOS 9.2.1

Posted on Feb 8, 2016 10:13 AM

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Answer 1

LACAllen

Level 8

43,410 points

Feb 8, 2016 11:35 AM in response to swandive94

It sounds like you are confusing SYNCING with iCloud with BACKING UP to iCloud.

If you are backing up, meaning going to settings > iCloud > backup > backup now... you can't look at that backup and see what's in it.

You can sign in to iCloud.com and look at your SYNCED content, but not your BACKED UP content.

How are you "looking" at your backed up content?

Syncing your photos should match all photos videos etc. on the cloud that are on your phone, but that is not considered backing up. It's not backing up because when you remove those items from your device, they are removed from the cloud as well.

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Answer 2

swandive94 Author

Level 1

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Feb 8, 2016 11:57 AM in response to LACAllen

Perhaps I am confusing the two terms, and I am sorry if I am. But yes, I am going to settings > iCloud > backup > backup now and then going to iCloud.com to see what is showing.

As I said in my original question, as of last night there was ZERO in the way of photos, notes, etc, and this morning (after trying to back up multiple times using settings > iCloud > backup > backup now method, there are still no notes, but about 200 (out of 3000+) photos. Of my "total storage" amount of 200GB, only 4 GB has been used... 196 GB is still available. That leads me to believe nothing except what I am seeing on iCloud.com is actually IN the cloud. Am I wrong?

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Answer 3

LACAllen

Level 8

43,410 points

Feb 8, 2016 12:19 PM in response to swandive94

ok..

Again... you are looking at the results of your syncing, not the backup.

You can't "see" the results of your backup until you restore. It is a data archive that is not visible on iCloud.com.

If you are syncing 3000 photos to the cloud, that may take hours to do. It is not instant by any means. What you are asking your phone to do is send 3000 photos over either your data or wifi connection to the cloud. Over the internet.

When you sign in to iCloud.com, you are only seeing the results of your syncing. So when you go to settings > iCloud... which "things" do you have set to ON/Green?

The content from these, i.e.: notes, contracts, calendars etc. should be visible on iCloud.com