PatrickGreen
Level 1 (5 points)
iCloud

Q: Restore photos to Photos app from iCloud?

There are hundreds of missing photos in my photo library scattered throughout, but they are present on iCloud.com. I've tried rebuilding the database without success. Is there any way to pull the entire library from iCloud into my Photos app without doing it manually?

 

Thanks for reading!

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013), OS X El Capitan (10.11.2)

Posted on Apr 8, 2016 6:40 PM

by ManSinha,Solvedanswer
ManSinha ManSinha
Level 6 (10,250 points)
iPhone
A:

Archive or make copies of your iCloud data - Apple Support

Posted on Apr 8, 2016 6:46 PM

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PatrickGreen

Q: Restore photos to Photos app from iCloud?

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  • Helpful answers

  • by ManSinha,Solvedanswer

    ManSinha ManSinha Apr 8, 2016 6:46 PM in response to PatrickGreen
    Level 6 (10,250 points)
    iPhone
    Apr 8, 2016 6:46 PM in response to PatrickGreen

    Archive or make copies of your iCloud data - Apple Support

  • by PatrickGreen,

    PatrickGreen PatrickGreen Apr 9, 2016 9:11 AM in response to ManSinha
    Level 1 (5 points)
    iCloud
    Apr 9, 2016 9:11 AM in response to ManSinha

    Thanks for the reply. It did state it was downloading full resolution copies of all photos, but it unfortunately didn't replace the missing/damaged photos.

     

    Screen Shot 2016-04-09 at 9.05.44 AM.png

    Any other ideas?

  • by ManSinha,

    ManSinha ManSinha Apr 9, 2016 9:18 AM in response to PatrickGreen
    Level 6 (10,250 points)
    iPhone
    Apr 9, 2016 9:18 AM in response to PatrickGreen

    I am sorry - may be a chat with Apple support may be able to help you figure out what happened to the images in the cloud - the link is at the top of the page

    From what I understand that data is backed up to the servers and they may be able to recover it for you

    All the best!

  • by PatrickGreen,

    PatrickGreen PatrickGreen Apr 9, 2016 12:08 PM in response to ManSinha
    Level 1 (5 points)
    iCloud
    Apr 9, 2016 12:08 PM in response to ManSinha

    Thanks for your reply.

     

    After further inspection I realized the missing photos in my library are not in fact on iCloud.com. iCloud.com doesn't show a blank photo representing my missing photos, which is why I thought iCloud.com had all my photos backed up.

     

    I suspect one of two things happened:

    1. The photos were damaged in my library before I signed up for Photo cloud syncing, and since they were damaged, they didn't upload to iCloud, which would result in iCloud.com showing a "complete" set of photos.
    2. The photos were damaged in my library some time after I signed up for Photo cloud syncing, and the Photos app either flagged these photos as damaged, or otherwise told iCloud to remove the good photos.

     

    Either way, it is extremely frustrating. I have two backups of all my photos. I do remote Time Machine backups (it doesn't have the missing photos, unfortunately), and I of course do photo syncing to iCloud.com. I have a lot of photos spanning over 20 years, and it seems the only way to ensure the integrity of my photos is to physically check my list of photos on a regular basis.

     

    What I think would be be a great feature for the Photos app is for it to keep a database of all CRC values of photo as they are added to the Photos library. It could do a daily/weekly scan of the CRC values of the photos against the database, and if a discrepancy is detected it could prompt the user with a side-by-side comparison with the local copy, and the copy from iCloud, and ask which one to keep.

  • by ManSinha,

    ManSinha ManSinha Apr 9, 2016 12:10 PM in response to PatrickGreen
    Level 6 (10,250 points)
    iPhone
    Apr 9, 2016 12:10 PM in response to PatrickGreen

    That would be useful

    You can provide feedback at http://www.apple.com/feedback

  • by PatrickGreen,

    PatrickGreen PatrickGreen Apr 9, 2016 12:43 PM in response to ManSinha
    Level 1 (5 points)
    iCloud
    Apr 9, 2016 12:43 PM in response to ManSinha

    Done. Fingers crossed!