Turning on iCloud sync removed all my Live Photos

Same happened to me when I turned iCloud Photo Library off (since my storage was full) and then back on. No way to recover those live photos again from iCloud, they were just gone.

Luckily I was already backing up my photos through (Oh irony) Google Photos/Drive, which also happens to support live photos. So Google saved the day :).

Here's one more user having this exact same issue. Such a mess, most of my work related photos are missing.

I have tried to re-login to iCloud, restart the phone, sync with iTunes - all of them several times. Only conclusion seems to be that users need to avoid iCloud service at first place.

Will for sure be using Google Photos instead. If I would only knew this before yesterday...

The same here. Lost 758 live photos from my first international trip. I called the support and they told me that, although it's a systems issue, it was my fault because I should have done a backup before trying to do the iCloud syncing... They must be joking, not even them think their product is a good one.

I totally agree. I am annoyed at myself for first wasting money on stupid icloud and two thinking that iCloud would be my answer. Makes me really question why they didn't tell us or fix it. On my own thread, only one person replied, the rest of the comments are me complaining.

Same thing happened to me. In addition to finding out that the upload speed is horrible, I have now lost around 2000 Live Photos from my phone! Apparently permanently, as they are nowhere to be found.

This should be as the pinned warning on /r/apple. People need to use non-Apple services to backup their Apple products in order to be safe!

Shame on you, Apple, for knowing about these problems for months and not doing anything about them!!!

Same here. iCloud deleted all my live photos. Of course, Apple denies responsibility. I have lost more than 4000 photos. A whole year of invaluable memories gone. I trusted iCloud for backing them up and they got deleted. I will never trust Apple again.

I called Apple support and they told me to try recovering the deleted photos using a third party data recovery service, which I have done with no success.

I can't believe Apple is aware about this issue since several months ago and they do nothing about it, not even displaying a warning when enabling iCloud!

Did anybody find any solution?

The same thing happened to me. All my live photos, from before the date I turned in iCloud photo library, are missing.

If Apple doesn't resolve this issue, I think this is class action lawsuit territory.

Same here. iCloud removed all my live photos. I am so stupid that I believed in iCloud. At first I don't have space for iPhone backup, then I stupidly bought 200GB storage from iCloud and sync all my photos to it. Things happened. I will never never never trust Apple's product again. I'm so disappointed!
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Sorry to hear ortizd428. Maybe stick to Android for your next phone or maybe don't mess with your iPhone settings...dun dun dun. I know it's not fair and I don't understand how all your photos can dissapear just like that. Sad sad story :( . No solution from Apple but to blame you for not backing up your photos? Screw the iPhone.

I ran out of space on my iPhone so I bought iCloud storage in July. I did not realize until recently that all my live photos before the sync had gone missing. I hope someone out there finds a solution to this problem; the only solution I see at the moment is: stop taking live photos 😐.

Hi skEzio,

Just wondering if you have had any success on getting your Live Photos back? The same thing has happened to me. Have lost 4000 Live Photos of my baby daughter, hope you can help.

Thank you

google drive actually supports live photos?? the live pictures I have saved don't save and I can't open the file. 😟

Hi,

Have you found a solution to this? The same thing has happened to me and I am desperate.

Thanks,

Alisha