cannot download photos from icloud photo library

I had this problem and so decided to try signing out and back in to my icloud account- ended up losing all of my photos. I assume this is because while my phone was 'optimizing storage' by deleting my pictures under the assumption they were being uploaded to the cloud, they were, in fact, not saved at all.

This also explains why they were unavailable but visible before the restart as my phone would have icons to represent the pictures, but been unable to pull the full resolution from where they should have been in cloud, as there was nothing there.

Maybe a lot of people aren't experiencing this, but it seems like a pretty glaring design flaw. Be careful, folks.

Device

Try a forced restart.

Reset Device

Reset – iPhone 7

Try Settings/Your Name/iCloud and slide off syncing. Wait a few minutes and then resync.

Is this at iCloud.com or on a device/computer?

Try signing out of iCloud and back in.

Signing out / in useless. I've had this problem for months now. I feel betrayed by Apple yet again and tricked into paying for iCloud storage only to lose access to all my photos.