Why won't all of my pictures save to icloud?

Question

Level 1

11 points

Why won't all of my pictures save to icloud?

I am having problems backing up photos from iphone 6s to icloud. (My mom's phone.) She doesn't understand technology so she hadn't backed her phone up for a year. I backed it up to icloud today before I gave her my old iphone 7. When I restored from the backup it didn't bring all of her pictures through. I went on my mac to icloud.com and sure enough, it didn't back all of them up. It only did about half of them. I backed up a second time to icloud, and they still just aren't in there. She is missing a year's worth of pictures in icloud. Both phones have all icloud photo settings turned on and both are updated to the latest software. She also has plenty of icloud storage since I made her purchase the 50gb. I don't know what else to do. PLEASE HELP! (I know several ways to transfer them to make sure they aren't lost, but I am trying to figure this out for the next time so I won't have to do this again.)

iPhone 7, iOS 11.2, null

Posted on Dec 8, 2017 10:02 PM

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Answer 1

emilyd1408 Author

Level 1

11 points

Dec 9, 2017 10:48 AM in response to zinacef

No they are not there. That’s how I knew they never got backed up. I tried again this morning and those pictures will not go to iCloud. The ones before and the ones after will but from dec 2016 - oct 2017 are missing.

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Answer 2

zinacef

Level 10

88,406 points

Dec 9, 2017 10:53 AM in response to emilyd1408

Photos are only included in backups in some circumstances.

You can turn the iCloud backup of Photos on and off at Settings > Apple ID(Top) > iCloud > Storage > iCloud > Manage Storage > Backups > This Device > Choose Data To Backup > Photos.

However, that option is only available if your iCloud Photo Library option at Settings > Photos & Camera > iCloud Photo Library is off. If it's turned on your photos aren't included in backups.

If you backup through iTunes, if iCloud Photo Library is turned on, again, photos don't get included in backups, but if it's off photos are automatically included in backups, i.e. there isn't an option to turn their backup off.

I guess the theory goes that your photos are already in the cloud anyway if you use iCloud Photo Library and that there may be some sort of conflict if you restore photos from a backup while they are synced to iCloud Photo Library. But whilst this makes sense, personally, I still like to backup my photos which I do by using Time Machine to Backup the library on my Mac.

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Answer 3

emilyd1408 Author

Level 1

11 points

Dec 9, 2017 11:04 AM in response to zinacef

I don’t know why her iCloud photos are always this difficult. Mine works just fine every time I do mine. I work for a major cell phone carrier and do this daily for customers without any hiccups. But every once in a while I see this and can never figure it out.

I will try that! Thank you for the help. :)

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