Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Undo a restore?

I just bought a new iPhone X and before I set it up, I wanted to back up my iPhone 7 Plus to my iTunes account first. I literally have over 5,000 pictures and videos of my four kids from the past year, the youngest being one and literally his ENTIRE life is on my iPhone 7 Plus. So when I plugged it in, somehow instead of backing up it RESTORED my most recent back up--from November 2016--and now all of my precious data is gone. It's like I've just traveled backwards in time. Is there ANY way to get it back? Or is it gone forever? Devastated doesn't even begin to describe it...

iPhone 7 Plus, iOS 11.2

Posted on Dec 15, 2017 1:09 PM

Reply
Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Dec 15, 2017 1:20 PM

With such important content surely you made frequent backups. There is no way to undo the Restore, but you can restore the backup you must have made of your computer, then restore those images. There are other possibilities:


  • If you had turned on iCloud Photos in Settings on the phone all of the photos are still in iCloud. If you turn on iCloud photos they will come back to the phone. You can check by logging in to https://icloud.com on any computer using your Apple ID and password.
  • If you had a recent backup of the phone made before you accidentally did the Restore you can just restore that to the phone. (BTW, the "somehow" is that you accidentally clicked Restore Backup instead of Backup Now - Restores are never defaulted in iTunes)
  • If you transferred your photos to your computer via a USB cable they are still on your computer, and can be restored to the phone in any of several ways. The easiest is iCloud Photos, especially if you have a Mac.
  • Did you sync your photos to a 3rd party service to share them (e.g., Google Photos, Yahoo Photos, Shutterfly, etc)
8 replies

There are no replies.

Undo a restore?

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple ID.