Why do my iCloud photos only start from last year?

Question

Level 1

4 points

Why do my iCloud photos only start from last year?

I have only just accessed iCloud to view my photos, believing that they were all being stored, I have had an iPhone for at least the last 8 years with the same AppleID but when I go to view them, it's only showing me from Sept 2017. How would I find the rest of my photos? My last phone change was in 2016 and I've always had back up turned on.

iPhone 7, iOS 11.3

Posted on Apr 20, 2018 1:57 PM

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Answer 1

sterling r

Community Specialist

Apr 21, 2018 10:37 AM in response to LizzyD89

Hello and welcome to Apple Support Communities LizzyD89,

I see that you're only seeing photos in iCloud from the last year. I take a lot of pictures with my iPhone, so I understand your concern, and I'd be happy to provide some information to help.

Your photos are not stored in an iCloud backup. They are automatically uploaded to iCloud when you have iCloud Photo Library enabled. If you did not have this feature enable at any time, the photos that you were taking would not have been uploading to iCloud. The following articles gives more information about iCloud backups and iCloud Photo Library.

About backups for iOS devices
iCloud Photo Library
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
Have a great day!

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Answer 2

Eric Root

Level 10

684,039 points

Apr 21, 2018 11:18 AM in response to LizzyD89

If you were syncing iCloud Photo Library, have you gone to iCloud.com/Photos using a computer browser to see if they are there? Have you checked the Photos app and at iCloud.com/Photos for a Recently Deleted album?

If the photos are at iCloud.com/Photos, try Settings/Your Name/iCloud and slide off syncing. Wait a few minutes and then slide syncing on.

Last resort - have you tried signing out of iCloud and then sign back in?

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Why do my iCloud photos only start from last year?

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