Why did I lose my photos that were in iCloud?

Question

Why did I lose my photos that were in iCloud?

I opened my iCloud account tonight on my DELL laptop and then opened up photos. The only photos that are now viewable in iCloud are the ones currently on my phone (55 photos and videos). The last time I opened the photos was maybe over a month ago, and hundreds were viewable that were not on my phone. My storage shows that I have 49.01 GB available. My iCloud Photo Library is turned "ON" on my iPhone 5. Can anyone help me understand what might have happened and if there is a way to find them? I'm hoping that this is a simple fix with settings that I don't understand. I'm not aware that I changed any settings since I last viewed the photos. Thank you.

iPhone 5, iOS 10.3.3, null

Posted on Jun 7, 2018 6:20 PM

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Answer 1

LarryHN

Level 10

106,142 points

Jun 7, 2018 9:17 PM in response to mentalmagicman

have you deleted photos on any connected device? If do the deletions are synced to all devices

Look in the recently deleted labu and see if they are there - deleted photos are kept 30 days in the recently deleted album so you can recover from errors or mistakes

LN

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Answer 2

LarryHN

Level 10

106,142 points

Jun 8, 2018 12:05 AM in response to mentalmagicman

yes you are totally incorrect - iCloud is not an off site storage service nor is it a backup service - it is a syncing service to keep multiple devices the same, in sync - this article may help you understand iCloud services -- iCloud Deconstructed

LN

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Answer 3

Jun 10, 2018 6:28 PM in response to LarryHN

Well, I certainly misunderstood what it was all about! Thank you for the help.

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Answer 4

Jun 7, 2018 10:15 PM in response to LarryHN

Thank you for your response. No, these photos are not on my iPhone. They haven't been on my phone for months. I must not understand iCloud. I was under the impression that iCloud backed up and then kept all my photos as long as I had room for them (which I do) on the Cloud, regardless if the photos were on any of my devices or not. I was sure that even photos from last year, which were deleted from my phone shortly after being taken, were on iCloud after my deleting them off my phone. I thought that was idea of having them in the Cloud, since I ran out of room on my phone. Am I incorrect in my thinking? Thank you.

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Why did I lose my photos that were in iCloud?

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