Why Did My ICloud Photos Appear … Then Disappear?
As I wrote earlier , iCloud can be a little confusing. It shouldn’t have been – at least I don’t think Apple planned it this way – but some people seem to have gotten carried away with setting up iCloud sync. While it’s surprisingly handy to have the same photos show up on all of your Apple devices using iCloud, deleting photos on one device deletes them on all others.
Clear? Okay. Moving on to the iCloud-themed 911 question that Lifehacker reader Brian emailed this week :
“I was wondering if you could help me with my iPhone … I got a new iPhone after my last one was stolen and after logging into iCloud all my photos were recovered with white clouds below. In the end, they all disappeared, and I only have a few photos and a few new photos. Let me know if you can help. “
Not to paraphrase the intro, but when you give your photographic life to iCloud, you basically tell Apple that you want it to keep all of your photos. Anything you then do on your devices – creating new photos, editing photos, or deleting photos – syncs with the cloud and, as a result, should appear the same across all your iCloud-connected devices.
In other words, there is no reason why you shouldn’t see all of your iCloud photos on your new iPhone. They (obviously) wouldn’t exist if you never downloaded them to iCloud at all, but you did; At first they appeared with a small cloud icon indicating that they are not physically on your device, but still exist in the cloud.
My first thought is that you should check out icloud.com – yes, the website – and make sure all of your old photos are there. If you can’t find them, be sure to check your Recently Deleted folder. I’m not sure why they were just magically deleted, but it never hurts.
If your photos aren’t in iCloud or in the Recently Deleted folder, you’re in big trouble. We hope you have backed up your images elsewhere, or have previously downloaded your photos to other iCloud-enabled devices that you have (such as your Mac, iPad, etc.). If so, I would recommend syncing them with another service, such as Google Photos, for now while you figure this out. (It never hurts to have too many backups of your photos.)
Assuming your photos are in iCloud and for some reason you can’t download them in the Photos app on iPhone, let’s try troubleshooting again. First try disabling and re-enabling iCloud on your new iPhone – the software version of the reset switch. Open Settings, tap your name at the top, tap iCloud, tap Photos, and turn off iCloud Photos. Wait a few minutes. Turn it on again. See if your photos appear.
If not, you can try logging out of iCloud entirely by following the big, red “Sign out” link at the bottom of the Apple ID page, and then signing back in. Hopefully your photos will appear after that. You can also try switching to “Download and Keep Originals” under Photos in your iCloud settings if it isn’t already installed. Make sure you’re connected to Wi-Fi and give the device time to sync data – maybe even a few days.
If you still find that you have no photos, you can always try erasing your new device and performing a restore from a backup of your old device (assuming it’s still in iCloud or wherever you store it). Be sure to back up your photos to another service before signing in to iCloud again, just in case.
Setting up your iPhone as a new device and then linking it to your iCloud through the same email you used previously can also help your iCloud sync properly, but it’s a more radical step and will take more of your time. …
Finally, if none of these suggestions help, it might be time to speak with an Apple specialist . (If you go that route, please let us know what they say; I’m curious what was their fix – if there is one!)