User level: Level 1 (4 points)I lost some photos from my iPhone several months ago. They were deleted on specific dates, and I would like to recover them. Could you please help me check if there is any way to restore these photos or recover them from an older backup?
Posted on Sep 30, 2026 4:06 PM
User level: Level 10 (93,009 points)Oct 1, 2026 4:59 AM in response to dhuha289
Did you use iCloud Photos at that time or did you not sync photos to iCloud?
If you sync your photos with iCloud, photos are not part of the iPhone backup. In case you did not use iCloud Photos, your pictures are part of the iPhone backup, if this backup has not been overwritten by a newer backup version.
Restore your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch from a backup - Apple Support
Even a backup on your computer will have to be from before that date, so that you can restore the complete backup on your iPhone. Photos can not be extracted from an iPhone backup.
Your data on the iPhone will be set back to that point in time again and you can copy the photos to your computer, and then use a recent backup to get your newest data and settings back.
User level: Level 7 (25,466 points)Oct 1, 2026 7:08 AM in response to dhuha289
As Ingo2711 indicates, the "backups" provided by iCloud are very limited. iCloud Backups let you go back about a one day, and iCloud Photos doesn't hang on to Recently Deleted pictures any longer than your phone.
Perhaps you have shared your pictures with friends-- then you could get them to send copies back to you.
Unfortunately, if you don't keep your own backups to an external drive, then there really isn't any place else to look. To back up your pictures you can just plug in an external drive, select the pictures, and use Share>Save to Files. Alternatively, you can backup to a computer:
Transfer photos and videos from your iPhone or iPad to your Mac or PC
If you haven't done one of those backups, then your remaining pictures continue to be in peril.
Originally posted at discussions.apple.com/thread/256368161