iPhone 8/Plus Missing Photos is a Deal Breaker

[ericgtr12]

Just Google it, or even search it out here at MR. Photos going missing (particularly after an update) is a relatively common occurrence with the iPhone and has been in all versions of iOS. I have been exclusively using iCloud for a backup and the photos are gone from there, too. I suppose it's on me that I didn't back it up to my MAC but I didn't think I had to.

This stuff is people's lives and memories, the fact that Apple doesn't take it it seriously is disheartening. In most cases, if you look around, you will NOT get them back without a hard copy backup. What's even more disturbing is not knowing why it did it in the first place, over a thousand photos are just gone. Poof.

It's hard to remain loyal to Apple when they refuse to address such a well known and widespread issue.

 

[Hieveryone]

Huh?

I don’t think I’ve had photos missing?

And even if I did have some missing that I didn’t notice, I don’t miss them anyway so no problem.

 

[rugmankc]

Can't you back them up? I put all my mine to several backup locations.

I have never lost photos or know anyone else that has.

But, I agree losing them can be disappointing---

 

[EM2013]

I’ve never heard of this “well known and widespread issue.”

Had iPhones since 2011 and I’ve never lost any pictures in all of my updates. I just backup on my computer since I don’t use iCloud.

 

[ericgtr12]

Huh?

I don’t think I’ve had photos missing?

And even if I did have some missing that I didn’t notice, I don’t miss them anyway so no problem.

I’ve never heard of this “well known and widespread issue.”

Had iPhones since 2011 and I’ve never lost any pictures in all of my updates. I just backup on my computer since I don’t use iCloud.

From this site alone there are over 5000 results, most related. Then there's Google with some 14,000 results if it hasn't happened to you yet, then great. If it has and you've never been able to recover then welcome to the club. It would be one thing if we knew of a fix or even a reason it happened in the first place but for most when this happens there's no rhyme or reason.

 

[C DM]

From this site alone there are over 5000 results, most related. Then there's Google with some 14,000 results if it hasn't happened to you yet, then great. If it has and you've never been able to recover then welcome to the club. It would be one thing if we knew of a fix or even a reason it happened in the first place but for most when this happens there's no rhyme or reason.

Those aren't really meaningful measurements of much. That said, there are definitely some issues that some people run into with updates here and here with iOS (and other OS's). Some can be more unique and quite uncommon, while others can be somewhat more prevalent although can still be some ways off from common/widespread.

 

[eyoungren]

Just Google it, or even search it out here at MR. Photos going missing (particularly after an update) is a relatively common occurrence with the iPhone and has been in all versions of iOS. I have been exclusively using iCloud for a backup and the photos are gone from there, too. I suppose it's on me that I didn't back it up to my MAC but I didn't think I had to.

This stuff is people's lives and memories, the fact that Apple doesn't take it it seriously is disheartening. In most cases, if you look around, you will NOT get them back without a hard copy backup. What's even more disturbing is not knowing why it did it in the first place, over a thousand photos are just gone. Poof.

It's hard to remain loyal to Apple when they refuse to address such a well known and widespread issue.

I've had iCloud for photos turned off since iOS 6.

Every update since then I've turned it right back off. I use Dropbox.

That said, anything important I pull right off the phone…and it's on Dropbox already.

That further said, if I lost over 3000 photos of the products on Walmart's shelves that I send to my wife so she can choose what she wants me to bring home I wouldn't really have an issue. The only other thing in there is screencaps to post here or other forums and insignificant garbage.

Anything REALLY important to us we take pictures with a camera that uses actual film.

I get that as you said, peoples lives go on to these devices. But people are too trusting with technology, especially phones. Phones break all the time. If something is really that important to you it shouldn't remain on your phone.

 

[rafark]

I have been exclusively using iCloud for a backup and the photos are gone from there, too.

Been there, done that, welcome to the club. I've lost lots of pics over the years. Consider them lost forever and move on. Icloud is not reliable at all -in my experience-.

 

[sean000]

I’m sorry that happened to you. I haven’t had this happen, that I’m aware of, in eight years of iOS use. That said I never trust one backup solution for things like photos and video. I backup to iCloud Photo Library as well as to Google. I also put the best photos up on my smugmug site.

 

[joeblow7777]

I’ve never heard of this problem before.

 

[Newtons Apple]

First I have heard of this. Do not think it is as big as what the OP is trying to say it is but backing up with iTunes will stop it from ever happening. I have never had a single photo vanish.

 

[Stewie]

Just Google it, or even search it out here at MR. Photos going missing (particularly after an update) is a relatively common occurrence with the iPhone and has been in all versions of iOS. I have been exclusively using iCloud for a backup and the photos are gone from there, too. I suppose it's on me that I didn't back it up to my MAC but I didn't think I had to.

This stuff is people's lives and memories, the fact that Apple doesn't take it it seriously is disheartening. In most cases, if you look around, you will NOT get them back without a hard copy backup. What's even more disturbing is not knowing why it did it in the first place, over a thousand photos are just gone. Poof.

It's hard to remain loyal to Apple when they refuse to address such a well known and widespread issue.

Apple sold 52 million iPhones last quarter. Using your numbers of let’s say 20,000 internet posts that is only 0.0004% of the phones sold that have that issues. That isn’t common. Is it an issue? Sure. But is is so far from common that I have to laugh at your use of that word.

 

[ericgtr12]

I’m sorry that happened to you. I haven’t had this happen, that I’m aware of, in eight years of iOS use. That said I never trust one backup solution for things like photos and video. I backup to iCloud Photo Library as well as to Google. I also put the best photos up on my smugmug site.

Yeah Google Photos has been good to me and it's technologically far more advanced than Apple's photo app. I still have no idea what happened, I ran the last iOS update and they were just removed. I think my mistake was relying on the cloud for backup but it really just matches whatever's on your phone, the only really safe thing seems to be a plug in/physical hard copy backup through iTunes. Archaic in today's terms but what are you going to do?

 

[Newtons Apple]

Yeah Google Photos has been good to me and it's technologically far more advanced than Apple's photo app. I still have no idea what happened, I ran the last iOS update and they were just removed. I think my mistake was relying on the cloud for backup but it really just matches whatever's on your phone, the only really safe thing seems to be a plug in/physical hard copy backup through iTunes. Archaic in today's terms but what are you going to do?

I will never think of my iTunes encrypted backups as "archaic". I back up daily with the cloud except my photos and once a week with iTunes. No way I would trust the cloud as my sole backup.

 

[ericgtr12]

I will never think of my iTunes encrypted backups as "archaic". I back up daily with the cloud except my photos and once a week with iTunes. No way I would trust the cloud as my sole backup.

I don't think it's "the cloud" so much as it is the logical design of it because in the end it all resides on something physical either way. In reality it's just a duplicate copy of what's on your phone with nothing historical saved in the cloud, so there are no copies from previous days, months or years. Of course, I didn't quite get this until I needed it, that being said the only real way to have snapshots saved is from iTunes, plugged into your local computer. IMO this needs to be outlined and clear because the whole thing is convoluted when we talk about the cloud.

 

[BigMcGuire]

I haven't heard of the problems of photos disappearing in iCloud / iPhone during updates. But I am not surprised. iCloud and iCloud Photos are abysmal. I use them as secondary backups only.

Google Photos is the way to go. I have 120GB of photos and videos (over 100k) on Google Photos also backed up to a hard drive that is backed up to a BackBlaze B2 cloud. I use Amazon Photos to back up my iPhone - as well as iCloud Photos with Google Photos as the primary.

I only have 15GB of photos on iCloud photos and it struggles for whatever reason while Google handles my 100k+ photos/videos with ease.

Always have multiple backups. I use Arq to backup to 2 hard drives, to Google Drive, and to BackBlaze. I have BackBlaze unlimited personal backup and time machine to 2 drives that I keep at work and at home (one each).

All my data resides in OneDrive (the above paragraph backs up my User folder on Mac) and I copy it to Google Drive, iCloud, Dropbox a few times a year as additional backups.

But I don’t backup photos to OneDrive because it doesn’t back up Live Photos. Google and Amazon do.

 

[Starship67]

Count me in as well never heard of the issue nor have I had the issue. But then again I save save save. I hear even Jesus saves.

 

[nburwell]

I have never heard of this issue. I'm honestly quite surprised that it hasn't been brought up on here before (unless I missed it). I used to use Dropbox, but now I use Google Photos to back up all my images on my device. I still have yet to experience a time where a photo is missing though.

 

[adamhenry]

After multiple iPhones and many iOS upgrades, I have never lost a photo from iCloud.

 

[TechJunk1e]

Never had this issue.

 

[darngooddesign]

While I’ve sorry it happened, if your photos are that important why aren’t you keeping a hard backup in addition to your iCloud backup?

 

[Christoffee]

Photos are so important. On my computer, backed-up to a hard-drive, and synced to Google. Hopefully it's enough. I sometimes think about Backblaze, and doing a second hard-drive for another location.

 

[sean000]

Yeah Google Photos has been good to me and it's technologically far more advanced than Apple's photo app. I still have no idea what happened, I ran the last iOS update and they were just removed. I think my mistake was relying on the cloud for backup but it really just matches whatever's on your phone, the only really safe thing seems to be a plug in/physical hard copy backup through iTunes. Archaic in today's terms but what are you going to do?

This is an issue for many cloud backup strategies, unless there are multiple versions/snapshots you can go back to. That's one thing I like about the Office 365 OneDrive for Business account I have through work. If something is missing I can check the online recycle bin, and if something is corrupt I can restore a previous version. I would love to at least have access to some kind of log for iCloud backup and Photo Library for troubleshooting and verification purposes. I think of iCloud backup and Photo Library as a convenience more than a totally reliable crash plan. I think it's mostly reliable, and I have restored from iCloud since it became available, but sometimes it pays to have a backup to the backup. I also have iCloud Photo Library sync to my desktop, and from there it backs up to an external drive. I probably have more redundancy than I need, but I don't like to have all my eggs in one basket... especially baskets that might have holes in them that you can't see.
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Photos are so important. On my computer, backed-up to a hard-drive, and synced to Google. Hopefully it's enough. I sometimes think about Backblaze, and doing a second hard-drive for another location.

I've helped other people set up cloud backups to services like Backblaze and Carbonite, but I have yet to use either one myself. I've been in the routine of rotating external drives so I always have one at home and stored off-site at my office. Then I have my cloud backups of photos to iCloud, Google (mobile photos only) and Smugmug (the curated photos and videos).

External drives and cloud backup are both inexpensive options these days. The downside to cloud is that it can take days to do the initial backup and also to do a download of everything all at once... especially if your ISP throttles your bandwidth to the service (some do). The upside is that you don't really have to think about cloud backup as long as you heed any alerts that prompt you to troubleshoot a backup or account issue. You also get the ability to restore previous versions of individual files with some cloud services (but the same can be true for an external drive with the right configuration... but it requires more storage). Cloud backup is the modern solution. The only reason I still do the external drive thing is because it's a long-time habit from before a time when cloud backup was affordable or practical.

 

[MEJHarrison]

My photos are important and I don't want to loose any. That's why full copies are in the cloud, on my laptop, on my desktop and backed up with Time Machine. That's three full copies of my photo library locally and one copy offsite. Now that I've jumped from 128GB devices to 256GB versions, I'm even contemplating keeping the full versions on my iPhone and/or iPad. I've lost photos in the past. Don't want to go through that again.

 

[Dodgeman]

The only issue I have seen is photos being out of order after a software update.