iPhone data recovery after a factory reset

Yesterday I had to get a new phone due to water damage from a very rainy concert. The phone appeared fine, but would reboot every 2-3 min. The latest backup said it happened at 2:30 am the night of the concert.

When I got a new phone, we restored from the most recent backup and I was assured all of my photos from the concert would come through. They factory reset my phone (I was trading it in) and sent me on my way. None of the photos after 5 pm came through. (They are not on my icloud either).

I see a lot of software advertised as data recovery for after a phone has been wiped. Is there any hope with any of that software or are they scams?

At this point I am willing to try anything, but don’t want to spend money on something that is a scam.


[Re-Titled by Moderator]

iPhone 12, iOS 16

Posted on May 22, 2023 03:29 PM

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Posted on May 22, 2023 05:50 PM

Thank you. That’s what I was afraid of.


What is confusing is why the photos didn’t show up in the first place. I have it set up to sync to the cloud when you take the photos, and some did, but stopped around halfway through the day.

I also have it set to backup every day, and the backup said it took place at 2:30 am, after all of the photos would have been taken. I am not sure why those photos were lost when, by everything I’ve read, they should have been backed up.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

May 22, 2023 05:50 PM in response to Lawrence Finch

Thank you. That’s what I was afraid of.


What is confusing is why the photos didn’t show up in the first place. I have it set up to sync to the cloud when you take the photos, and some did, but stopped around halfway through the day.

I also have it set to backup every day, and the backup said it took place at 2:30 am, after all of the photos would have been taken. I am not sure why those photos were lost when, by everything I’ve read, they should have been backed up.

May 22, 2023 03:45 PM in response to ewolosz

There is no hope of recovering anything. All of the offers to recover data from dead phones are scams.


If you synced photos to iCloud (rather than backing them up) you can recover all of the photos that were synced.

iCloud+ has 2 independent functions. iCloud backups, and iCloud sync. It’s confusing because they both have the same name prefix. But they have no connection with each other. Go to Settings/[your name]/iCloud. You will see a bunch of switches (with iOS 16 also tap Show All). When you turn on a switch that data type will sync to iCloud. If you do this on multiple devices that share an Apple ID the selected data will sync to all of those devices. 


You can also turn on iCloud Backups. This will back up your phone every night if the phone is plugged in, connected to Wi-Fi and locked.


But note that anything that you sync by the first method will be excluded from the iCloud backups.


Apr 2, 2024 07:34 AM in response to ewolosz

Hi, the same thing happened with me yesterday as well. My phone was connected to charging and internet but the iCloud backup and Sync didn't occur leading to loss of a lot of photos. Apple should do something in this respect as lot of time people have to reset their phone without the option of backing up or syncing the devices. This is very frustrating and annoying thing to happen with no support from the worlds largest valued company.

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iPhone data recovery after a factory reset

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