icloud refund? photos that were supposed to backup to icloud either did not or disappeared

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icloud refund? photos that were supposed to backup to icloud either did not or disappeared

So, I recently noticed that a number of photos (July-December 2022, July-December 2023) did not backup to icloud as i thought they had, prior to buying new iphone in March 2024 (i backed up all photos and phone contents and assumed everything had uploaded, as that is what it looked like). Furthermore, yesterday an even stranger anomaly: i noticed this- on June 18th 2022 (for example) I had taken plenty photos on the former iphone, i went thru the same backup procedure (March 2024), and yet yesterday I noticed (I had also exported all photos to an old macmini so they are also stored in hardware form) that on that day June 18th, a number of other photos WERE COMPLETELY MISSING FROM THE ICLOUD BACKUP despite the fact they had been taken with the same camera on the same phone on the same day and went thru the same backup procedure. So how is it possible SOME made it to the icloud while OTHERS did not? And then to discover two tranches of photos over a 6-month period each were entirely missing from the icloud. I thought everything had backed up. Not so. Bottom line: I paid for the icloud 200 GB storage with the expressed intention of saving these photos to the icloud to view on current phone, but chunks of them either did not backup or got stolen or did not work during backup. So, I either want that money back or Apple to make-good on this icloud situation. I refuse to connect the old mac mini to the icloud because 1/ photos might delete and 2/ it's primarily a music computer. Apple did want to screenshare without the icloud connected to the macmini, where it is clear photos that were taken and exported ON THE SAME DAY did not make it into the icloud or got deleted. I am going into the genius bar in an Apple store on Friday to show this to the staff, where they can witness this with their own two eyes. WHAT IS APPLE GOING TO DO ABOUT THIS? I also requested a data and privacy report for icloud connection logs and it is taking forever to generate. Pls advise. Apple should not be charging customers OTT icloud storage fees and they either do not backup (when it looks like they backed up and you understand they have backed up) or there exists some hole for someone to steal them (unlikely). So, there must be a make-good. This is a horrible situation.

iPhone 15 Pro Max, iOS 18

Posted on Jul 30, 2025 09:06 AM

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Answer 1

Jul 30, 2025 10:22 AM in response to wilki7727

wilki7727 wrote:

So, I recently noticed that a number of photos (July-December 2022, July-December 2023) did not backup to icloud as i thought they had, prior to buying new iphone in March 2024 (i backed up all photos and phone contents and assumed everything had uploaded, as that is what it looked like). Furthermore, yesterday an even stranger anomaly: i noticed this- on June 18th 2022 (for example) I had taken plenty photos on the former iphone, i went thru the same backup procedure (March 2024), and yet yesterday I noticed (I had also exported all photos to an old macmini so they are also stored in hardware form) that on that day June 18th, a number of other photos WERE COMPLETELY MISSING FROM THE ICLOUD BACKUP despite the fact they had been taken with the same camera on the same phone on the same day and went thru the same backup procedure. So how is it possible SOME made it to the icloud while OTHERS did not? And then to discover two tranches of photos over a 6-month period each were entirely missing from the icloud. I thought everything had backed up. Not so. Bottom line: I paid for the icloud 200 GB storage with the expressed intention of saving these photos to the icloud to view on current phone, but chunks of them either did not backup or got stolen or did not work during backup. So, I either want that money back or Apple to make-good on this icloud situation. I refuse to connect the old mac mini to the icloud because 1/ photos might delete and 2/ it's primarily a music computer. Apple did want to screenshare without the icloud connected to the macmini, where it is clear photos that were taken and exported ON THE SAME DAY did not make it into the icloud or got deleted. I am going into the genius bar in an Apple store on Friday to show this to the staff, where they can witness this with their own two eyes. WHAT IS APPLE GOING TO DO ABOUT THIS? I also requested a data and privacy report for icloud connection logs and it is taking forever to generate. Pls advise. Apple should not be charging customers OTT icloud storage fees and they either do not backup (when it looks like they backed up and you understand they have backed up) or there exists some hole for someone to steal them (unlikely). So, there must be a make-good. This is a horrible situation.

Good gracious that was ONE BIG RUN on sentence too hard to read so I stopped.

There is no Apple here in these user to user technical forum.

IF you were doing this Set up and use iCloud Photos - Apple Support it is NOT part of this What does iCloud back up? - Apple Support

You can also look here If you're missing photos or videos in the Photos app - Apple Support (IE)

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