I have been using iCloud to back up my pictures for years. They have always transferred from one iPhone, iPad, etc. to another. Now, all of a sudden, I can only get my pictures back as far as 2012. I’ve been paying $2.99 for extra storage for years. Where are my pictures?
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
Original Title: Apple Has Lost My Pictures
iPad Pro, iPadOS 18
We are not Apple. Folks who read these posts are just users like you, and there's no way for us to know what happened to your pictures. I do know that I have never lost pictures from iCloud. I wonder how this happened.
It concerns me, though, that you said you had "been using iCloud to back up my pictures," since iCloud isn't really a backup service for pictures. iCloud is used to synchronize pictures between devices, and it sounds like you were using iCloud Photos to do just that. For backup, we copy our pictures to separate disk drives.
I don't know if they can help, but you can contact Apple here:
Contact Apple Support - Apple Support
We are not Apple. Folks who read these posts are just users like you, and there's no way for us to know what happened to your pictures. I do know that I have never lost pictures from iCloud. I wonder how this happened.
It concerns me, though, that you said you had "been using iCloud to back up my pictures," since iCloud isn't really a backup service for pictures. iCloud is used to synchronize pictures between devices, and it sounds like you were using iCloud Photos to do just that. For backup, we copy our pictures to separate disk drives.
I don't know if they can help, but you can contact Apple here:
Contact Apple Support - Apple Support
Missing iCloud Photos beyond 2012 despite active storage plan
