How To Restore Photos From Old Iphone Backup

How to Retrieve Photos from iPhone Backup with Ease

Have you lost some valuable photos from iPhone and want to retrieve them from iTunes or iCloud backup? This guide tells you how to retrieve photos from iPhone backup in easy and quick ways.

Vital iPhone Data Recovery Tips

My iPhone has been stolen. Thankfully I have an iTunes backup of all its data on my PC. How do I view or retrieve iPhone backup photos on PC? I do not have another Apple device that can view photos and my iCloud account does not contain any photos. Cheers for any answers!

iPhone photos loss can happen in various cases, such as a stolen iPhone, dead iPhone, system crash, etc. However, what can comfort us a little is that we still have the backup for some possibilities to get back the lost pictures. And in this post, we mainly talk about how to recover photos from the iPhone backups (iTunes and iCloud backup). You can follow the steps to restore the whole iTunes/iCloud backup or restore just photos from iPhone backup with an iPhone backup extractor.

Recover Photos from iTunes Backup
Recover just Photos from iPhone Backup via PhoneRescue for iOS
Retrieve Photos from iCloud/iCloud Backup
Related Questions about View Photos from iPhone Backup
Bonus Tip. Extract Photos from iPhone Backup with PhoneTrans

Recover iPhone Photos from iTunes Backup

If you have backed up your iPhone to iTunes, then the iTunes restoring way must be first coming to your mind. By restoring an iTunes backup that may contain photos you deleted, can recover the photos. But you should know this will wipe all your iPhone data and replace the data with the backup content.

Now, let's check how to recover photos from iTunes backup:

Connect your iPhone with the computer you usually sync with.
Open iTunes on your computer.
When your iPhone appears in iTunes, click the Summary option.
Click the Restore Backup option to recover iPhone photos.
Wait for its finishing, and then you will see the photos in your Photos app.

Restore iPhone from iTunes Backup

iTunes will not allow users to preview what is inside the backup. So there is no chance to figure out whether the backup contains what you want unless the whole backup is restored;
The restoring means that the device will be erased firstly and the files on your iPhone will be replaced with the backup files. So there would be a high chance of losing some other important data;
iTunes will restore the whole backup to the iPhone. You can't restore only photos.

Recover Photos from iPhone Backup via PhoneRescue for iOS [No Data Loss]

If you want to restore just photos from iPhone backup, the professional iPhone backup extractor – PhoneRescue for iOS can help you access and view photos on iPhone backup that you created with iTunes as well as iCloud.

With it, you can get photos off your iPhone and transfer photos from iPhone to computer or another iPhone. Most importantly, it won't require you to erase any existing data on your iPhone, all data will be kept 100% secure. Check how can PhoneRescue for iOS help you recover photos from iPhone backup:

PhoneRescue for iOS – iPhone Photos Recovery

View photos from iTunes/iCloud backupwithout an old iPhone.
Extract just photos from backup to computer or another iPhone.
Also, retrieve deleted photos from iPhone directlywithout backup.
Support iPhone 13 and iOS 15,no need to restore your iPhone.

Now, download PhoneRescue for iOS to your computer and connect your iPhone to the computer with a USB cable, then follow the steps to quickly access photos on your iTunes backup and export them to your Mac or PC.

Step 1. Run PhoneRescue for iOS.

Choose "Recover from Backup", then click "Next" to continue.

Retrieve from iPhone Backup

Step 2. Choose a backup first.

Uncheck the "Select All" button, check "Photos" only, and then click "OK".

Scan the Backup to Get Photos

Step 3. Choose the photos that you want to recover.

Then click the "To iPhone" button to recover them to your iPhone.

Preview and Recover Photos from iPhone Backup

Recover Photos from iCloud/iCloud Backup

Recover from iCloud Backup

If you have backed your iPhone to iCloud, then you can apply this iCloud restoring way to recover photos from iPhone backup. Here's how to retrieve photos from iCloud backup:

Restore iPhone from iCloud Backup

Restore from iCloud Backup

Go to "Settings" on your iPhone.
Tap on "General" and then choose Reset,
Tap on "Erase All Content and Settings".
Now, follow the onscreen setup steps until you reach the "Apps & Data" screen.
Tap on the "Restore from iCloud Backup" option.
Sign in to iCloud with your Apple ID.
Choose the backup you want.
Tap on the "Restore" button to start the process.

Recover just Photos from iCloud Online

You can log into your iCloud account from a web browser to check if it has the photos you need.

Open a web browser, and go to icloud.com.
Log in with your Apple ID.
Click on Photos and find the photos you need.
Right-click the photo to save or click the download button at the top right corner.

How to Recover Photos from Broken iPhone >
Top 6 iPhone Backup Extractor [Free & Paid] >
How to Recover Permanently Deleted Photos from iPhone >

Related Questions about View Photos from iPhone Backup

How do I retrieve photos from iTunes backup without iPhone?

If your iPhone got broken or totally disabled, how can we extract photos from iPhone? PhoneRescue for iOS allows you to extract photos from an iPhone that won't turn on, forget backup password, be infected by the virus, etc. That is to say, as we listed steps above, you can retrieve photos from iTunes backup without iPhone connected, also supports extracting just photos from iCloud backup. What's more, you can try PhoneRescue for iOS to rescue iPhone/iPad to normal state by fixing system issues, unlocking a disabled iPhone.

Is there a way to get photos off a dead iPhone without backup?

If you got a damaged iPhone but no backup files, how to recover photos from iPhone? With Recover from iOS Device mode on PhoneRescue for iOS, you can directly recover deleted photos from your iPhone/iPad. And when your iPhone screen is damaged or forgot lock screen passcode, it also gives you the possibility to detect iPhone and extract iPhone photos.

How do I backup all my iPhone photos without iTunes or iCloud?

If you want to extract photos from iPhone to computer without iTunes or iCloud, you can choose AnyTrans to backup and transfer your iPhone photos to computer completely or selectively. As a professional iOS data manager, AnyTrans helps you to transfer thousands of photos from your iPhone. Therefore, it is also a wonderful tool to view iPhone photos on a computer, and you can delete photos, import photos to iPhone, etc. Windows PC and Mac computer are supported.

And, you can get the latest version of AnyTrans and connect your iPhone to backup all iPhone photos now.

View Albums with AnyTrans

Bonus Tips. Extract Photos from iPhone Backup with PhoneTrans

It would be the luckiest thing in the world that you own a backup even you have lost your iPhone. But it would be also an annoying issue that retrieving photos from iTunes backup won't support selectively choosing. You can solve this issue with PhoneTrans which supports extracting photos from iPhone backups selectively. Let's check out how to use PhoneTrans to extract photos from iPhone backup easily.

Step 1. Download PhoneTrans and install it on the computer. Also, connect your iPhone to the computer.

Step 2. Choose the Phone Restore and tap on iTunes Backup. Then click on the Start Restore to go on.

Click iTunes Backup to Restore

Step 3. Now you will see the iTunes backup has already been listed. Choose the exact backup and select the Selective Restore to extract photos from iTunes backup.

Choose Selective Restore or Full Restore

Step 4. Unselect all and choose Photos. Then you need to tap on Restore Now to start the photos extracting.

Restore Photos from iTunes to iPhone via PhoneTrans

The Bottom Line

PhoneRescue for iOS and PhoneTrans give you full support on retrieving photos from iPhone backup, and all of the retrieved photos will be transferred to your computer/iPhone directly. Any question about this guide or PhoneRescue/PhoneTrans is welcomed, at the same time, don't forget to share this guide with your friends.

Author Avatar

Member of iMobie team as well as an Apple fan, love to help more users solve various types of iOS & Android related issues.