Photos Disappeared from iPhone after iOS 11 Update? Here are 3 Solutions

“iOS 11 deleted my photos on iPhone 6s! I just updated to iOS 11 over the air, then, I can’t find a part of photos in Photos app. It seems they disappeared suddenly. Anyone else has encountered the same issue or knows how to get back iOS 11 missing photos? HELP!”

Apple launched official public iOS 11 on September 19, 2017. And by November 6, iOS 11 adoption has reached 52 %.

As expected, iOS 11 brings many great new features, such as type to Siri, business chat in Messages, Markup feature in Photos app, etc, which will lets you do more things with your iOS device than ever.  However, there are some bugs in iOS 11 that lead to annoying issues on iPhone and iPad – for instance, iOS 11 photos missing problem. If you have also experienced photos missing after iOS 11 or recent iOS 11.2.1 update, you’ll definitely want to know  how can you get disappeared photos back. Now, read this article to know what you can do to recover disappeared photos after iOS 11 update.

3 Solutions to Recover Disappeared Photos After iOS 11 Update

Solution 1. Download missing pictures from iCloud.com

Once you turn on iCloud Photo Library on your iPhone, your pictures will be automatically uploaded to iCloud.com. You can proceed to iCloud website and check whether missing photos are here.

Step 1. Visit iCloud.com on computer and log in with your Apple ID.

Step 2. Click Photos and have a check.

How to recover disappeared iPhone photos from iCloud.com

Step 3. If you can find your missing photos on iCloud, open Settings app on your iPhone, go to Settings > [your name] >iCloud > Photos, and toggle on iCloud Photo Library. Then all your iCloud photos will automatically sync back to your iPhone.

Solution 2. Recover lost photos from iTunes/iCloud backup

If there is usable iTunes/iCloud backup that contains your lost iPhone photos, it’s easy to get them back by restoring from a relevant backup. Before restoring, you’d better make a new backup for you iPhone to keep newly-created contents safe.

As for the step-by-step guide to restore from a backup, you can refer our related post: how to restore iPhone from iTunes/iCloud.

Solution 3. Retrieve lost photos from backup without erasing data

If you don’t want to restore your entire device from backup, you are suggested to try the third-party iOS backup extractor like iOS Data Recovery tool, which lets you export disappeared iPhone photos from iTunes or iCloud backup without restoring your device. With this tool, you are able to preview all iOS contents in backup before extract them. Next, we’ll take “Recover from iTunes Backup ” as an example. Now, follow the below steps to recover iOS 11 disappeared photos from iTunes backup without resetting.

Step 1. Download and install this software on your computer.

DownloadWindows versionDownloadMac version

Step 2. Open it, choose “Recover from iTunes Backup” and click Next to scan your backup.

How to recover disappeared iPhone photos from iTunes backup

Step 3. After scan, a list of iTunes backups is available. You can pick up a related one and click right arrow to continue.

What to do if iOS 11 photos disappeared from iPhone

Note: If your iTunes backup was encrypted, you’ll be required to enter the password to unlock the backup file. If you forgot the encryption password, you won’t recover the photos from iTunes backup. Related reading: how to recover forgotten iTunes backup password >>

Step 4. On the left side, you can click “Photos” to see backup pictures, select your needed images, and click ” To Computer” to save them to computer.

How to fix photos disappeared from iPhone after iOS 11 update

With iOS Data Recovery tool, you can easily recover disappeared iPhone photos from backup without resetting. Besides, it is capable of retrieving other data like contacts, notes, and messages from iOS device directly. So why not download it now and have a free trial?