How to Retrieve Photos from iPhone Backup Easily
Photo captured of the first bouquet you got from your fiance! A pic capturing the memory of the first day at school for your child! Photos of a family trip to your favorite destination! Your pre-wedding shoot pics! All these and more are not just photos stored in your phone, they are your most prized possessions! Gone are the days when people used to keep hard copies of their cherished pics. Today, everything is kept in the phone devices. But there are chances of losing your iPhone device or sometimes accidentally deleting some precious photos! Suddenly, you realize one day that all your photos are gone. Your precious memories are gone! Sad! No! This is when you think —“Can I retrieve photos from iPhone backup?” This is a real issue often faced by many iPhone users. Apple’s iTunes & iCloud backups have been designed in such a way that they tend to save your data. So, here’s how you can get back your photos!
The Reality Behind Those Lost Photos
As per Apple Support (Year 2023), almost seventy percent of iPhone users tend to depend upon iCloud and/or iTunes backups for protecting their phone data. Yet, many users are still uninformed about the process to selectively restore just the pictures from such backups without restoring the whole of phone data. This means while backups can be formed, retrieving just the photos tends to become a challenge sometimes.
From Situation to Solution
Issue Arised: Maria had recently changed her iPhone device. She had recently backed up her old phone using iTunes. Now, she wanted just her travel pics, and not the entire backup data. Restoring straight from iTunes would risk overwriting her new phone and filling it with various unwanted files.
Solution Thought: Instead of complete restoration, she searched for methods using which she could extract photos from iPhone backup. She found both manual ways as well as a dedicated software, which allowed her to retain just her photos that she required at that time.
Manual Ways to Retrieve Photos from iPhone Backup
1st Restoring Whole Backup Using iTunes
If you had backed up your iPhone device using iTunes, you can possibly restore the whole backup to your iPhone. Here are the simple steps:
- First, you have to connect to your iPhone.
- Then, you need to open iTunes.
- Now, you can select the device.
- After that, you need to select “Restore Backup.”
Pros:
- This method is free.
- This happens to be an official Apple method.
Cons:
- You can restore the whole backup, not selective.
- You can’t just selectively extract photos from iTunes backup.
2nd Retrieving Pictures via iCloud Backup
If your phone pictures have been stored in iCloud:
Steps: You can carry out the following steps:
- Go to Settings → General → Reset → Erase All Content → Setup iPhone → Restore from iCloud Backup.
Pros:
- This process is easy if you have been using “iCloud Photos.”
Cons:
- This process requires erasing your iPhone
- This method needs a strong internet connection
- You can’t export photos from iTunes backup.
3rd Browsing Backup Files with the Help of File Explorer
Some users attempt opening iTunes backup folders manually on their machine.
Pros:
- This method is free
- No extra tool needed to carry out the process.
Cons:
- This process is quite complex, only advanced users can carry this out.
- Raw files are not viewable as photos.
- You can’t extract photos from encrypted iPhone backup without a tool.
Manual Ways Are Not Sufficient to Retrieve Photos from iPhone Backup
- Such ways do not provide selective restoration as they retrieve everything.
- There is a risk of data overwriting.
- These processes can’t handle encrypted backups with ease.
- The manual methods are pretty time-consuming as well as a bit confusing for non-technical phone users.
You Got to Be Smarter! Take a Professional Tool
Manual ways work but they have their own limits. If you only wish to retrieve only your pictures from your phone device, a professional solution always saves your precious time. One such great tool is the 4n6 iPhone Backup Viewer Software. Unlike iTunes or iCloud restore, this software tends to allow you to extract images from iPhone backup straight away without retrieving the entire phone backup.
Main Plus Points of This Tool
- User-Friendly Interface: You do not have to be a tech genius to use this tool. The tool is very easy to use. It has a simple, easy-to-understand interface, which guides you through the process stepwise. No more complex file paths or any confusing steps involving database files.
- Selective Recovery: Rather than restoring entire phone data, you can easily browse your backup files and then select only the photos which you really need. This could really be a big time-saver and also avoids any data loss.
- No Data Overwriting: The greatest fear of any person doing manual retrieval is the loss of new data after backup. With this particular software, you know how to find photos in an iPhone backup file without overwriting anything on your phone. You can keep your current phone data pretty safe. Sounds good! Then go for it!
- You Can Preview Before Retrieving: You can actually view your photos in your backup before retrieving them. This means you could be sure that you are getting the right ones back
- Also Works with Encrypted Backups: If your iTunes backup has been encrypted with a password, most manual tricks will not help. A pro tool can extract photos from encrypted iPhone backup, as long as you are having the password with you.
- Format Flexibility: You can save your iPhone photos in multiple accessible formats such as JPEG or PNG.
Simple Steps to Retrieve Photos from iPhone Backup
Here is how you can export photos from iTunes backup using this software simply in a few clicks only:
- First, download & install the tool on your machine.
- Then, add the Backup File by selecting the iTunes/iCloud backup location.
- Now, preview Photos that are stored inside the backup.
- After that, select Images you wish to extract.
- Finally, click Export for saving those pics in your preferred format(s).
This is it! No such requirement of resetting your iPhone device or restoring all the files, just get the pics you require.
FAQs – Find Answers to Your Queries!
Q1. Is it possible to retrieve photos from iPhone backup without retrieving the entire phone data?
Ans: Yes, with a specialized tool, it is possible to export only the pictures, rather than retrieving the whole backup.
Q2. How to know whether I have an iPhone backup?
Ans: If you have ever connected your iPhone to any computer system using iTunes or Finder and then clicked “Back Up Now,” you are having a local backup. If you have iCloud Backup turned on in your phone’s settings, then you have a backup on the cloud.
Q3. Can I extract photos from encrypted iPhone backup?
Ans: If your iTunes backup had been encrypted, you would require the password to access it. Manual ways might not work, and you would need a professional tool, which tends to support encrypted backups.
Q4. Does retrieving data from an iPhone backup delete my apps?
Ans: No, it will not delete any of your apps, but it will restore them to the state that they were in during the time of that particular backup, which you will be using. For example, if you had downloaded a new app after the backup, that would be gone.
Q5. How to extract photos from iTunes backup to my system?
Ans: By using a pro software, you can straight away extract the pics to your PC.
Q6. Is it safe to use a 3rd-party tool to retrieve contacts from iPhone backup?
Ans: Yes, if you use a worthy tool!
Q7. How do I retrieve photos from iTunes backup without iPhone?
Ans: By using a 3rd-party professional tool!
Photos Are Memories and Memories Are Precious!
If you have ever lost your phone photos or changed your iPhone device(s), knowing how to retrieve photos from iPhone backup could possibly save your so-very-precious memories. While manual ways do exist, they come with their own set of limitations. For a speedier & securer solution, opting for a professional tool helps a great dear by letting you recover only what you require, your priceless pics in this case, without any such stress.
Summarizing
Losing photos on your iPhone could be very frustrating, but backups give hope. Manual methods such as iTunes & iCloud tend to restore everything, but if you need only your photos, a specialized tool can help. With the right approach, you can very easily retrieve photos from iPhone backup selectively, and this can be done even from encrypted backups.
