Please help, lost pictures of my honeymoon

[entidine]

All my pictures from my honeymoon were loaded on my iPad. It was great whenever I wanted to look at them or show them to somebody.

Well, I just went to look at them and they aren't there. Instead there a bunch of random work photos. The weird thing is these are the same photos that show up in iPhoto on my work Mac.

Did my work Mac somehow sync with my iPad and replace all the photos? How do I get my honeymoon photos back? I can't see them anywhere.

 

[dougrogers]

I get the idea from your message that you synced your iPad to different, multiple macs?

 

[entidine]

Yes, started a new job so synced to the new mac.

 

[dougrogers]

Your honeymoon pictures are on your old Mac....

 

[entidine]

That means they are gone. I lost all the photos from my honeymoon.

 

[glittergirl]

Was that absolutely the only place they were stored, with no other copies in existence? If that is the case I would highly recommend getting a free Flickr or Picasa account and uploading to a private album. You can view these through many great apps and even cache on your device so they're there without a data connection, or save to your iPad photos, or redownload to your computer.

It's a good practice because no offense but your iPad could also be easily stolen, dropped, etc in which case you would also lose all photos if that is the sole place you are storing your only copies. If you do have copies, then there are definitely options for avoiding such sync snafus in the future. Wish you luck. I had to replace my iphone this spring before I had a chance to upload the pictures I had of my kitty in the month before she passed away, and now they're gone forever. I have many other pictures of her, but those were special and I'm so annoyed with myself for being too lazy to upload them.

Sent from my iPhone using iPF

 

[entidine]

Many of the photos are on my Facebook, but they're low-res. I wanted to frame some of the photos and I'd need the originals to do that. I also have some photos shot with an inexpensive point and click. But I erased the photos off my Nikon's SD card so they are gone. I didn't know the photos I put on my iPad weren't stored on it.

 

[glittergirl]

Wow, that really sucks. I feel for you.
The photos are technically stored on the iPad, but it's just so easy to wipe them with a sync like you accidentally did. Since Picasa accepts full rez uploads, I'd definitely recommend checking it out bc it's free and so easy to batch upload and redownload full-res to iPad, iPhone, computer, etc. and you can make totally locked albums if you want privacy.

HOWEVER-I just remembered this-will take you some googling but I recall reading that there is sonetimes a way to recover images at least from iphone backups. Probably iPad too. I do not remember if this was only thumbnails or the full images though but it might be worth searching for "recover pictures from iPhone backup" - I'd search iPhone first bc it's been around longer and there are a lot more of them, so you're more likely to find answers that way and the file backup locations and processes for going through them are pretty much the same. Good luck, might be worth a shot at least.

Sent from my iPhone using iPF

 

[dougrogers]

Many of the photos are on my Facebook, but they're low-res. I wanted to frame some of the photos and I'd need the originals to do that. I also have some photos shot with an inexpensive point and click. But I erased the photos off my Nikon's SD card so they are gone. I didn't know the photos I put on my iPad weren't stored on it.

Where is the first Mac you synced to? No backup? You can find businesses who restore the data from hard drives, and you can restore data from SD cards. Most essential is that the data isn't written over. Erasing an SD card or a drive doesn't always destroy the data, just rewrites the directory so the space can be used again.

The photos you put on your iPad were stored there. Else you wouldn't have been able to view them. They were removed when you synced to the new Mac. Every sync involves a backup. The sync process does that first. If you can find that backup you can find your photos.

 

[richsadams]

All my pictures from my honeymoon were loaded on my iPad. It was great whenever I wanted to look at them or show them to somebody.

Well, I just went to look at them and they aren't there. Instead there a bunch of random work photos. The weird thing is these are the same photos that show up in iPhoto on my work Mac.

Did my work Mac somehow sync with my iPad and replace all the photos? How do I get my honeymoon photos back? I can't see them anywhere.

As dougrogers indicates, there may be hope. Have you synced and backed up your iPad to the original computer since the photos were deleted? If you haven't synced your iPad since the photos were deleted you may be able to recover them by restoring your iPad to an earlier backup...the backup from the first computer you used to sync your iPad.

To restore your iPad from the last backup:

1. Before connecting your iPad open iTunes > Preferences > Devices > Check "Prevent iPods, iPhones and iPads from syncing automatically".
2. Connect your iPad to your computer.
3. Right-click or Control-click on your iPad (listed in the left-hand menu of iTunes).
4. Click on "Restore from backup"
5. In the pop-up ensure that you pick your iPad (if you have more than one device associated).

Doing this will restore your iPad to the last backup created on the original computer. If your photos are part of that backup they should be included in your Photos app once again.

Also, as others have mentioned, if the photos were on your digital camera's the memory card there's a very good possibility that they are still there...even though you tried to erase it. Stop using the camera immediately and pull the memory card. There are numerous very good applications that can recover photos from digital camera memory cards...just Google and you'll find what you need.

Hope that helps and let us know how it goes!

 

[glittergirl]

If that backup is on your work computer, just make sure that no other iPads are synced to it until you can grab the file. You can google iPad file backup location or something to find it - the Apple support site also lists the exact folder where they're stored if you search for how to manually delete backups. You don't want to delete it obv but I know Apple lists the location there. Depending on how much leeway you have at work you could then burn that backup file to a CD, upload it to Dropbox, etc to get it from your work computer. You can do this with a copy of the backup too, I don't think it would need to be the original. @dougrogers has great advice about the sd card too, although if you can manage to extract them from the backup then it might save you from paying for that kind of service. Please let us know how it works out for you, I'm sure many others have faced similar situations and losing important pictures is often a lot worse than just having your music wiped or something because of the personal nature.

 

[glittergirl]

Oh, I just saw the post from @richsadams when I wrote my last one. Yes, brilliant! That could work, I hope it does! (Since I'm JB I never restore from a backup and sometimes forget about that option!) Good luck!

Sent from my iPad using iPF

 

[dougrogers]

And how did you get the photos of the camera onto the iPad? Connection kit? From the first Mac? Did you load the pictures onto the Mac from the camera? Do you have iPhoto on that Mac?

 

[dougrogers]

To restore your iPad from the last backup:

1. Connect your iPad to the original computer.
2. Immediately stop the automatic backup that may begin by clicking on the small "X" in iTunes progress area at the top of the iTunes screen.

Even before you connect the cables from Mac to iPad, go into iTunes prefs, under the devices tab, turn ON the prevent automatic synchronization .

 

[richsadams]

Even before you connect the cables from Mac to iPad, go into iTunes prefs, under the devices tab, turn ON the prevent automatic synchronization .

D'oh! I completely forgot about that. Brilliant! I edited my post to read:

To restore your iPad from the last backup:

1. Before connecting your iPad open iTunes > Preferences > Devices > Check "Prevent iPods, iPhones and iPads from syncing automatically".
2. Connect your iPad to your computer.
3. Right-click or Control-click on your iPad (listed in the left-hand menu of iTunes).
4. Click on "Restore from backup"
5. In the pop-up ensure that you pick your iPad (if you have more than one device associated).

Thanks for catching that! :thumbs: