I upgraded from an iPhone 13 to an iPhone 17 Pro at an Apple Store in New York. Since I had never handled an upgrade and trade-in myself, I asked the staff to guide me through the backup process. They told me to upgrade my iCloud storage, wait for an iCloud backup, and then use that backup to transfer everything to the new phone.
My old phone contained more than 100 GB of photos and videos, but the iCloud backup was only about 42 GB. I specifically asked whether all of my data was protected, and an employee assured me that iCloud compresses photos and videos during backup. I then traded in the iPhone 13.
After completing the transfer at home, I discovered that many photos and videos were missing, along with some passwords. My iCloud Photos library has large gaps, including missing months in 2024, 2025, and 2026. The only old-device backup visible in my account is the one created that day at 5:26 PM.
The iPhone 13 has already been wiped and traded in. I plan to return to the store and speak with a manager, but I want to know whether an incomplete or temporary transfer backup might still exist on Apple's servers, whether the old phone could still be recovered before being processed, and whether there is any realistic way to retrieve the missing data.
5 Answers
An iCloud device backup is not a complete copy of the phone. Apps themselves generally are not included, and data that is already supposed to sync through iCloud—such as iCloud Photos, passwords, and some messages—may be excluded from the device backup. Photos are not simply compressed into a smaller backup that can later be restored. Check the old backup's details, iCloud.com, and the Photos sync status to see whether the missing items exist but have not finished downloading.
The likely problem is a sync-versus-backup issue. If iCloud Photos was enabled, the phone expected the photo library to upload separately, so the device backup could finish without containing those photos. If the upload had not completed, the backup would not necessarily protect the unsynced originals. A 42 GB backup does not prove the phone's 100-plus GB photo library was safely stored.
If you had previously made an encrypted Finder or iTunes backup on a Mac or PC, that is the best remaining recovery option because it can contain local data that was not in iCloud. Without another local or cloud copy, and with the original phone already erased, the missing photos may not be recoverable. For future upgrades, make an encrypted local backup and verify the photos are present before handing over the old device.
Contact the store and Apple support immediately and ask them to check the trade-in's processing status. There is a chance the phone is still at the location or in a processing queue, but once it has been erased or sent onward, recovery is unlikely. Store staff may not be able to see every server-side option, so ask specifically whether any temporary migration backup or device-retention hold can be checked.
It is worth checking whether the old iPhone backup is still listed under iCloud Backup. If it is, inspect its date and size before restoring anything. Also check iCloud.com Photos, Recently Deleted, Hidden items, shared libraries, and the Photos app's sync status. Sometimes a large library takes substantial time to appear on a new phone, especially if syncing is paused or limited to Wi-Fi, but a fully synced library with the same gaps usually means the files were never uploaded.
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