For several months, older photos and videos have shown an error saying that a higher-quality version could not be loaded. The problem seems to affect most items from before August 2025. After getting a new phone, only photos from early this year onward transferred, along with a small number from previous years, and even some January items appear to be missing or incomplete.
I have already contacted Apple support several times and tried editing the affected media, sharing it to another device, using AirDrop, and connecting the old phone to a laptop, but the files still will not load. My cloud plan has plenty of available space: 150.1 GB of 2 TB is used. The cloud account says Photos uses 94.6 GB and contains 7,806 photos and 1,896 videos, while the Photos app shows 46,735 items. The old phone has 126.63 GB of 128 GB used, including 77.86 GB from Photos, and the Photos app currently says "Syncing Paused."
I need to recover or preserve the missing media before I have to hand over the old phone. Is there anything else I should check or try?
2 Answers
Check Settings for a notice asking you to agree to updated cloud terms and conditions. Accepting that prompt can sometimes unblock cloud services and allow Photos to continue syncing. If no notice appears, the paused-sync message and nearly full device storage are still important clues, so free some local space if possible and leave the old phone powered and connected to Wi‑Fi.
Since the Photos app says syncing is paused, first look for anything preventing the sync from resuming, such as a pending system prompt or updated cloud terms and conditions. Also keep the phone connected to power and reliable Wi‑Fi while checking. The different item counts suggest that the full library may not have finished syncing, so avoid erasing or turning in the old phone until the originals are confirmed elsewhere.
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