In October 2021, I temporarily logged into my friend's Apple ID on my iPhone just to play a game. I don't recall enabling iCloud Photos or agreeing to sync or merge photos in any way. Fast forward to December 2021, when I got a new phone, I noticed a significant number of my photos were missing. Now, I'm worried that my photos might have uploaded to his iCloud and then got deleted. I'm pretty sure I never activated iCloud Photos, as that would mean my photos would be sent to iCloud. Is there a possibility that this could have happened without me being aware, or is it more likely that the photo loss is unrelated? It's been a while, so maybe I'm just overthinking it.
1 Answer
It sounds like you logged into your friend's account just to download the game, which shouldn't trigger iCloud Photos if you didn't sign out of your own account. If he did see your photos and deleted them from his end, they could vanish from your device too, especially if iCloud Photo Library was somehow activated. It’s tough to get photos back after so long unless you’ve got a backup somewhere that you haven't used since.
But if I signed out right after, would the deletion sync right away? I’m really positive I didn’t turn on iCloud Photos.