Help! My Photos Disappeared After Optimizing iPhone Storage

Have you given the photos time to sync? It can take a while, especially if you have a lot of pictures. My friend's phone took more than a day to load all of her images after she made similar changes.

Don't panic! It's likely that your photos aren't deleted. When you enable 'Optimize iPhone Storage,' your iPhone keeps thumbnails of the images and stores the full-resolution versions in iCloud. Restarting your phone right afterward can make it appear like everything disappeared because iOS is reindexing and connecting to iCloud.

Here are a few things you might want to try:
- Keep your phone plugged in and connected to Wi-Fi for a while. That 'Restoring from iCloud' message means it's still trying to recover your photos, which can take several hours or even overnight.
- Check the Photos app at the bottom of the Library to see if it shows any messages like 'Restoring X items' or 'Updating...'.
- If possible, check your photos on iCloud.com from another device. If they're there, you're in the clear!
- Ensure you're logged into the right Apple ID and that iCloud Photos is activated.

This is a common situation, and usually, the photos are safe in iCloud, just not downloaded yet. Avoid toggling settings frequently or signing out of iCloud; simply give it some time on Wi-Fi and power.

Totally understand the stress! Just a heads up, the optimized versions can be slow to show up again. I have around 30,000 photos, and sometimes it takes a day and a half for them to fully sync back. Just make sure you're on Wi-Fi and maybe leave it overnight.