Your iPhone is lost, stolen, smashed, or simply won’t turn on, and you are not sure your photos and messages were in iCloud. Before you assume they are gone, check your computer. If you ever plugged that iPhone into a Mac or a Windows PC and backed it up, there may be a complete copy of it sitting on that computer’s drive right now. This guide shows you where to find it, how to protect it, and what to do if the computer holding it has problems of its own.
First, check what you already have in iCloud
Sign in at icloud.com or on another Apple device and look at Photos. Then check whether an iCloud Backup exists for the old phone: on another iPhone or iPad, go to Settings, tap your name, then iCloud and iCloud Backup, and look for the device in the list. If your photos and a recent backup are there, you may not need anything else. If not, the computer backup becomes important.
Where iPhone backups are stored on a computer
Backups made with Finder, iTunes or the Apple Devices app are saved in a folder called MobileSync. Each backup is a folder with a long string of letters and numbers as its name.
- Mac (macOS Catalina and later): In Finder, select an iPhone or iPad in the sidebar if one is connected, then use Manage Backups. Or go straight to the folder: in Finder, choose Go, then Go to Folder, and enter
~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup. - Windows, iTunes downloaded from Apple’s website:
%APPDATA%\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup - Windows, iTunes or Apple Devices from the Microsoft Store:
%USERPROFILE%\Apple\MobileSync\Backup
On Windows, you can paste these paths into the search box on the taskbar or the address bar of File Explorer. Check the folder’s date modified to see roughly when the last backup was made.
Don’t expect to see photos when you open it. The files inside have scrambled names and are not meant to be browsed. That is normal. What matters is that the folder exists and has a sensible size.
Copy the backup before you plug in a new iPhone
This is the step people miss. Your computer keeps one backup per device, and the folder can be changed when you connect and sync a phone. Before you connect a replacement iPhone:
- Copy the entire Backup folder to an external drive or another location on the computer. Copy it, don’t move it.
- On Windows with iTunes, consider turning off automatic syncing (Edit, Preferences, Devices, “Prevent iPods, iPhones, and iPads from syncing automatically”).
- Only then connect the new phone.
With a safe copy, a wrong click during setup is no longer a disaster.
Restoring the backup to a new iPhone
When you set up the new or repaired iPhone, choose to transfer from a Mac or PC when asked, then connect it and pick the backup by date and device name in Finder, iTunes or Apple Devices. A few things can get in the way:
- Encrypted backups need their password. If “Encrypt local backup” was turned on, you will be asked for the password you chose at the time. Apple cannot recover it for you, and without it that backup can’t be restored. Try any passwords you have used for the computer or your Apple Account. Don’t guess endlessly in a panic; take your time and write down what you have tried.
- The iOS version must be the same or newer. A backup made on a newer version of iOS can’t be restored to an iPhone running an older one. Update the new phone first and try again.
- Not enough space. The new phone needs enough storage for everything in the backup.
When the computer itself is the problem
Sometimes the backup exists, but the computer holding it is in trouble too: the old laptop won’t boot, the drive is clicking, or Windows says the folder is corrupt. In that case, stop. Don’t run repair tools, reinstall the operating system, or keep restarting a computer with a failing drive. The backup folder is just files on that drive, and it can often be recovered as long as the drive isn’t pushed further. Our hard drive data recovery page explains how a failing drive is handled, and if it was a Mac, see Mac data recovery.
If you deleted the old backup by mistake (for example, from the Manage Backups list), stop using that computer as much as you can. On a traditional hard drive, deleted backup files can sometimes be recovered; on an SSD the chances are lower because of how SSDs clear deleted data. Our deleted file recovery page covers this.
What a recovery lab needs from you
- The computer or drive that held the backup, and which user account was used.
- Roughly when the iPhone was last backed up to it.
- The backup password, if the backup was encrypted.
- What matters most: photos, messages, contacts, voicemails or app data.
An engineer evaluates the drive and gives you a fixed quote, recovery only starts once you approve it, and the work is done from a copy of the drive rather than the original.
Talk to Data Retrieval
If your iPhone is gone and the only copy of your photos is a backup on a computer that won’t cooperate, call Data Retrieval at (213) 986-4855. We work on-site across Los Angeles, the Inland Empire and Ventura County, and accept mail-in recoveries from anywhere in the US. You can also book a data recovery online.