# Solved: backup PHOTOS from an ipad to itunes without loss of data



## etaf (Oct 2, 2003)

A friends ipad has been locked during an IOS 7.1 update, and unfortunately the apple store had to reset her ipad back to factory condition. 

she has now been able to restore all here photos from the ipad using an icloud restore 
BUT because she thought she had lost everything, she now wants to take all those photos and put them on to a PC and an external harddrive - to make sure there is never a chance again of losing these pictures.

The ipad has never been connected to a PC or itunes 

Whats the best way to do this ? - Just copy the pictures onto a PC
I have been reading about it and in the past, if you connected a device to itunes, it would sync and wipe out the device.
In itunes, under preferences, I have set it up so that it will NOT sync.

The question is: 
Is there an easy risk free way to get those images on to her PC, either from the icloud backup or from the ipad  without any risk of losing them ? 
Is there a way to get itunes to see the icloud backup and do it that way, bypassing the ipad all together?

The PC is using windows 8.1
The latest version of itunes IOS 7.1 was downloaded Friday 27/6/14, which has caused the issue and she has had to reset the ipad after it all locked up. 

The apple store after 2.5 hours was unable to help and I just talked her over the phone in doing a restore from the icloud. And this is 2nd time she been to apple store for a problem , first was her email, which they managed to delete them ALL. So she is very unhappy with apple right now.

I really cannot afford to mess this up , as she had 2 years worth of unreplaceable photos 

Any advice welcome on the best way to do this. Take a copy of the photos from the ipad onto a PC 

Im will going along on Monday to make 3 backup copies of the photos - just need to get them off of her icloud or off of the ipad without any chance of loss 

Thanks for any help.


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## TerryNet (Mar 23, 2005)

If the photos are uploaded to iCloud (not an iPad backup) they are easily downloaded to a computer. (I'm making an assumption that the iPad works the same as an iPhone 5.)

On the iPad: Settings - iCloud - Photos - My Photo Stream - turn it ON; if it is already ON the photos should already be in iCloud.

On the PC install the iCloud Control Panel. Select Photos and go from there. Photos will be downloaded to <drive>\My Pictures\iCloud Photos\My Photo Stream.


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## etaf (Oct 2, 2003)

that sounds great TerryNet, I know the icloud has a backup - because it asked as part of the recovery what date to choose and gave the choice of 21st 24th or 26th of this month. And right now the ipad is slowly restoring those photos - so I suspect they are part of a backup set.


> If the photos are uploaded to iCloud (not an iPad backup)


 so i think they are part of the ipad backup, UNLESS the restore process also backups from the photo stream.
I guess I could log into the icloud myself using my PC , and here apple/icloud ID and password - any danger in doing this

APPLE on the phone after she returned from the applestore and contacted them to basically have a go - said that they say 600 photos on her icloud - so if they could see them, then i assume they are not part of a backup set


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## TerryNet (Mar 23, 2005)

> I guess I could log into the icloud myself using my PC , and here apple/icloud ID and password - any danger in doing this


None that I can think of.



> so if they could see them, then i assume they are not part of a backup set


I have no idea.


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## etaf (Oct 2, 2003)

Thanks Terry, I installed the control panel and then as my son had an iphone, I called him up and logged into his icloud account 
setup the control panel 
and all his photos started to download onto the new folder setup by icloud control panel 

into 
C:\users\username\photos\icloud photos\my photo stream

So thats very useful - also on the itunes, he sets do not sync in preferences and then you can see the photo directory under windows file manager as it just displays itself as another drive with a photo directory and you can just drag and drop
Still can not use that method for Music - Just images and Videos

On the icloud on the web login , you cannot see photos 

So thank you very much for pointing me towards the icloud control panel as its going to solve all my issues and reservations. In that the ipad does not have to go near itunes and so I cannot cause any issues there 

Thanks for a speedy reply, marked solved


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## TerryNet (Mar 23, 2005)

You're welcome, Wayne, and thanks for the additional info about getting photos to the computer. I'll probably try that as being more convenient to me.

I gave you a "dumb" path because I have Pictures (and other standard folders) relocated to a "E drive."


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## etaf (Oct 2, 2003)

it works really well


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