extract photos from iphone backup files?

[sladester]

i would restore to the backup with the photos, and then snag them off your iphone once its restored

[Alexandero2]

To recover pictures you don't need any special app.
iTunes copies the files to the backup and uses unique file names
in Windows XP: C: \Documents and Settings\[username]\Application Data\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\
Windows Vista/7: C: \Users\[username]\AppData\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\ (or something real close)
you will see a folder for every iPhone backup made - pick one
sort the files by size, for the 3gs and older .jpg files will be about 900kb or smaller (3mb camera) and copy them to a temp folder, then rename all of them to *.jpg (in CMD window: ren *.* *.jpg)
change you view to thumbnail and you will see your pictures
the 4g has a 5mb camera so the pictures will be larger but not over 3mb, files that size are usually video.

Video files are also stored here and are .mov (Quicktime) files

Just wanted to give a BIG thanks for this. Was looking for this simple information months ago but couldn't find it. Good thing I never deleted my old Windows partitions (as that's when my iPhone deleted all my photos on the next Sync)

Anywho, thanks again (I only just joined because of how grateful I was for this and just had to say thanks....lol)

[snd0551]

Hi, i download the free version of iphone backup extractor, the one that is selling for 25$ and works on windows to see if this would pull my photos out from backup but it is not able to. It seems to show that it can only do contacts, calendar, notes, sms but not photos or video. Some background:
my iphone had speaker issues and needed to be exchanged. So i backedup the iphone (however i did not log in to my itunes acct when did it, apple thinks this is the issue), after that when i received the new phone and itunes would not recognize this backup at all. the size of backup folder is 5GB. i am sure it has photos or else it would not be that big? any ideas, does your software work on windows, alternatively if i move my backup file from windows to mac (i can borrow one) will the back will stay valid and will i have better shot at recovering photos and videos. thanks!

Hi Guys,

I'm the developer of that iPhone Backup Extractor; thanks for linking to my app from here!!

I get tons of visitors from this awesome site. Let me know if you have any questions at all about it and I'll be happy to help.

I've kept my app free and up to date for almost three years now and I intend to keep it that way. But I wanted to let you know about another app that I made that's focused solely on being really easy to use for browsing and recovering Photos from back ups.

Photo Rescue lets you browse all the backups it finds so you can see if your photos are there first. Backups only get made when you sync, so it's important to be able to confirm they're there. It's free to browse and costs $4.99 to get a full license that lets you export.

If you don't want to pay, you can still use it to browse, then use the backup extractor to export. I really don't want to come across as being spammy, so just let me know if this is inappropriate and I'll delete the post right away!

[Blakeanator1]

What do you do if the backup is encryped??

[wzy]

My old backup file seams to be corrupt. iPhone backup extractor can find the backup, but under the topic Available data it just says none on every category... Is there a way to extract some pictures anyway or is it just a lost cause?

[s0ulp1xel]

so i did an upgrade to 2.1 today and when i went to restore my previous sync, it told me it was curropt.

bummer.

is there anyway to recover photos from the curropted backup? any apps? or anything?

on a MAC 10.4

thnx

Lucky. you can get shapeshifter the theming app for mac.

The Backups are located at /Users/username/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup

[glenjohnston]

Hi Guys,

I'm the developer of that iPhone Backup Extractor; thanks for linking to my app from here!!

I get tons of visitors from this awesome site. Let me know if you have any questions at all about it and I'll be happy to help.

I've kept my app free and up to date for almost three years now and I intend to keep it that way. But I wanted to let you know about another app that I made that's focused solely on being really easy to use for browsing and recovering Photos from back ups.

Photo Rescue lets you browse all the backups it finds so you can see if your photos are there first. Backups only get made when you sync, so it's important to be able to confirm they're there. It's free to browse and costs $4.99 to get a full license that lets you export.

If you don't want to pay, you can still use it to browse, then use the backup extractor to export. I really don't want to come across as being spammy, so just let me know if this is inappropriate and I'll delete the post right away!

hey ive been looking around the web for days for a way to recover my photos. ive been directed to your page dozens of times, but the application that you made only works on intel computers. my computer, being a POWERPC G5, does not work with your application. it is the only computer that i have synced to my iphone with. is there any other version you have? or a way around it?

[pjherbert]

To recover pictures you don't need any special app.
iTunes copies the files to the backup and uses unique file names
in Windows XP: C: \Documents and Settings\[username]\Application Data\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\
Windows Vista/7: C: \Users\[username]\AppData\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\ (or something real close)
you will see a folder for every iPhone backup made - pick one
sort the files by size, for the 3gs and older .jpg files will be about 900kb or smaller (3mb camera) and copy them to a temp folder, then rename all of them to *.jpg (in CMD window: ren *.* *.jpg)
change you view to thumbnail and you will see your pictures
the 4g has a 5mb camera so the pictures will be larger but not over 3mb, files that size are usually video.

Video files are also stored here and are .mov (Quicktime) files

I searched everywhere to find a solution. I installed new ios 5 software and lost a bunch of pics. Restored from available backups that were in the back up list and the pics weren't there. I did this, and there are more backups available and I found my pictures that I lost!!!!

Thank you so much!

[JPDT]

guys correct me if I'm wrong but in iTunes if you plug your phone in and right click on devices you can restore from backup, and that i believe will bring your camra roll back

[atinjadia]

To recover pictures you don't need any special app.
iTunes copies the files to the backup and uses unique file names
in Windows XP: C: \Documents and Settings\[username]\Application Data\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\
Windows Vista/7: C: \Users\[username]\AppData\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\ (or something real close)
you will see a folder for every iPhone backup made - pick one
sort the files by size, for the 3gs and older .jpg files will be about 900kb or smaller (3mb camera) and copy them to a temp folder, then rename all of them to *.jpg (in CMD window: ren *.* *.jpg)
change you view to thumbnail and you will see your pictures
the 4g has a 5mb camera so the pictures will be larger but not over 3mb, files that size are usually video.

Video files are also stored here and are .mov (Quicktime) files

Thanks man i was wondering how could we do this thanx for ur advice mate ;-)

[Eclipse91]

Something weird happened with my mum's phone and now she's really really p*ssed at me.
I connected her iPhone to her computer and the backing up and syncing started.
I'm not quite sure when, but suddenly a box popped up saying that restore was interrupted, click ok to complete restore.
I clicked ok, not knowing any better.
Then I realise all her photos and videos since November are gone from her phone.
I used the iPhone Backup Extractor, and it proved that the last backup had been in November.
Am I completely scr*wed ? Are those files lost for good ? I'm having trouble understanding all of this -- why the back-up didn't work, why the files just vanished when I was careful to select the Backup option in "Devices- *****'s iPhone - Summary"...
She's on a Macbook Pro... any troubleshooting, hacking techniques to get her stuff back ?
I'm sorry if this question has been answered before, but I don't seem to see anything that applies to my situation.
Thanks.

To recover pictures you don't need any special app.
iTunes copies the files to the backup and uses unique file names
in Windows XP: C: \Documents and Settings\[username]\Application Data\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\
Windows Vista/7: C: \Users\[username]\AppData\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\ (or something real close)
you will see a folder for every iPhone backup made - pick one
sort the files by size, for the 3gs and older .jpg files will be about 900kb or smaller (3mb camera) and copy them to a temp folder, then rename all of them to *.jpg (in CMD window: ren *.* *.jpg)
change you view to thumbnail and you will see your pictures
the 4g has a 5mb camera so the pictures will be larger but not over 3mb, files that size are usually video.

Video files are also stored here and are .mov (Quicktime) files

what about on a Macbook Pro ? if anyone can answer

[SSTFOG]

I don't know how to thank mitch42!!!
I have factory unlocked iPhone 4, and it came with iOS4.x. When I upgraded to iOS5, iTunes said the backup completed successfully, however, I was trapped for more than 2 weeks in "itunes was unable to load data class information from Sync Services. Reconnect or try later." error. Finally I copied my backup folder (CDocuments and Settings\xyz\Application Data\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup) folder to a Windows 7 machine in corresponding location (C..roaming\..Mobilesync), and was able to do a partial restore [only 27 out of my 112 photos ]. Tried to install MobilesyncBrowser and iPhone Backup Extractor, both showed me only 27 photos. However, from the folder size in GBs I could know that the photos ARE there. So I did this simple trick of renaming all files to JPG and recovered the photos magically!!
The reason could be , all these were in a folder called "Snapshot" within the backup folder with a huge name abcd1234....blahblahblah. Maybe iTunes as well as the extractors were not able to read this subfolder. Trying to explain this to Apple support now.
Many thanks to mitch42!!

[Cmds187]

To recover pictures you don't need any special app.
iTunes copies the files to the backup and uses unique file names
in Windows XP: C: \Documents and Settings\[username]\Application Data\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\
Windows Vista/7: C: \Users\[username]\AppData\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\ (or something real close)
you will see a folder for every iPhone backup made - pick one
sort the files by size, for the 3gs and older .jpg files will be about 900kb or smaller (3mb camera) and copy them to a temp folder, then rename all of them to *.jpg (in CMD window: ren *.* *.jpg)
change you view to thumbnail and you will see your pictures
the 4g has a 5mb camera so the pictures will be larger but not over 3mb, files that size are usually video.

Video files are also stored here and are .mov (Quicktime) files

Will try

[dfost]

To recover pictures you don't need any special app.
iTunes copies the files to the backup and uses unique file names
in Windows XP: C: \Documents and Settings\[username]\Application Data\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\
Windows Vista/7: C: \Users\[username]\AppData\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\ (or something real close)
you will see a folder for every iPhone backup made - pick one
sort the files by size, for the 3gs and older .jpg files will be about 900kb or smaller (3mb camera) and copy them to a temp folder, then rename all of them to *.jpg (in CMD window: ren *.* *.jpg)
change you view to thumbnail and you will see your pictures
the 4g has a 5mb camera so the pictures will be larger but not over 3mb, files that size are usually video.

Video files are also stored here and are .mov (Quicktime) files

As i'm going through with your step process for windows 7. I am stuck when you said "copy them to a temp folder then rename all of them to *.jpg" i have tried to rename them but it told me i am not allowed to put "*.jpg" they need a valid file name..so idk wut to do. so far i am at picking a folder but i am lost when it comes to the rest of the steps, if you can plz so kind someone to help me.

[foxiepunk]

I have windows 7 but can't seem to locate any folder call MobileSync or Backup or AppData per mitch42's instructions.

Windows Vista/7: C: \Users\[username]\AppData\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\ (or something real close)

Is there any other way to find these backup files?

[dfost]

I have windows 7 but can't seem to locate any folder call MobileSync or Backup or AppData per mitch42's instructions.

Windows Vista/7: C: \Users\[username]\AppData\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\ (or something real close)

Is there any other way to find these backup files?

I have windows 7 too, how i located the files i went to start and in the "search programs and files" i typed "run" and in the command box i typed in %appdata% and thats where you can find the apple computer folder...If you are able to recover these back up files can you let me know what you have done for a successful process because i still don't know what to do.

[rmelendez94]

hi i was wondering if you by any chance knew how to find those file locations on lion? OSX 10.7.1. i have all my backups on my mac and lost all my photographs today but i did make a backup beforehand. please respond when possible. i tried library/application support/mobile sync but i could find no mobile sync folder, is it somewhere else?

[Seacat]

I purchased the Picturerescue app and it worked like a charm to retrieve all the photos on my camera roll. However, it did not retrieve videos. Anyone know how to do this?

Thanks,

Mark

[kayval]

I cannot view photos that I retrieved from an encrypted backup from my iPhone. I used iPhone backup extractor and the file size appears to be the same of an actual photo but I am unable to view it. Any suggestions? I've already tried to restore the backup to another ios device and I've tried picturerescue.

[Illmatic636]

To recover pictures you don't need any special app.
iTunes copies the files to the backup and uses unique file names
in Windows XP: C: \Documents and Settings\[username]\Application Data\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\
Windows Vista/7: C: \Users\[username]\AppData\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\ (or something real close)
you will see a folder for every iPhone backup made - pick one
sort the files by size, for the 3gs and older .jpg files will be about 900kb or smaller (3mb camera) and copy them to a temp folder, then rename all of them to *.jpg (in CMD window: ren *.* *.jpg)
change you view to thumbnail and you will see your pictures
the 4g has a 5mb camera so the pictures will be larger but not over 3mb, files that size are usually video.

Video files are also stored here and are .mov (Quicktime) files

OMG, Mitch you saved my but. My wifes was going to kill mew for losing our daughters baby pictures!

Your awesome!