How to Make Sure iPhone Photos Are Backed Up: Full Guide

Does the iPhone backup back up all photos?

Yes, when you perform a backup of your iPhone using iCloud or iTunes, it includes all of your photos, allowing you to restore them if you ever need to reset or replace your iPhone. And Google Photos supports automatically backing up all iPhone photos or selectively backing up photos and videos as you like.

It's important to note that the amount of iCloud storage available to you may vary depending on your iCloud storage plan. If you run out of iCloud storage space, you'll need to either upgrade your plan or manage your existing backups to free up space.

How to make sure iPhone photos are backed up in iCloud / iTunes / Google Photos

After you have backed up all your photos to iCloud, iTunes or Google Photos, you can use the methods below to check if your photos have been successfully backed up.

3 ways to check iPhone photos backup in iCloud

You can locate iCloud photos on iPhone, access photos through a Web Browser or use the iCloud Client to check your iPhone photos backup in iCloud.

Locate iCloud Photos on iPhone

To verify the presence of your backed-up photos, navigate to the Photos app on your iPhone. Then, tap on the Albums tab at the bottom and select Recent to check.

Access Photos through a Web Browser

A straightforward method to access your iCloud photos is by visiting the iCloud's website. This approach is versatile and works for Android devices as well. And here’s how:

Launch a web browser on your computer or phone > Visit iCloud's website > Log in using your Apple ID > Click on the Photos icon to access your entire photo library.

Check iCloud Photos with the iCloud Client on Windows PC

You can use the iCloud client to download all photos from iCloud to your PC and check if your photos have been successfully backed up. And with this tool, you can also upload photos to iCloud without visiting the website. Here's how:

Step 1. Download and install iCloud for Windows on your PC > Sign in with your Apple ID.

Step 2. Then select Photos, and choose whether to Download photos, Upload photos, or Create new folders.

Step 3. Open Windows Explorer > Click on iCloud Photos > Access your iCloud photos or videos by tapping on Downloads.

That’s all about how to make sure photos from iPhone are backed up to cloud.

Confirm photos are backed up in iTunes

Indeed, despite successfully storing photos using iTunes, accessing them directly on your computer isn't straightforward, primarily due to iTunes' privacy safeguards. If you're determined to view these photos, you'll need to turn to specialized software designed for accessing and extracting content from iTunes backups.

Where is iTunes backup stored?

When you employ iTunes to back up your photos, the backup files are typically stored in this directory path:

C:\Users(username)\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup.

Within this location, your photos are saved as image files, coexisting with other local iPhone data on your C drive.

Check iPhone photos backup in Google Photos

Now you can follow the instructions below to learn how to make sure your photos on iPhone are backed up on Google Photos.

Open the Google Photos app on your iPhone > Choose a photo you want to check > Select More (usually represented by three dots or a menu icon) > Choose Details > If the photo is backed up, you will see the backup status and size displayed beneath Backed up.

Bonus: How to backup iPhone photos to PC efficiently

From the above sections, you can see that it's relatively easy to check if photos are backed up from iCloud and Google Drive backups. However, viewing photos within an iTunes backup is challenging to accomplish directly.

Additionally, both iCloud and Google Drive impose storage limits on free users, and backup and restore speeds can become very slow when you have a poor internet connection.

Is there a straightforward way to back up photos to Windows from here? Certainly. FoneTool can be a better iTunes/iCloud/Google Drive alternative to back up your iPhone data.

Selective or full backup: With FoneTool, you can not only easily back up all iPhone data to PC but also selectively back up photos, videos, music, contacts and messages.
Super-fast transfer speed: The transfer speed, which far exceeds that of other software in the same industry, including iTunes, iCloud, and Google Drive, allows you to easily back up all important data on your phone.
Only needs USB connection: FoneTool only requires a USB connection in all processes, which will ensure the absolute safety of data transmission.
No backup size limit: FoneTool does not impose restrictions on the size of backups. The capacity of your target device, such as your PC or external drive, is the only factor that determines the amount of data you can back up.
Wide compatibility: FoneTool works well with iPhone 4 to iPhone 15, as well as the latest iOS 17. Unlike iTunes, which often encounters errors like iTunes error 37.

Now you can get FoneTool on your Windows PC to learn how to back up photos on the computer efficiently.

Step 1. Launch FoneTool on your PC and click Phone Backup > Selective Backup > Get Started. (You can also choose Full Backup to fully back up your iPhone like iTunes.)

Step 2. Check the Photos icon > If you only need to back up specific photos, you can click on Photos to select them.

Step 3. Click Backup Storage Path to specify a location to save the backup > Click Start Backup to begin.

How to make sure iPhone photos are backed up to computer with FoneTool?

Once the backup is completed, you can go to Backup History > Choose the targeted backup > Click the View dot to check your backed-up photos.  

Next time, if you need to restore the photo backup, you can go to My Backups and click Restore to do so. You can restore it to another iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch, even if they have different Apple IDs.

Conclusion

That’s all about how to make sure iPhone photos are backed up on iCloud, iTunes and Google Drive. If needed, you can also use FoneTool to back up all or part of your iPhone photos, and easily check the backup status on your PC. In addition, if you want to move your iPhone photos to PC, FoneTool can guide you on how to transfer hidden photos from iPhone to PC with ease. Try it out!