iMessage photos gone after restore to new phone?!

[Dreamliner330]

I have an iPhone SE2 256GB and just recently got a 13 Pro 128GB. I cleared off a lot of photos, videos and apps to get the size down on my 256GB SE2 so I could transfer to the 128GB 13 Pro. I turned on iCloud and enabled it for everything except mail/contacts/calendar (gmail does this). I then also did an iCloud backup.

Upon restoring, none of the pics/videos are in iMessage (Messages is selected in iCloud) they are just empty bubbles. What do I do? I do NOT want to lose my iMessage media...the phone DEFINITLEY has enough free space as after turning iCloud on the phone usage said under 100GB...

My iMessage size went from 22GB to 700MB because the media got roasted during restore from iCloud. How do I get it back? Still have the SE2 and won't transfer SIM over to the 13 Pro until I get this figured out.

Thanks!

 

[fatTribble]

Did you just recently turn on iCloud for iMessage?
I‘m wondering if it just hasn’t had time to upload everything to iCloud yet?

 

[contacos]

may take a while to appear. Leave it locked, plugged in and on wifi for a while (no low power mode either)

 

[Dreamliner330]

Did you just recently turn on iCloud for iMessage?
I‘m wondering if it just hasn’t had time to upload everything to iCloud yet?

I just looked with my old phone in iCloud, it says Messages is 25.5GB, Photos is 65, Backups is 6.1GB and then a few small files for some apps. So that should be everything? I don't see a spot to monitor upload like I did for Photos.

may take a while to appear. Leave it locked, plugged in and on wifi for a while (no low power mode either)

It was left locked and plugged in and on wifi all night from when I created the first post to right now. Still nothing.


If it makes a difference, the new iPhone had me hold the old phone close to it, showed the nebula thing to scan with the camera then started loading the new phone. I've never done it that way before (only ever backed up/transferred/restored through iTunes previously). That should work right?

 

[Dreamliner330]

I did a restore again on the 13 pro, this time NOT 'holding my old phone nearby' (I had not done that before) and this time simply choosing to restore from iCloud. Seems to have worked. Although the iMessage size went from 20GB on my old phone to 40GB in iCloud and 4GB on my new phone.

It'd be really nice to see more detail on what is really going on. Based on turning iCloud on with my old phone, it seemed like I should have 97GB used including system, now on the new phone I have 65GB used.

Part of me wonders if something is missing...

 

[Dreamliner330]

"System Data" is growing and is now 32.39GB, anyone know what this is?

Also, does turning on iMessage in iCloud mean the attachments like pics/videos are stored in iCloud and not on the phone, would that explain why the size of iMessage went from 20GB to 4GB?

I'm just nervous something is missing and System Data being 32GB seems like a lot. I had the phone plugged in all night so if it's transferring data a couple days later it should be done by now...what the heck is going on?

 

[Dreamliner330]

Anyone have any suggestions? "System Data" is now at 34.32GB. What is this?

 

[Dreamliner330]

"System Data" is now 36.32GB...

 

[TechNutt]

Did everything work out okay for you? I had a similar problem with my phone due to lack of memory but had no backup other than iCloud. I had a LOT of photos and videos, too, so I was really worried. Apple store had to do a hard reset since nothing else would help. It took a bit of time, but I seem to have most of my photos and videos. Some messages didn’t make it, however 🫤

 

[Dreamliner330]

Did everything work out okay for you? I had a similar problem with my phone due to lack of memory but had no backup other than iCloud. I had a LOT of photos and videos, too, so I was really worried. Apple store had to do a hard reset since nothing else would help. It took a bit of time, but I seem to have most of my photos and videos. Some messages didn’t make it, however 🫤

First I went through my full album and deleted all the photos I didn’t want (took a very long time).

Then I connected the phone to my PC, copied every photo over so I knew I have a full res copy saved.

Next I set up iCloud and turned it on for photos, messages and everything else (I did this when setting up iCloud and I think again in iPhone Storage where it said it could free up space).

Once everything was fully synced I then did a full system backup to iCloud.

Finally I did the restore option when I was setting up my new phone.

My concern is the messages is way smaller and System Data keeps growing. This will become a problem if it eats up all my free space.

I don’t know for sure if all my messages were saved, perhaps the media and such are just in iCloud unless needed and that’s where the space saving is.

My “System Data” is now at 36.74GB. Why does this keep growing!?