Extract Photos from an iPhone Backup

This article explains how to recover iPhone photos, videos and other files from iOS device backups, useful if you’ve accidentally deleted files or your iPhone is inaccessible.

It is not possible to natively extract photos and videos from iPhone backups, as they are there in case you need to restore your iPhone from the backup rather than retrieve individual files.

iBackup Extractor is an application for both Windows and Mac users, which lets you browse and recover iPhone photos and other files from your backups which were made in iTunes (or in Finder if you are using macOS Catalina or higher). In this way, you can retrieve photos you may have deleted or lost from your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad. Any images contained in your backup can be restored - iPhone camera images and videos, photos which were messaged to you, saved to your device, or just downloaded from the internet to your device.

How to Recover Photos from a Backup of your iPhone:

1. Download and Install iBackup Extractor if you haven't already done so.
2. Launch iBackup Extractor from your desktop (PC) or launchpad (Mac).
3. Select a backup from the list of detected backups which you would like to access.
4. Click the "Backup Media" tab (PC) or "Images" tab (Mac).
5. Select the images you would like to extract and click "Save to PC" or "Copy to Mac".

iBackup Extractor will copy your photos in the same quality as they are stored in your backup. The software will back up all image formats, from JPEG, PNG, .HEIC (How to view HEIC formatted photos on your computer), animated GIFs and even Apple ProRaw photos! iBackup Extractor will copy RAW photos in a .DNG format, without modifying or converting the file.

iBackup Extractor
for Windows

Download Now
(PC)

iBackup Extractor
for Mac

Download Now
(Mac)

You can use this free download to see what backups are available on your computer, and what images are stored within them.

With this trial version of iBackup Extractor, you can even extract 20 items from your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad backup completely free of charge.

Browsing and Viewing Your Images and Videos

With iBackup Extractor, it’s simple to access images backed up in your iTunes, Finder or Apple Devices backups. To view your images, firstly select the backup you wish to extract images from in iBackup Extractor. Once the backup has loaded, click on "Backup Media" (PC) or "Images" (Mac) in the feature list.

iBackup Extractor displays thumbnails of all the images stored in your backup.

To view a large version of an image, double-click the photo entry in the photo list, or click the "View" button (or "Preview" on Mac) on the Photo toolbar. To return to the thumbnail views, click the Close (X) button at the top of the "View Photos" window.

Copying Videos from an iPhone backup

• On Windows, open the "Backup Explorer" feature and navigate to Files > CameraRoll > Media > DCIM.
• On Mac, open the "Explorer" feature and navigate to Domains > CameraRoll > Media > DCIM.

Here you can browse your folders within DCIM for your videos. You can tell which items are videos because their file extension will show a video type like .MOV or .MP4. You can then select the videos you wish to copy, and click "Save to PC" or "Copy to Mac".

See it in action!

Watch the video below to see how to recover photos and videos from an iPhone backup using iBackup Extractor.