# Photos Mixed up between iPhone and iPad



## tigerdg (Jan 4, 2011)

I use the camera on both my iPhone and iPad, and I keep the photos on each device separate. I do not use the sync photos function on iTunes for either device. (I tried that, and had 90 percent of my pictures duplicated on my iPhone in a separate folder that the phone would not let me delete. I forget how I finally solved that one, but I've never gone back to trying to use the iTunes sync function.) I manually back up my photos to my Windows 11 computer every few months. Last night, however, I found that somehow, my pictures were all mixed up. Many photos on taken my iPhone were on my iPad, and vice versa. There were also many pictures missing on each device. These missing pictures are in my manual backups. I was able to remove the pictures on the wrong device from each, but now I have several hundred pictures in my backups that I would like to restore to their respective devices. Windows File Explorer won't do this, nor will the Free Commander utility I use for file organization. Does anyone know how I can restore these missing pictures from my backups to their respective devices? Thanks much for any help.


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## Deejay100six (Nov 24, 2007)

I would be very wary of any 3rd party apps that claim to be an alternative to the standard windows file manager. If your Explorer doesn't work properly, you need to find out why because there is obviously an issue that needs to be resolved.


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## spunk.funk (May 13, 2010)

You didn't mention what Backup app you are using. You would have to open that app and choose Restore. It should give you an Explorer type window where you can choose what to restore or not.


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## tigerdg (Jan 4, 2011)

spunk.funk said:


> You didn't mention what Backup app you are using. You would have to open that app and choose Restore. It should give you an Explorer type window where you can choose what to restore or not.


I'm not using a backup program. I'm just using Window File Explorer (or Free Commander) to copy the photos by drag and drop. That works fine. Problem is, I can't reverse that process and drag and drop ONTO the phone. I get a red circle with a line through it, and the copying fails.


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## oldtreker (Aug 3, 2014)

I don’t know how many photos you want back on your phone but you could email them to yourself, open on iPhone and download them from there.


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## tigerdg (Jan 4, 2011)

oldtreker said:


> I don’t know how many photos you want back on your phone but you could email them to yourself, open on iPhone and download them from there.


Yes, I thought of that, and tried it with one photo, and it did indeed work. There are two drawbacks: I have between 600 and 700 photos I’d like to get back on the phone, so that’s a lot of e-mails. Also, the replacements go at the end of my Recents folder, not in their proper chronological order. I will probably go through the pictures in my backup, find out which ones I want to restore, and then sync that folder with the phone. It’s not the ideal solution, but it would work. Thanks for your help!


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