> Recover a photo with iMazing

We’ve talked about the importance of backing up iOS devices you’re actively using. It’s also worth retaining backups of old devices, because apps can be used to extract data from them. If you once had an iPhone that housed your sole copy of an important shot and you still have the iTunes backup of that device, chances are you can use a Mac app named iMazing ($39.99, imazing.com) to get at the photo.

Install iMazing on your Mac, open it, and it’ll locate iOS backups stored on your Mac. Select a backup from the sidebar, and then Photos. You might need to type in your admin password in order for the app to access your keychain and get at your data.

iMazing will then proceed to load thumbnails for images it finds (which can take several minutes). When it’s done, photos and videos found in the backup will be browsable in a manner similar to Finder — you should even be able to see the original version of a photo in addition to the one with filters applied (iOS saves both) — and you can extract individual items simply by dragging and dropping them into a Finder window.