HT201302 Moving photos back from 4S to a computer?

Question

I synced photos from my computer to my 4S. Since then I have moved the photos in the computer to different files. Now I have upgraded to a 5S. Is there any way to take the photos back from the 4S into the computer and then sync them to the 5S?
This would also be relevant if your computer crashed and the only copies were on an iPhone.

Answer 1

The photos sync from iTunes on your computer is a one way process each time you sync. It uses the current settings in iTunes for what pictures you want to sync and makes the phone match that setting. It will delete any previously synced pictures from the phone if they are not on the computer or not included in the current iTune setting of what pictures to sync.
It is definitely not a good way to back up the pictures on your computer.
The following quote from http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4236 does give one way to get pictures back when the only copy is one that was previously synced: 
You can't reimport pictures synced from your computer to your device back to your computer. You can only import pictures in the Camera Roll or Saved Photos from your device to your computer. If you need to retrieve synced photos from your device:
Email them from the device to yourself.
Copy them from the emails to your computer.
From your description, it might be easier to change the iTunes settings to include the current locations of the pictures on the computer and/or rearrange them on the computer to make syncing them easier. If using a Mac with iPhoto, Albums in iPhoto is a convenient way to organize what you want to sync without moving the photos from their original Events or locations. If using a Windows PC and you have an organization structure of folders that doesn't make selecting just some to sync, you may want to make copies and move the copies to another folder structure that is more organizied to facilitate syncing.