Loss of files in iCloud

[PaBear]

Has any one experienced a loss of data and files in the cloud? I am trying to work through this with Apple telephone help and have been vaguely promised action by Monday. Could do with some pointers so that I can challenge what is offered.

I have 50Gb on an Apple-provided cloud storage area working through a good broadband service. A remarkable number of files, mostly Pages/Keynote/Numbers, have disappeared or now have no content. Photo seems not to be affected.

I use a 2011 iMac & a Dec 2016 MacBook Pro, both on Sierra plus a 2Tb Time Capsule . My iPad & iPhone are on the same cloud service + home network and neither can find the missing stuff.

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello and welcome.

I haven't heard of anyone losing files in iCloud. I am sure they have instructed you to login to icloud.com and see if the files appear there? But, since they don't appear on any of your Apple devices, then they were either inadvertently deleted, or Apple's data center may have an issue with one of their servers/drive RAIDs.

They should be able to restore your data from a backup...maybe that is the action they promised.

Not much we can do to help out in this situation, other than having you check your Time Machine backup to see if the files are backed up there in Macintosh HD > Users > your User folder > iCloud Drive folder.

C

 

[PaBear]

Have had several conversations with Apple Support in Ireland - latest today 9 March. Situation not retrieved yet but 'engineers' have taken my i-clouid account into 'escalation mode' where they hope to recover the missing files & data.

 

[PaBear]

I think that most of my 'missing' cloud files have been recovered [Thursday/Friday]. Now I have to go through all the ones I can see & eliminate the dross. Suspiciously, a large number of files, maybe or maybe not related to the Apple Support team's efforts, have turned up in both my MacBook and i-Mac trash bins. A couple of hundred. Don't recall putting that many there but they could be cumulative trashing over several years.
If my ideas are correct, it demonstrates how much of what you throw away doesn't really disappear! Apple can get at them & thus so could someone else with access to the i-cloud.
I am parking much more on a separate HDD now, just in case of loss elsewhere.

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hmmm...maybe they showed up in Trash because of something connected to macOS Sierra and iCloud Drive?

Apple can recover files, because they make incremental backups of your data in case of server failure. This is especially important for those that pay for extra storage space in iCloud.

Glad to hear that you are getting data back though. And yes, it is a very wise idea to have backups of all of your data. You could simply use Time Machine to backup your entire hard drive, which would contain all of the files in the iCloud Drive folder as well.

C