iCloud ate my documents

[zflauaus]

I have two Pages documents in iCloud that I've been trying to get back on my iDevices for a while. However, it seems that these documents are stuck. They show the small little icon preview on Pages on the iPad and iPhone and on iCloud.com. However, on the apps, they have that loading bar as if they're trying to download and on iCloud.com it always stays "Updating."

I've uploaded a different document and it synced just fine. I've turned iCloud on and off but it doesn't seem to have any affect and makes me think that the server is keeping them hostage. Is my best bet just to contact support?

 

[MrMorden]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPad; CPU OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

Consider yourself lucky.... My documents just disappeared. No trace.

 

[Martyimac]

And so it starts.

 

[zflauaus]

Well this is all reassuring.

 

[crappa]

All my Numbers and Pages files disappeared from my iPad. The files did sync up to iCloud. I turned off Documents and Data in iCloud Settings. Downloaded the files to my Mac, then put them back into the iPad using iTunes.

I don't think iCloud is ready for prime time yet.

 

[Icaras]

I just wanted to chime in and say the same thing happened to my documents on my iPhone. Totally gone.

 

[TehFalcon]

Greaaaaaat.

 

[maflynn]

Well this is all reassuring.

That is the achilles heal with cloud based services. Its not an apple thing, but the fact you are trusting another party to keep your documents.

At this point, I'm not really sold on iCloud or apple's ability to deliver mostly because of their track record with itool, .mac, mobileme and now icloud. They continually make changes, they've had a high occurrences of problems in providing stable platforms and not losing the data.

Apple does a lot of great things and produces some awesome devices and computers but cloud based services is not seemingly in their DNA and the hiccups are evidence of this

 

[steveca]

it might be a temporary problem. doesnt mean that the documents are completely lost but that the connection to them is lost. once connection gets back ontrack we all get docs back (at least I hope)

 

[thunderbunny]

Docs in iCloud sucked through the various betas. Since the full release they have behaved flawlessly for me.

 

[Gregintosh]

The fact that this happened even once automatically eliminates iCloud as a useful tool for Document synching for any business user. I can't imagine any business user taking the risk that the proposal or other work document they've been working on will just disappear without a trace from all their devices.

The fact that it happened even ONCE means that even if this problem is "fixed" later, the user will always have a nagging thought in the back of their mind of "what if" it happens again. This will necessitate manual backups, and thus defeat the purpose of iCloud.

 

[Martyimac]

The fact that this happened even once automatically eliminates iCloud as a useful tool for Document synching for any business user. I can't imagine any business user taking the risk that the proposal or other work document they've been working on will just disappear without a trace from all their devices.

The fact that it happened even ONCE means that even if this problem is "fixed" later, the user will always have a nagging thought in the back of their mind of "what if" it happens again. This will necessitate manual backups, and thus defeat the purpose of iCloud.

As I have already said, I agree completely.

 

[dunno]

another icloud/documents really basic question

It sounds like iCloud is not ready for documents you can't afford to lose, but that considered...
I can't find an explanation anywhere of how to actually select files for iCloud on my Mac. (All Apple's promos say all your files are synced.)
- Is there (there must be...) a way to limit/select files?
- how specifically is a file marked (or saved) so that it's included? (Normally a folder is selected.)
-Anyone found a web site that actually explains step by step saving and retrieving from a Mac (and/or iPhone)?

 

[tmagman]

"iCloud ate my documents"... oh can't wait for that one to be pulled on a high school teacher

 

[Clarrie]

Ate mine too - must have a voracious appetite!

All was fine last night. Opened Pages on my iPad this morning and all docs, spreadsheets & presentations disappeared.

 

[vitzr]

Well this is all reassuring.

Sounds like shades of MobileMe...

My loyalty caused me to pay $100 annually for MobileMe and a marginal experience.

This time, although Apple claims it's "Free", I've already deployed a varied, tried and true (it's been a wonderful trouble free six months) cloud strategy that I'm completely happy with.

Watching iCloud from the sidelines, with none of my data at risk is a very comforting place to be. If Apple gets it debugged & working as they claim, I'll be happy for those who were willing to risk their valuable time & data.

 

[Martyimac]

Sounds like shades of MobileMe...

My loyalty caused me to pay $100 annually for MobileMe and a marginal experience.

This time, although Apple claims it's "Free", I've already deployed a varied, tried and true (it's been a wonderful trouble free six months) cloud strategy that I'm completely happy with.

Watching iCloud from the sidelines, with none of my data at risk is a very comforting place to be. If Apple gets it debugged & working as they claim, I'll be happy for those who were willing to risk their valuable time & data.

Exactly my experience and current situation. Haven't lost anything since I left Mobilme.

 

[newagemac]

If you go to any Dropbox or Google Docs forum you find people saying Dropbox or Google "ate" their documents. Meanwhile the overwhelming majority of people never have a problem. Not knowing what the user actually did would never deter me from using cloud services.

It's like saying you will never use gmail, hotmail, mobileme, yahoo, or any other email service because someone said they lost some emails. Most of the time it is user error.

 

[Martyimac]

If you go to any Dropbox or Google Docs forum you find people saying Dropbox or Google "ate" their documents. Meanwhile the overwhelming majority of people never have a problem. Not knowing what the user actually did would never deter me from using cloud services.

It's like saying you will never use gmail, hotmail, mobileme, yahoo, or any other email service because someone said they lost some emails. Most of the time it is user error.

And at this point in time, I wont use any of the aforementioned services. You are correct in stating that most of the time it is user error. But it's the times that it ISN'T user error that concern me. Best example I can give is the fact that my backup for my contacts, an old fashioned pencil and paper record, has NEVER been "lost to me in the cloud". In fact, it has had to save my butt a couple of times. Now, if I loose that record, that truly is user error, mine, and I have nobody to blame but myself. Cloud services are not ready from my point of view. While valuable, I don't yet trust them to come to my aid and therefore, feel no need to use them. Hopefully someday that will change.