iCloud keeps deleting my numbers and pages files

[BootLoxes]

I have no idea why its doing this but it is starting to bug me since I keep losing my work.

The first time happened about a month ago when I opened pages and all my files were gone. I went to the cloud where they are kept and the files and folders were all gone. I am a teacher and I lost all my lesson plans for the year.

Today I went to numbers where I keep track of my finances and its gone.... all of it.

At this point I am getting very pissed and feel like I can no longer trust iCloud at all. I have the 50gb plan and only 1/3rd is used so I have a lot of space available. Has anyone else experienced this issue?

 

[zinacef]

I’m not seeing this and I’m using both Pages & Numbers on a daily basis for the past couple years.
My only suggestion would be to reach out to Apple Support?

 

[chscag]

Are you making backups of your lesson plans and your finances? I certainly would not trust iCloud as the only place to keep those files and data.

 

[BootLoxes]

Are you making backups of your lesson plans and your finances? I certainly would not trust iCloud as the only place to keep those files and data.

Im going to start now. I just wish I knew why it happens. So far my keynote files are still safe

 

[jpn]

I have no idea why its doing this but it is starting to bug me since I keep losing my work.

The first time happened about a month ago when I opened pages and all my files were gone. I went to the cloud where they are kept and the files and folders were all gone. I am a teacher and I lost all my lesson plans for the year.

Today I went to numbers where I keep track of my finances and its gone.... all of it.

At this point I am getting very pissed and feel like I can no longer trust iCloud at all. I have the 50gb plan and only 1/3rd is used so I have a lot of space available. Has anyone else experienced this issue?

i doubt it is an iCloud issue.

are you creating these documents on a mac or on yr iPhone?
when you save a newly created document, to where is it being saved? to the app related folder (Numbers document being saved to the Numbers app; Pages document being saved to the Pages app). or, are you saving it to a folder you have made / or to the Documents folder?
since you posted to a Services forum its not clear if you are working from a mac or from an iOS device.
do you have iCloud Drive also on?
if the documents were actually on iCloud its possible if you go to iCloud.com you might be able to retrieve them if they were deleted.

 

[BootLoxes]

i doubt it is an iCloud issue.

are you creating these documents on a mac or on yr iPhone?
when you save a newly created document, to where is it being saved? to the app related folder (Numbers document being saved to the Numbers app; Pages document being saved to the Pages app). or, are you saving it to a folder you have made / or to the Documents folder?
since you posted to a Services forum its not clear if you are working from a mac or from an iOS device.
do you have iCloud Drive also on?
if the documents were actually on iCloud its possible if you go to iCloud.com you might be able to retrieve them if they were deleted.

I use my ipad for most of my creation. It saves into an automatically created folder within icloud where i can edit it on my pc or iphone if needed. I never delete anything on the icloud because i have 2/3 of the space available. I will try to check icloud.com for them to see if they can be retrieved

 

[jonnyjay]

Any news on this? I've just noticed that huge swaths of my files stored on iCloud have evaporated. Absolutely unbelievable. All of my finance records. pages, pdf, and numbers files.

 

[jparker402]

I echo jonnyjay! Have all my important stuff in iCloud Drive! What is happening?

 

[jonnyjay]

Misery loves company, jparker!

 

[jpn]

Any news on this? I've just noticed that huge swaths of my files stored on iCloud have evaporated. Absolutely unbelievable. All of my finance records. pages, pdf, and numbers files.

sounds like its serious.

however, for what its worth, i can report i don't have any of these issues.
different people have different setups so i don't think i can trouble shoot for you.
my set up, without any problem is as follows:

i have one Macbook Air and one iPhone.

1 i have invested in iCloud Drive. monthly cost.

2 i do NOT have turned on any File Optimization. so all my files stay on my machine. and never will be deleted (if the OS thought I was running out of room).

3 i bought a large enough drive in my Macbook for all my needs, and the iCloud Drive storage space i pay for is well over the amount i would need on a short term basis.

4 i never save any Pages or Numbers file to just the app's folder. all my files are in separately created folders.

5 of course all iCloud Drive files are visible on my iPhone, but the only files that are actually downloaded on my iPhone are the ones that i open and use on the iPhone itself.

6 i do a a lot of Numbers and Pages work daily and constantly am updating and revising and renaming etc.
after saving the file the iCloud icon appears next to it for a bit (few seconds) and then goes away after it is uploaded to iCloud.

7 i frequently (BC (Before COVID)) needed to use very poor internet speeds throughout S and SE Asia. but even though files sometimes couldn't be uploaded immediately they eventually got uploaded.

all of it is working as above. and has been working as above for several years.

other potential issue causing areas:
- i always update to latest OS for both macOS and iOS
- i frequently share and collaborate on documents through Numbers / Notes / Pages and my associates and i have never encountered old data nor un-updated data or missing files that have successfully reached iCloud (ie. no iCloud icon showing on mac in Finder)
- i don't have multiple login accounts on my mac
- i only use one apple ID on both my devices
- Photos: i use Photos on both mac and iPhone. non optimised.
- i don't use Dropbox or other cloud servers at all. i stay away from mixing cloud servers in general.
- i don't have off-line or NAS drives with data on them (i do have Time Machine however, and that also has never failed me for 10 years)
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Im going to start now. I just wish I knew why it happens. So far my keynote files are still safe

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I echo jonnyjay! Have all my important stuff in iCloud Drive! What is happening?

 

[jparker402]

More questions about sidestepping this problem. First, my Macbook Air doesn't appear happy about me dragging my finance folder from iCloud to OneDrive. I briefly tried making a copy, and it didn't appear happy about moving that either. If I made an alias, would it be happy? And regardless, would the alias be "lost" if the original stowed in Numbers disappeared?

 

[jonnyjay]

Thanks everyone for chiming in. I'm doing more analysis and will post an update later.

 

[jonnyjay]

I've been patiently waiting, hoping, praying that my files re-appear. But no luck. I did dig up an old MacBook that hadn't connected to iCloud for ~1 year. On this machine I found some of the files cached locally so was able to recover some things.

Anyway, here's more detail on my case.

I am not a neophyte. I have a Ph.D. in Engineering from U.C. Berkeley, having written my dissertation on my Mac 512K in 1986. I am the founder and CTO of a software company, Navis LLC, now retired. Our initial platform was the Mac. So, in case you are wondering, very unlikely that I accidentally deleted the files.

Comparing with niji (above):

I have a MacBook Air running Catalina, and an iMac, also up-to-date. Sometimes I also access my files on iCloud via my wife's MacBook, my iPad or my iPhone.

I too have invested in iCloud Drive and pay monthly cost.

I have not turned on any File Optimization.

I move around between our homes and don't want to lug computers with me so I decided to store ALL of my documents on iCloud. I figured they would be safe there and I do no backups to personal hard drives, etc. I've been operating this way (storing everything on iCloud) for several years, 5 or more.

I never save any Pages or Numbers file to just the app's folder. All my files are in separately created folders, in a fairly deeply nested directory structure. Today, the structure is intact, BUT...files in certain folders have simply disappeared. Generally, the missing files are newer ones. E.g. many spreadsheets and pdf's with my income tax data from 2016 and beyond. Data for 8 years prior to 2016 seems intact.

other potential issue causing areas:
- i always update to latest OS for both macOS and iOS
- i do have multiple login accounts on my Mac (for occasional use by one of my daughters or wife)
- i only use one apple ID on my devices
- Photos: i use Photos on both mac and iPhone. non optimised.
- i don't use Dropbox or other cloud servers at all. i stay away from mixing cloud servers in general.
- I don't use Time Machine.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
SO: Be forewarned. iCloud has not been reliable for me.

 

[BootLoxes]

My files never returned either. Though it has not happened again since I made this thread

 

[StuMcGoo]

I'm suffering the same issues- the files I am managing to find have been reset to their initial version from 2018, I've looked everywhere and it's the same issue throughout the system- time machine, iCloud, local drives- it's completely blitzed the numbers files.