iCloud deleted all my Desktop and Documents files

tick the DESKTOP & DOCUMENTS checkbox again and they will reappear as if nothing happened

The functionality seems to be that everything that you save on your "Desktop & Documents" folders will be wiped away once you uncheck the box in the iCloud settings. Above, @productnerd mentioned that you can just check that box again and all of your stuff will reappear.

Once you uncheck the box, it wipes away all of the files and saves it onto the iCloud drive. If you try to login to iCloud to view the restore function, you will not be able to see the files. If you check the box, all of the files will be downloaded from the cloud and restored back to your computer.

This functionality is very invasive, especially if you don't realize that all of that information is in the cloud.

Once you get your files back onto your computer, move the files out of Desktop or Documents folders, then you can uncheck those boxes if you don't want iCloud drive to sync those folders. You can move it back if you want, but any time you turn it back on and off, it will delete it from your computer.

This functionality deleted my wife's entire documents folder. At some point in the last 5 months, the save your "Desktop & Documents" to iCloud got checked accidentally, or perhaps a software update from Apple selected it for her, either way, this feature destroyed her work.

Call it this, call it that, but the way I see it, this is an intentional dark pattern to force people to pay for iCloud. It's beyond terrible for the user, it's a destructive shakedown for the contents of their wallet. One of my options right now is to give in and pay Apple a monthly subscription for Apple One.

That's not happening. Apple's approach to iCloud growth is shameful. This feature should not be a part of Mac OS. If you don't make it 100% clear to the user that they are about to delete their most important documents, you are makers of terrible software. There's no other way around it.

This is HORRIBLE. This just happened to me and I almost had a meltdown. It deleted all of my work documents. I called apple and they helped me restore some of the files. If you go to icloud there is a button that says restore. AFter you do this, then unclick icloud sharing of documents. If this does not restore all of your files, in the finder window type icloud archive and they should be there. That is the last time I try to use icloud. What an insane system.

Idk what's going on but all my stuff is getting deleted from my Mac and I have to re-download it through iCloud. This is BEYOND annoying.

LOST Files saved in HP Laptop windows 10 via iphone LOST Files saved in HP Laptop windows 10 via iphone

I BACKED UP ALL MY DATA in my HP laptop WINDOWS 10. I created a separate folder for all the pics and videos I made over few months and transferred from my iphone 11 to this laptop. This evening I got some errors popping up on my Windows saying the device connected to this PC has been removed or something. So I logged out of this M F icloud, they said the files will be deleted from icloud and I clicked YES because I thought I was saving it on my drive on my laptop. NEXT THING I LOST ALL MY FILES AND PHOTOS AND VIDESO. I can't believe there's is no Support on this topic or warning or anything. I am clueless where to find 20GB of data wiped out in just one Logout from icloud ????

Keep calm, they are not deleted. So icloud drive is really confusing. The first thing to understand, is that at some point in the past, your files were created in your laptop's hard drive, and from there at some point were synchronized or simply uploaded to icloud drive.

It is at this point that gets confusing. Once your files are in icloud drive, what is important for Mac as a service provider is that your files are always in icloud drive, safe and sound. Thus, if you buy a new computer, you simple use your files from icloud (from the cloud) as you need them, either by downloading them or by activating "icloud drive" and by clicking options / "desktop and docs folder"

So, when you are already using your macbook with icloud drive activated: FILES WILL BE IN BOTH YOUR LAPTOP's HARD DRIVE AND IN ICLOUD... except in the case you also activated the Optimizing option... then some files you rarely use will automatically be kept in icloud only... this is, will be deleted from your hard drive to save space.

So what happens when you go to system preference - icloud drive, and deactivate icloud drive... well, simply said, your files will be in icloud drive only (in the cloud = NO LONGER IN YOUR HARD DRIVE, kind of)....

but when doing so, that you instruct to keep the files in the cloud only, a backup is saved in your hard drive... you'll find it as "icloud drive (archive)" in your username folder (so pretty much it's still in your hard drive but moved its location, from icloud drive folder in finder to your username where applications etc are).

so if you want to undo all this, simply:

1. go to system preferences and activate again "icloud drive" and click options and be sure you clicked in "desktop and docs folder"... and be sure to click "optimize mac storage" below...

now, BE PATIENT, it takes times, perhaps for half an hour you will still see in Finder your icloud drive / documents or desktop folders EMPTY... but after some 20-30 minutes, suddenly... voila.. THE FILES APPEAR AGAIN... but perhaps your hard drive is full, and the files appear in Finder / icloud drive / documtns but with the symbol that they are in the cloud only (not in your hard drive).

1. Since you occupied a lot of space in your hard drive with the backup folder "icloud drive (archive)" , you have to delete this, perhaps copy-paste it to your external hard drive as yet another backup of your info in a physical hard drive. Once you delete "icloud drive (archive)" ... slowly the files in icloud drive (in the cloud), will be again available off line in (will be copied to) your hard drive... as they were before ...

the whole thing is confusing... but it works great... perhaps Mac's recklessness is not to explain all this clearly.. and leave the client with many months of headaches until one figures this out...

I have had this issue before - icloud eating my macbook pro desktop folders had I unwittingly add "desk top' to the icloud. Into icloud and un select desk top folders - all GONE!!!!

Long story short

on mac, open finder - look down left hand columb for iCloud Drive - opeon the iCloud Drive - in there are all the items eaten by icloud - just drag and drop onto your mac desk top - you now have reinstated to desk top

hope this helps .....

100% agree with @hiddendriveways ... If I didn't have a separate back-up of my family photos, Apple would have wiped nearly a decade's worth of personal memories. It's an intentionally terrible and corrupted system that they've built. I feel sorry for those whose work and photos are disappearing - and I don't dare blame the users. As someone in their 30s who grew up with a PC in the house and works on one every single day, I consider myself more than competent and yet I fell into this trap myself. Apple should be ashamed.

Apple is a bunch of thieves hope these skums chok3 on their filthy money they gain by fooling innocent people.

futhermore, il pi$$ on tim cooks grampa ah grave dum b1tch🖕🏿

@nematode You write: "If you check the box, all of the files will be downloaded from the cloud and restored back to your computer." and all the icloud files will be downloaded to the local desktop and hard drive. I don't see that option.

I originally deleted the files from icloud and they disappeared from the local desktop. I restored them (except for a couple that said they could not be restored "at this time" but I got them back from Time Machine. My question is how can I keep all the files on my desktop when I turn off the icloud "Desktop and Documents" backup in the icloud preferences? When I check the box, it warns that all past desktop and documents will be removed from the local desktop and saved on icloud.

I just want to have all my files local and turn off icloud for everything. I tried downloading the folders and files with the cloud icon next to them, but I don't know if that will do the trick. When I saw your comment "If you check the box, all of the files will be downloaded from the cloud and restored back to your computer." I thought there was something I could do in icloud to download the files, but the download icon is not active.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I despise the iCloud default.

Go to User and there will be an iCloud (Archive) folder with all your documents etc on there. Simply move them back to the desired location.

I'm very happy for all of you who were able to retrieve your files. None of it worked for me. Every since I downloaded MascOS, things have been strange with my pc. My documents were deleted one day and I tried everything to retrieve them but they're gone. The folders are there but the documents aren't. I was almost done writing my second book and it's all gone. My heart is so broken. :(

I am going through this right now (October 2022). I wanted to download an application on my MacBook air 2015 but I needed version 11. I was currently on 10.14.6 or something. I bought an extra 50gb of icloud storage on my laptop and decided to move all my documents to the cloud. I checked off 'desktop and documents' and it cleared space on my hard drive saying it successfully moved all my desktop and documents to the cloud. Several minutes after downloading the software update, I got a notification saying an additional 30gb was needed to download the update so I gave up and decided to move my documents back to my Hard drive. I went to icloud options and unchecked the documents and desktop and all my documents were GONE. the files were there but the documents are all gone.

I've gone through this entire thread trying to retrieve my data but nothing works. I don't see anything called 'Icloud Archive' and I checked documents and desktop again and nothing has appeared (its been 30 minutes).

I called apple and they could not help me - said all my data has gone into limbo as it wasn't transferred to icloud properly.

I also tried the recovery button in icloud.com and nothing was in there. How is it that my files were transferred but the actual documents in the files are not there? I tried installing recovery softwares but the 1gb for free thing is a lie. I'm being asked to spend hundreds of dollars on recovering like 3 files and these files don't even have the correct name that I am looking for.

If this has happened to anyone and they have done the exact same steps as me and have recovered their information somehow, please reach out!!!

I've lost so many hours of so much work because of this and I have no way of retrieving so many hundreds of photo files right now. I am so furious i am speechless at what an absolutely mess this software is.

Hi there,

You might have better luck asking this question over in Apple Support Communities run by Apple Support.

I have just experienced a dissapearing desktop and documnets from my mac, but luckily these posts have explained what has happened and I am in the process of getting them back. I haven't used Icloud for years, not initially liking the idea, so having given it a try I was faced with this and it's a shock to see all your files vanished!

The explanation of how Icloud works is not clear. It is not immediately apparent that you experience the loss of folders and files on your machine after enabling Icloud. In addition to that, it isn't at all intuitive in it's operation. Apple needs to issue a warning about how it will work, not just a casual explanation.

All I would need is a backup facility from Icloud whilst keeping everything on my local machine. As I already have local backup I won't use Icloud again. Thanks to the posters here that have explained what this daft system does!

For those of you like me who had accidentally deleted the files once turning iCloud off completely...

Found a back way to restore them. In my "recent" files in Finder, I had a Photoshop file that had been deleted but I was able to open it from this recent tab, hit "save", and the save box should pop up with the old location of the file (assuming you can do this with any type of file you can save). You can right-click on the save box and hit "show in finder" and it should bring you to an iCloud archive folder. Copy and paste the files back onto your desktop from the archive and voila, they should all be there again.

For anyone else curious the pathway is Macintosh HD > Users > your username > iCloud Drive (Archive). There may be a few archive folders depending on how badly you screwed up like I did.

Additionally, as most people are mentioning, this feels like a trap from Apple and is way too easy to accidentally do all of this. I don't need to be conned into getting iCloud thank you very much...

Hello everyone,

I see I'm not the only one having this problem. It is an Apple policy to charge you for services that are sometimes still in the experimental phase. Especially before major changes without warning on minor macOS updates. Previously I only used iCloud Documents for two or three selected documents, not the new iCloud Drive which does not ask you anything but charges you. Here is an email I sent to appleprivacy and also AppleCare as there is no other service you can contact via email. Sorry it's long, but it's the original I sent in last week, although I don't think they read it, let alone replied.

Here is the email sent:

« I recently encountered an issue with Apple's iCloud Desktop and Documents sync following a macOS update. Without my knowledge, the automatic sync service and disk space optimization were enabled, resulting in the loss of data from two out of three of my sessions. These two sessions, containing critical information, were entirely replaced by the documents from my main session, which I use daily for personal activities. Unfortunately, despite multiple contacts with AppleCare support, my case remained open without any proposed solution to resolve the problem. This situation is deeply concerning as I have lost nearly 8 years' worth of precious data, including personal and medical information critical to me.

Additionally, it's important to note that even with backups like Time Machine, they couldn't copy the documents stored in Apple's cloud with the optimized storage option without my consent. Regrettably, I am currently left without any valid backup of these important files, making the situation even more desperate.

I researched possible solutions on my own and discovered that some Cloud service providers offer a feature to revert to previous states of the Cloud account. Therefore, I believe this functionality should also exist with an iCloud+ subscription.

It's crucial to emphasize that certain Cloud service providers, such as Dropbox, do not completely overwrite deleted files, and in some subscription versions, these files can be retained indefinitely until the user empties the trash, providing greater flexibility to users.

However, it remains to be seen if my data followed the deletion pipeline and if they are recoverable from the trash.

In comparison, I am currently faced with the complete loss of my data on iCloud due to an unauthorized automatic sync, with no possibility of recovery. This difference in file backup and recovery policies is an essential aspect to consider when choosing a Cloud service.

Furthermore, the document 'apple-privacy-policy-fr-ww.pdf' does not mention any specific data retention period for documents stored on iCloud, nor does it provide information on iCloud Drive backup policies. This lack of transparency regarding data retention leaves me uncertain about the security and availability of my files on the cloud. I am eager to clearly understand how long my data is kept and what backup measures are in place to prevent the permanent loss of files.

These gaps in the documentation have prompted me to seek answers elsewhere, but unfortunately, my attempts with AppleCare support have not resulted in a satisfactory resolution. That's why I turn to you for help and answers regarding the recovery of my precious data.

The change in documents by iCloud Drive Desktop and Documents in May 2021 was never communicated to users, neither by email nor by any other means of communication. I recently learned about this information through a forum. In contrast, Google notified its users six months in advance by sending an email about significant changes to Google account storage rules. The content of that email stated: 'We wanted to let you know about these new rules well in advance.'

This lack of prior information from Apple had disastrous consequences for my data. I found myself facing the loss of precious files without any prior warning. This lack of communication contrasts with the transparency demonstrated by other Cloud service providers, like Google, who prioritize informing their users about changes that affect them.

This communication gap highlights the need for more careful handling of user data and the implementation of effective backup measures to avoid the permanent loss of files. I hope that my situation sheds light on these issues and encourages improvements in how users are informed about changes related to their data on iCloud.

I want to emphasize that the loss of my documents resulted not from any mistake on my part but from an issue related to unauthorized automatic sync of Apple's iCloud Desktop and Documents. This happened on your servers independently of my actions, and as a paying user for your services, I expect Apple to take responsibility for protecting my essential data. The sync service and disk space optimization were enabled without my consent, leading to the loss of my critical data from two of my user sessions, and unfortunately, I was not informed beforehand of this change in operation, which had disastrous consequences for my files without any chance for me to recover them.

Thank you again for your attention and understanding of this complex situation, and I sincerely hope you can provide clarification and solutions to help me recover my lost files on iCloud Drive. »

If you read to the end, let me know what you think. In comment.

Thank you so much

you can get those files on /Users/USER/iCloud Drive (Archive)/Desktop