Factory resetting old Macbook deleted files on new MacBook

Actually, factory resetting alone will not remove your files.

I suspect the problem is - since both MacBooks are synchronized with the same iCloud account, you may have gone back to your old MacBook and manually erased all files to be extra cautious just before doing the factory reset.

How do I know this? Experience - unfortunately. And the hard lesson I learned is not to delete files connected to iCloud drive or it will remove them on ALL connected Macs/iPhones/iPads.

At this point, there are 2 things you can try:

-in Safari, login to iCloud.com, iCloud Drive, then click Recently Deleted files (bottom right of screen). If you see the missing files/folders, click Recover all.

-Run data recovery software on your Macbooks. You will need an external hard drive with enough space to copy recovered files to. Never recover lost files back to the original drive or it will write over other potentially lost files. After recovery is done, set the external drive as a Time Machine backup to keep your data safer.

dj_mcmaughan Said:

“Factory resetting old Macbook deleted files on new MacBook“

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Retrieving These:

So, you transferred it all? How was this performed? If it was through iCloud - I would assume they were deleted, if they were not synced with iCloud.

But, if you used Time Machine, retrieve these by migrating them over from the Time Machine Backup.

IMPORTANT -> Back up your New Mac:

Create a Time Machine backup of your Mac, so that you can have something to restore your Mac from, should anything go wrong in time to come.