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How to recover deleted iCloud files. Is it gone for good?

Just got a new MacBook Pro (Mid-2017). My Desktop was cluttered with files because I signed in with my Apple ID. I was really agitated with my Desktop being cluttered with old files from my previous Mac. So I went into "Finder" went to the Sidebar to 'iCloud', and under it I have 'iCloud Drive, Documents, and Desktop'. I went into my Desktop folder and deleted out the contents. Yay! My desktop was now clear. In order to not take up disk space, I deleted them out of my trash bin also. I did this all thinking it would just get deleted from my Mac, not iCloud itself. Went to check iCloud, and that folder was also empty on iCloud. I tried the recover files option within iCloud, and it's saying I haven't deleted any files. So, are these files gone for good? Any idea of where they went or how I could get them back?

MacBook Pro Retina

Posted on Sep 6, 2020 7:31 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Sep 7, 2020 7:08 AM

You can restore those files from your Time Machine backup. If you don’t have a Time Machine backup, you will want to get one.


You may be able to restore your system from a local snapshot. Follow instructions in this Apple Support document: Restore your Mac from a backup - Apple Support


The trick is that you are not restoring from Time Machine. You want to restore from a local snapshot. Make sure that the snapshot has the data. Use only a snapshot created before the date when all your data was deleted.

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1 reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Sep 7, 2020 7:08 AM in response to A.E.D.

You can restore those files from your Time Machine backup. If you don’t have a Time Machine backup, you will want to get one.


You may be able to restore your system from a local snapshot. Follow instructions in this Apple Support document: Restore your Mac from a backup - Apple Support


The trick is that you are not restoring from Time Machine. You want to restore from a local snapshot. Make sure that the snapshot has the data. Use only a snapshot created before the date when all your data was deleted.

How to recover deleted iCloud files. Is it gone for good?

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