Hi guys, I was working on my computer (Macbook Pro 2019 version) and when I closed Safari, I noticed that my desktop was completely empty, and I lost all of my data, including important documents. I have tried everything to retrieve it but nothing seems to work, it looks like it is really gone. Could anyone help me?
MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 11.1
iCloud is not a backup. Make sure to have frequent & regular backups. Since Apple provides the Time Machine backup software for free with every macOS so there is absolutely no reason not to have a good backup. Keep in mind if you make a critical change to a file the change will be replicated to your other devices whereas a good backup will retain the older original copy of the file in case a mistake was made.
Back up your Mac with Time Machine - Apple Support
FYI, it is impossible to recover accidentally deleted data from an SSD after the Trash has been emptied plus an SSD can fail at any time without any warning signs. Plus you have a 2019 Apple laptop with a T2 security chip which means if the laptop has any hardware failures you would need to contact an expensive professional data recovery service to attempt to recover data from the laptop. To complicate things even further the data must be recovered before Apple repairs the laptop. Please start backing up frequently and regularly.
iCloud is not a backup. Make sure to have frequent & regular backups. Since Apple provides the Time Machine backup software for free with every macOS so there is absolutely no reason not to have a good backup. Keep in mind if you make a critical change to a file the change will be replicated to your other devices whereas a good backup will retain the older original copy of the file in case a mistake was made.
Back up your Mac with Time Machine - Apple Support
FYI, it is impossible to recover accidentally deleted data from an SSD after the Trash has been emptied plus an SSD can fail at any time without any warning signs. Plus you have a 2019 Apple laptop with a T2 security chip which means if the laptop has any hardware failures you would need to contact an expensive professional data recovery service to attempt to recover data from the laptop. To complicate things even further the data must be recovered before Apple repairs the laptop. Please start backing up frequently and regularly.
Hello kristína209,
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities. It sounds like you've noticed some missing desktop files on your Mac. We'll do our best to assist with this.
Did you happen to have a Time Machine backup prior to this? If so, you could always restore the backup or files themselves using Time Machine. Here's how: Restore items backed up with Time Machine on Mac and Restore your Mac from a backup
Note: If you restore from a backup anything between that date/time will be restored and anything since then will be deleted from the Mac.
Check if iCloud Drive was syncing those Desktop and Documents folders: Add your Desktop and Documents files to iCloud Drive
Hope that helps out, take care!
Hey,
When you use iCloud Drive and sync Desktop & Documents, it stores them in the cloud, not locally to the device. We'd recommend saving these files to another location on your Mac, not syncing with iCloud for safe keeping. Then try to turn off iCloud Drive for Desktop & Documents to see if that helps out. You can always choose to enable it again to test it out. You can find those steps under section, 'Turn off Desktop and Documents' here: Add your Desktop and Documents files to iCloud Drive
If you find new files or documents have the same issue after turning this off and back on again, then you'd want to Contact Apple Support
Wishing you the best, cheers!
Hey! Thanks for the answer, but unfortunately I do not have Time Machine. I had everything backed up on my Icloud Drive, and it seems everything was deleted from there. I was able to restore the data from Icloud website but a day later the same thing happened again.. I am always able to get my data back, but it is really unpleasant that this keeps happening. So all of my data stored in Icloud Drive keeps deleting, not data stored locally.
All of my desktop data disappeared
