Retrieval of lost documents

Look in your Trash, if not already empty. Also, Apple provides a 30-day sliding window of file recovery in iCloud from that Settings panel.

If you recall the name of the document and its type (Word, Pages, text, RTF, etc.) then initially search for it with Spotlight, where XX is a partial case-insensitive name of the document, using double quotes if the document had white space in its name.

Look for any MS Word document whose name is XX created after June 1, this year. Note that you can omit kind and use just the name keyword to find all files regardless of type that have a partial name match. Spotlight does not support wildcard characters.

kind:word name:XX created:>06/01/2021



The last opened date after Nov 1, this year:

kind:pages name:XX date:>11/01/2021

If Spotlight does not find the file, you will need to resort to your Time Machine backup and use Spotlight searches in the Finder window there. Use /Applications/Time Machine for this purpose.

Time Machine Backup  is very useful in this specific situation

Thanks Viking this was very useful for me too. Is it possibile to contact you to ask for a professional work?

The Apple Support Communities are not the source for contract work, nor can any privacy-related information be posted here.

You are welcome. Documents have a habit of showing up where you least expect them… 😎

Oh! Sorry! Thanks for the clarification.