Voice Memo backups to iCloud ? Where are they?!?

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Level 1

12 points

Voice Memo backups to iCloud ? Where are they?!?

It is my understanding that Voice Memos (when flagged it do so in iCloud) will backup when your phone is connected to power, Wi-Fi and with the screen locked. To this end, I purchased extra cloud storage because I use my Voice Memos every day to record my thoughts, musical ideas, etc and it's up around 33 GB right now! The other day I found a memo that I wanted to revisit and work on, but it wouldn't play. I edited the file to be 1 second shorter and the whole thing is gone now! The file is still there, but the waveform has vanished! If I could find the previous file on a backup, I could restore it, but I can't find them anywhere... It's probably too late and tough luck, but I don't understand why EVERYTHING has to be so effing hard to get back from a backup!

Any & all help/suggestions are appreciated

iPhone XR

Posted on Apr 27, 2022 7:52 PM

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Answer 1

Miche11e_P

Community Specialist

Apr 29, 2022 7:27 AM in response to Dave Grandel

Hi Dave,

Thanks for contacting Apple Support Communities!

We understand that you've edited a Voice Memo and it disappeared and you're unable to locate it in iCloud.

If iCloud has created a new backup since the Voice Memo has been missing, we won't have the option to recover it. If not, you can restore your iPhone as outlined here: Restore your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch from a backup - Apple Support

We understand how important your Voice Memos are to you. You may consider keeping an additional copy of your Voice Memos as outlined here in case your iCloud backup is written over with a new backup: Archive or make copies of the information you store in iCloud - Apple Support

Take care!

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Answer 2

tygb

Level 9

65,010 points

Apr 29, 2022 8:28 AM in response to Dave Grandel

See the articles About missing information after you restore your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iCloud Backup - Apple Support

Sometimes, if you restore a device from a backup of another kind of device, your Messages and Voice Memos won’t restore. For example, if you use an iPad backup to restore an iPhone, your Messages and Voice Memos may not appear on the iPhone.

If your information is still missing after you restore, you can try to restore from a different backup in iCloud or on your computer. Always back up your current data on your computer before you try to restore from iCloud Backup.

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Answer 3

Dave Grandel Author

Level 1

12 points

May 4, 2022 8:18 AM in response to Miche11e_P

Hi Miche11e_P, thanks for the reply. I might not have been clear enough in my initial ask… I am not seeing ANY voice memos in my iCloud…

THAT is an issue for me.

I, thankfully, had the presence of mind to send myself an email copy of the damaged file and it played fine on my PC 😳, but that still doesn’t answer the real question of “Where do I find my voice memos on iCloud?”. I think that I have them set to backup to iCloud when my phone is plugged in and on wifi which can amount to a fair bit of time, but I’m not likely going to leave it plugged in at home all day if it’s not going to accomplish anything…

Hoping for a solution,

Dave

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