Freeform boards disappeared from my mac

Hey there Sandra_flowellnutrition,

If you've just toggled that setting, it may take some time for iCloud to update the information across your devices. This resource has general guidance on using Freeform on all of your compatible devices: Access your Freeform boards on all your Apple devices.

"Turn on Freeform on Mac

1. On your Mac, choose Apple menu  > System Settings, then click [your name] at the top of the sidebar. If you don’t see your name, click Sign in with your Apple ID to enter your Apple ID or to create one.
2. Click iCloud on the right, then turn on Freeform if it’s not already on." (Retrieved form resource linked above)

Take care.

yep, also lost a presentation i had spent a week on. 1 day to deadline adn i have to start over. Apparently if time machine is on you can retrieve the hidden library/freeform/Cloudkit/data . However, i dont use time machine as it requires an external drive which i havent setup as i was under the misapprehension icloud backed up app data from the ipad. There is now way I can find to restore just freeform and associated data from icloud without doing a factory reset and restore on my ipad, which i dont have time for and seems nuclear and could create other isues.

I am very surprised not to see any acknowledgement from apple on this thread. I am going to go back to reliable lucidchart instead.

It happened to me also. I activated freeform sync with iCloud in settings and after "merge" my projects disappeared. After 8h nothing changed.

Do you have any idea, how I can solve it? I really appreciate any help you can provide.

I was having issues syncing Freefrom across my iMac and iphone 12. Can't seem to sync the phone. I then went on my imac and toggled the icloud sync button and 'lost' all my boards. I can't find the boards on my i cloud, I can't see a folder called recently deleted boards. Is there any way to recover these boards? This has resulted in the loss of a a month of work...

Hi danakayw,

Is the answer to wait? Same thing happened to me. Hours spent on a freeform board on my my Mac. When having issues with syncing with my iPad, I went to icloud settings on my Mac, toggled freeform on/off, clicked merge, freeform board that I worked on for hours...gone.

Is there a way to get it back?

Thanks - Scott

Same here. Turned on iCloud sync on Mac after adding lots of work to Mac, accepted merge, and now work is gone. Guess that is the end of using this software. HUGE MISTAKE! The absolute worst thing to to is lose work / files in software. If this continues this software is dead. No versioning either! Awful, awful, awful! I thought they solved this crap with iCloud.

I lost few boards of mine.

It is really carelessness of apple.

They brag about what they give to the community. they charge extensive money for the gadgets. Still not give a **** about this important issue.

Lot of work done by people are lost.

Do they know the value of time.

A trillion dollar company and very bad services.

Yup just LOST WEEK WORTH of pre-sync WORK after I turned on Sync on my mac. Thanks Freeform team or maybe deadline driven managers! You missed a pretty DARN OBVIOUS TEST CASE . User tries out new app, creates boards, likes it, wants to try syncing to iphone, follows FreeForm user guide, expects that no data is destroyed.

WRONG NOT TESTED - As dozens of people on this recent thread confirm. YOUR WORK WILL GET DELETED!!!

Dear Apple,

I have been using a FreeForm board, when I had faced a similar situation of losing the current progress. I would appreciate, if you could kindly advice how to deal with such a bug!

Thank you,

Adiya

This did not work and I really think that this is horrible that Apple won't put out a real solution for this issue or recall the app. Unless you experience this problem and then google it you really do spend hours creating work that is lost. Customer service is going down. This is the second disappointment that I have had with apple in 2 months.

I encountered this too. My board would not sync to iCloud and when I clicked merge its deleted, and I do not have time machine setup.

Is there any other way to recover the board? Spent a few hours on a presentation, and missed presenting it on the meeting

Same issue here, massive amount of planning and info lost. Literally the only reason I buy Apple products is because all my devices and data stay synced. I'm upset and left not knowing what to do. I'm guessing my boards are lost for good...

If this isn't fixed, there's no point using Freeform.

Same Problem here. I was having syncing issues and it suggest signing out from Apple ID and signing back in. Now things sync, but all my original boards are gone. And no I don't have time machine.

I spent a few hours inputting data, tried to sync, no luck. Turned off sync and back on and poof, the new board I added is gone... wow that's frustrating. I've not found a solution

Same thing just happened to me. 😭