Jfish36 wrote:
Backed up everything to the cloud. Gone! No archive no data.
I'm sorry for the data loss (no association with Apple other than being a regular user). iCloud and other cloud services are usually just file syncing services which at first glance may appear like a backup, but cloud file syncing services are not backups as you have discovered the hard way. You did not have a backup if the only copy of your files were with iCloud.
Think about how these services work. You create, or edit a file, then those changes appear on all of our other connected devices which use that cloud service. Please read that sentence again very carefully. Now consider what happens if you make a catastrophic edit to a file being synced to the cloud? That file with the catastrophic edit will be on each of your other devices as well. Now consider the catastrophic edit was actually deleting the file.....guess what....that file will be removed from all those other connected devices as well. Sure doesn't seem like a backup to me.
A backup should allow you to access older copies of files from before a catastrophic edit or deletion occurs. Of course this depends on how often a backup is performed, but at least there is a chance of recovering an older copy of a file. Apple provides the Time Machine backup software for free with macOS, all the user needs to do is provide at least one external drive to store the backups.
People should be very wary with cloud based services since users have absolutely no control over any content stored in the cloud. User also have absolutely no say over how these cloud based services work since terms can change with very little notice (new rules...usually hobbling the service which bad for the user, price increases, or even loss of service, etc.).
People should have a backup of their computer (and other devices) and all external media (including the cloud) which contain important & unique data. The more important the data, then the more copies of that data you should have since even backups can become corrupted or lost. You should always have at least one backup copy of your data stored locally, and if the data is really important, then there should be another copy stored somewhere else just in case of some natural disaster wipes out the first local backup. It is Ok if one of your backup options is to a backup cloud service (different from a cloud file syncing service)...but actual cloud backups tend to have their own issues such as very slow access to retrieve the backup from the cloud....plus again terms & pricing can change with little notice.
Hired two computer data recovery companies to no avail. I’ll be getting my attny involved. 25 years of documents. Gone forever.
Not surprising since once a file is deleted from an SSD, that file is gone for good due to how SSDs work. Plus with the newer Macs there are a lot of new ways of permanently losing access to data stored on the internal SSDs of the recent Macs due to all the new security features in both macOS and the computer hardware. I do realize you thought iCloud was your backup.
AFAIK, this is the only option people have to try to recover lost files from iCloud:
Recover deleted files on iCloud.com - Apple Support
Unless you can find where Apple actually advertises iCloud as a backup service, I don't think you will get very far. You should carefully read the Terms & Conditions for the iCloud service. One of the reasons I do not use iCloud myself other than to sync Contacts is because I do not fully understand how everything works and Apple's official documentation is many times misleading & insufficient. I have seen several high level well respected forum contributors discussing aspects of how iCloud works, and even they are not 100% in agreement with how things work.
It really pays to fully read up on a new feature and understand it. I know Apple makes things seem deceptively simple with all their glamorous advertising, but people should still research things and not trust the glitzy advertising. Advertisers are great at making things look incredible. Don't let your guard down just because it is a company you trust or respect.
Unfortunately we all learn a lot after making mistakes...some mistakes are more painful & frustrating than others. I definitely have my share of scars as well.
