Missing files in iPad's Files App

Same thing happened to me. It started over a month ago without notice. Only option is to use Data Recovery however they only keep 30 days. https://www.icloud.com/recovery/

If your files went missing 30+ days then you're SOL unfortunately. Crazy. There has to be a way.

Lesson is do not rely on Files App to update your docs. Keep for backup only and not cross device. Prob best to use Drive.

I've had the same issue! Two uni folders with all the work from this semester vanished, neither in Recently, nor in Deleted, weren't even listed in Downloads anymore. It affected PDFs with Apple Pencil editing but also unedited "clean" PDFs. About 3 hours with Apple Support via chat and phone, many checks, resets and going back to the last backup did not work. Went back to a backup version from before the files were lost and still did not reappear :( I'm now just left with hoping for them to magically come back one day, but the frustration and desperation continues

After losing edited PDFs in the native Files app, I started using the app Documents and then either keeping the files in Documents or off loading them to Dropbox. I've had no problems since and the Documents app gives you more editing and markup options than the native Files app.

I stopped using the Files app to markup PDFs a long time ago because of this issue. I now use the app called Documents. I haven’t lost a PDF since.

Has anyone tried to use the Notes app to annotate PDFs? I just noticed that you can annotate a PDF and then if you want, either keep the PDF in Notes or export it.

the exact thing happed to me. it was a 1gb file that I needed to study for school. I even tried to connect it to my Mac and use a 3rd party to find it in the root files but I still cannot find it. it seems like iOS has requested it into the system data and cannot release it no matter what I do.

I've had the same issue, I just opened the file app and I can't find my files, they were located in a folder in the local directory, they disappeared from the recent files and in the trash there's nothing (also I did not move the files in another directory). It's a month worth of notes so is there a way for apple to solve this or did apple just erased my work like nothing? I don't know if it's correlated but it happened after the latest update (17.1.2)

I have been in contact with Apple Support since last week, and today they told me that there is nothing I can do (or they can do) but wait for the next update. It is just so disappointing. I have an important exam coming and I lost all my pdf files that I took handwritten notes on, over 5 months! Now I just need to do it all over again, which is time consuming and really demotivating.

My ipad was updated with ios 17.1, recently whole my notes were missing without any interfering from me, some of them are visible on recents as pdf files but I can't open them or share them, it states that they are don't exist when I'm trying to share them, please help me to recover them as they are very much important for me

Glad to see I'm not the only one ! Just hung up on a 1h30 call and the person what suspicious of me having moved/deleted the files. I'm really devastated. They are supposed to call me back on Friday to let me know if I can access my disappeared files another way. Has anyone succeeded ?

WHAT IS GOING ON, READ ALL THE COMMENTS AND NO ONE HAS FOUND A WAY AROUND THIS CLEARLY UNFORTUNATE APP ERROR? ARE WE SUPPOSED TO JUST CALMLY ACCEPT OUR FILES ARE GONE FOREVER? MY FILES SHOW WHEN I GO TO RECENT BUT THEY'RE UNCLICKABLE SO ARE THEY HANGING IN THERE OR SOMETHING? SOMEBODY ACTUALLY HELP FIX THIS!!!

After waiting 3 days for them to call me back, I had others tests to do over the phone, they are going to call me back again on monday. It's never ending. Now the files aren't visibles anymore. I think they are forever lost.

This didn’t work for me as I found no files in data recovery. Probably because I tried Lotus’s method earlier though and that’s when the files disappeared from “recents” for me. It’s such an unnecessary headache.

Called Apple support today to speak with their "specialist" and they just told me to make sure to back it up in icloud. I asked her, what if I don't have an internet connection? Do I just let my files disappear? Then she hung up on me lol. Apple's awful service is unreal. At least, with android devices, you can actually find out what's going on instead of just praying that the next update fixes it.

Thank you for this lead. I’d downloaded the app at some point but removed it. No memory when or why.

i see that it costs $9.99/month (plus tax).

i suppose if your files are critical to success, then it’s a bargain price.

my annoyance is I used FILES but not PAGES app. It seems you can backup PAGES to iCloud but I haven’t found how to backup FILES to iCloud.

i have iCloud backing up everything but photos.

some older dated files remained. No rhyme nor reason to why the missing files went missing on iPad and aren’t in iCloud.

similar thing happened to me as well. I lost 50-60 important documents all of a sudden. I wanted to keep my documents safe so I did not save it to icloud . Documents are visible under “on my ipad” but I cannot access them. I have a really important exam coming up. My biggest mistake was blindly trusting apple with my documents but now I don’t trust it anymore. Absurd and ridiculous.