Can I retrieve files and word documents from Icloud after a year or two? My hard drive went kaflooie and
I'm hoping my stuff isn't permanently lost. I didn't delete anything from iCloud and have plenty of storage space. How can i get my old files/word stuff back?
iMac 21.5″, macOS 15.0
You can check to see if you have any documents on iCloud by using an Internet browser and logging into www.icloud.com and clicking on Drive there.
If there are files there, you can download them to your computer directly from iCloud.com by selecting the files and then clicking the download icon (cloud with down arrow) near the top right of the screen.
Another option is to turn on iCloud Drive on your computer and letting the files sync. See: Set up iCloud Drive - Apple Support
Also see the Desktop & Documents option of iCloud Drive.
You can check to see if you have any documents on iCloud by using an Internet browser and logging into www.icloud.com and clicking on Drive there.
If there are files there, you can download them to your computer directly from iCloud.com by selecting the files and then clicking the download icon (cloud with down arrow) near the top right of the screen.
Another option is to turn on iCloud Drive on your computer and letting the files sync. See: Set up iCloud Drive - Apple Support
Also see the Desktop & Documents option of iCloud Drive.
If there is a chance that they were deleted recently (within the last 30 days or possibly a bit longer), go to www.icloud.com and click on your user name or photo there and then click on "Data Recovery" at the top of the next screen.
iCloud Drive is a syncing service and if you delete files (intentionally or accidentally) from your Mac, they are also deleted from iCloud.
The only other option I know of would be if you had a backup to an external drive via Time Machine or other backup software.
There is nothing older than 30 days. what next to try?
icloud file retrieval
