Any way to restore local files removed by iCloud sync issue?

Question

Level 1

4 points

Any way to restore local files removed by iCloud sync issue?

Hi,

I have an iPhone and iPad. For some time now, the iPad had paused syncing files to iCloud due to some issue.

Yesterday I signed out of iCloud on the iPad and signed back in to try and remedy. All the files on the iPad that had not successfully synced to iCloud have now been removed from the iPad local storage. Sync is now working but to versions of files when the last iPad sync had last worked, many yrs ago, losing any files newly created since the last successful sync. Given sync had not worked for a while, data is also not on the iPhone. I had not been aware of this sync issue as I use different apps on iPhone and iPad - only wanted iCloud for backing up app data.

Is there any way to restore the local version of the files?

thanks in advance

Posted on Jan 7, 2026 1:52 AM

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Answer 1

LotusPilot

Level 10

302,036 points

Jan 7, 2026 2:21 AM in response to HowardHatman

First, do you have either an iCloud or iTunes backup of your iPad that has not been updated subsequent to signing out of your iPad? If yes, you might consider restoring this backup to your iPad.

You might also be able to recover deleted data from iCloud:

https://www.icloud.com/recovery

If the missing data cannot be recovered by restoring a pre-existing backup, or using iCloud recovery tools, your missing locally stored data has been irretrievably lost.

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Answer 2

LotusPilot

Level 10

302,036 points

Jan 7, 2026 3:18 AM in response to HowardHatman

Any recently deleted files that can be recovered will be accessible either from the File App Recently Deleted folder - or from iCloud using the resources already outlined.

In this instance, if your iPad synchronised an earlier document version from iCloud, unless you have a backup the document or its earlier version has been irretrievably lost.

If you value your data, always keep a backup - these being the foundation of good computing practice. With any computing platform, unexpected failures are to be anticipated; sooner or later something will happen that can lead to data loss.

For critical data, IT Professionals recommend keeping three backups - using two different backup technologies, one backup ideally be saved offline.

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Answer 3

HowardHatman Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 7, 2026 2:30 AM in response to LotusPilot

Thanks for the quick response. The issue was that data was not reaching iCloud, hence cannot restore from there. iCloud backup was also not working. I do not use iTunes. Hence no backup.

Was just wondering if there is any way to get to recently deleted items on the device itself.

The main data lost was notes in Notability where sync to iCloud had been failing.

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