iCloud deleted my documents. How do I get them back

The "conversion utility" is built into iCloud. Just get the documents back into iCloud and you can download them through www.icloud.com.

I think Apple solved the problem. At least for me no more loss for a week now.

Stuart Grimshaw wrote:

So I am still stuck with the docs (file ending .db, is that right?) on my drive but unopenable. Any suggestions?

You don't want the files. You want the whole directory. Each directory represents a file. Follow the instructions as I have posted before. It will get the files back into iCloud.

However, if you have lost your documents but they are still in the normal "Mobile Documents" folder and not in an "Mobile Documents.delete" folder it suggest that your documents did not disappear in iCloud. Thus, make sure you are using the identical Apple ID for iCloud on all your devices. Also make sure not to confuse the Apple ID you are using for iTunes with the Apple ID you are using for iCloud. In particular, if you have converted from MobileMe...

gvde wrote:

Stuart Grimshaw wrote:

So I am still stuck with the docs (file ending .db, is that right?) on my drive but unopenable. Any suggestions?

You don't want the files. You want the whole directory. Each directory represents a file. Follow the instructions as I have posted before. It will get the files back into iCloud.

However, if you have lost your documents but they are still in the normal "Mobile Documents" folder and not in an "Mobile Documents.delete" folder it suggest that your documents did not disappear in iCloud. Thus, make sure you are using the identical Apple ID for iCloud on all your devices. Also make sure not to confuse the Apple ID you are using for iTunes with the Apple ID you are using for iCloud. In particular, if you have converted from MobileMe...

I only have the one account, so that won't be the problem.

However, following your instructions did get my documents back onto iCloud, so many many thanks for that (although I had to duplicate most but not all of the Numbers docs in iCloud to get them usable in the iPad - weird)

Now I'd like very much to turn off iCloud sync altogether from all my devices. To do that on the iPad, I'd lose my documents again, so the Settings tell me. I'd export them via iTunes and reimport them after deactivating iCloud, but the docs are not showing up on the File Sharing window (all other apps' docs are there as they should be). Any suggestions there, anybody? And any idea why those docs aren't available in File Sharing?

Once again, many thanks to gvde.

Hello

I had the same problem I thought I resolved it 4 days ago but it did not work and all my documents are lost on page, numbers and keynotes. So today I spent 3 hours with apple center and at least everething it's now right.

I precise my documents was saved on my Icloud account.

What have we done

reset and erase content and setting on Ipad

started Ipad as a new Ipad

during installation when it asked for and apple ID enter the apple ID used for Itunes (for me I have two ID one for Itunes and the other one for mobile me)

then go to general setting and Icloud. activate documents and data and all other items you want to synchronize on the cloud.

upload again all your apps from the apps store

for page , numbers and keynotes go to general setting and on page, numbers and keynotes activate Use Icloud

At the end all the documents save on Icloud account came back on the Ipad and they stay...

It's worked I create new documents and they stayed on my Ipad and they are saved on the Cloud.

I hope this can help you

This afternoon every last document disappeared from Pages on my iPad after flashing on for a second - after an hour with a Genius at the apple store and 2 1/2 more on the phone with progressively higher level folks at AppleCare I have confirmed that my documents - including several weeks of work not stored anywhere else - are irretrievable thanks to the magic of iCloud (which I had said yes to when downloading the new operating system a few weeks back, but hadn't tried using yet). Yeah, all trust I had in iCloud - and my iPad - is about as irretrievable as my work now. They acted like they'd never seen anything like this before, but it seems to be a well documented issue from this thread. Agonizing.

And now the big question...

Is apple aware of this HUGE!!!! problem?

Icloud is one of the reasons i bought an iPad,

Icloud isn't relaiant

(all my document for my study, projects ect are gone, and also unable to retrieve them.)

No more files being deleted:

I spent hours Friday, Saturday and Sunday on the phone with Apple, regarding my issue where my files kept being deleted. I would use PAGES and NUMBERS and see my files on my IPHONE and in IWORK, then come back open either app and see all my files DISAPPEAR, this happened over and over. After talking to numerous reps I was transferred to one who was going to restore my phone since previous people were convinced there was a problem with my operating system, he disagreed, after looking he said I had two accounts.

This had to do with me having two different apple ids, one which I had for years and a newer one I had to about a year since I no longer had access to the old email address.

He had me go to: appleid.apple.com/

Clicked manage your account and login in with my old apple id and password, we then went under where it said ALTERNATE EMAIL address which was the email address to my newer apple id and deleted it. Then logged out.

Went to IPHONE, Settings, ICLOUD, deleted ICLOUD from PHONE.

BACK to Settings, ICLOUD and entered new password to my newer apple id.

Went to SETTINGS, then to PAGES and made sure Use ICLOUD was set to ON and not OFF. Then did the same for numbers.

Then put documents in pages and numbers, restarted phone multiple times, updated docs and they stayed there.

I am CONVINCED the problem was with the mutiple accounts...

HOPE THIS HELPS!!!!

I'm also having this problem. All my spreadsheets were working on my iPad. Then my iPhone wasn't syncing, so I turned it off and turned it back on. It synced 2 files, and then the next thing I knew, the rest of my spreadsheets on my iPad now disappeared!

Not cool.

Thx, But it did not work, i dont have two apple id's or accounts.

BUT, DOES ANYONE KNOW HOW TO NOTIFY APPLE OF THIS ******** PROBLEM it is getting pretty annoying.

lots lots and lots of stories about this problem but no reply from apple.

Id need to be fixed.

This is a nightmare and it needs to be fixed. I backed up all my iPad when upgrading to iOS5 but what good is that if I have no way to recover the files. I searched my hard drive and they aren't there. Of course they aren't. The Cloud is the only place where they reside so if iCloud eats all your files they aren't ANYWHERE!

I appreciate the tip and will give it a try but it doesn't mean I'll ever see my documents again. Sure new files I create won't all be deleted but why on earth would I create documents with an app that might randomly erase all my files from existence? It's absolutely appalling. At least when I use Word I know it won't randomly delete it from all my devices. I may as well use text edit and email myself the files. Maybe even start using GMail.

They are on the hard drive if you have a OS X Lion and enabled iCloud documents sync in the preferences before it happened. A local copy of the documents are then in the Mobile Documents folder or the Mobile Documents.delete... folder. If you have Snow Leopard or Windows then there is no local copy on the computer as both don't support iCloud documents sync.

You can disable iCloud support in your iWorks applications on your iPad in the system preferences for each application. If you disable iCloud then documents are stored locally as before. They are not synced into iCloud and they should not disappear. Of course, you will have to make local backups through iTunes.

You should also be able to restore the documents from the backup before the iOS 5 upgrade. If you restore your iPad from that backup it contains all your documents from that time.

The documents are on the hard drive but in mobile document format and so are unreadbale by the Mac. There is a previous post suggesting a lot of hocuc pocus involving moving and renaming the files to various directories to get them back in the iCloud, but that didn't work for me. There has to ba a way to translate the mobile documents back to documents that can be read by the applications on my mac.

My documents disapeared, I found them in the deleted items folder and do not know what to do with them. They won't open on my mac. If I email them to my iOs device they don't open there either. They are in mobile document format and I don't know what to do with them.

Yes, that's what I did. For about an hour - moved folders, changed names, tried to sneak up on it, It didn't work - nothing returned magically to the cloud.

I think there really has to be a simplke way to read the mobile documents on my mac.