Missing files in iPad's Files App

Hey everyone! I spent hours with Apple Support and this is what worked for me:

1. Download everything that you still have that isn’t deleted to another computer or upload it to google drive
2. Go to settings and erase all data (trust in this) - make sure you download anything important beforehand
3. When the iPad turns back on, sign into iCloud and it should give you the option to restore a backup of your iPad, something that can only be done after erasing all current data.
4. it should give an option to restore back to a date when you had all the data.
5. choose that option and wait until ALL the iCloud data is finished downloading to check.

Yes, I know it sounds counterintuitive but it was the only way to get my data back that was deleted. It restored me back to a backup where all my files were there.

hope this works for y’all!

I spent hours with Apple Support and this is what worked for me:

1. Download everything that you still have that isn’t deleted to another computer or upload it to google drive
2. Go to settings and erase all data (trust in this) - make sure you download anything important beforehand
3. When the iPad turns back on, sign into iCloud and it should give you the option to restore a backup of your iPad, something that can only be done after erasing all current data.
4. it should give an option to restore back to a date when you had all the data.
5. choose that option and wait until ALL the iCloud data is finished downloading to check.

Yes, I know it sounds counterintuitive but it was the only way to get my data back that was deleted. It restored me back to a backup where all my files were there.

hope this works for you!

Has anybody able to retrieve their PDFs? If yes, please guide.

like you all, some PDF Files are missing from Files folder after updating the iPad to ios17.1

Same problem! Almost half of my winter HW disappears!!!!!! And still nobody has a solution!!!!!!!

Same too me, what should I do!? I have exam after two days

This has also happened to me! After speaking to Apple and doing a force restart, they’ve just completely disappeared!

Hi, may I ask if you were able to find a solution to this problem. I lost 2 pdf files yesterday and I was hoping to get some solution. Thanks for letting me know.

I missed all my files of word, which saved in files as folders, this is happened when in deleted word app and install it again, this is shouldn’t happen because all these documents already saved in my files under names

how I can get it back

Yeah it happened to me today I lost my files

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 ?

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.

same thing happened to me. i’m a literature student and i literally write 24/7. suddenly today in the MIDDLE of a class, 40% of everything that i ever wrote just disappeared. to say that i was frustrated and literally broke down is still an understatement. after a lot of crying i got the files back by a miracle. i did many many many things so idk which one of them was the one that helped me get all of it back but god i was terrified

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.

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.