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iCloud Drive Restored folders are empty

Hi all,


I recently deleted folders from iCloud Drive.. and thinking I have a backup, I deleted them from trash too. Of course, I didn't have a backup.. and I'm trying to restore the folders.


I immediately went to the icoud.com -> icloud drive -> recently deleted - all the folders I deleted were there, I selected all of them and chose "Restore".


This did restore the folders.. but all of them are empty, the files are not being restored. I've been waiting for a couple of hours now and still nothing, but maybe I have to wait more?


I also tried the iCloud.com -> account settings -> Restore files option, but the files don't seem to appear there - I think this option is only for files that were part of an application?


I think the files that are missing were uploaded on icloud, because it affected my available space, so I think they were uploaded and should be there, but are not getting restored.


Is there a way to contact apple support directly and perhaps see if they can restore my iCloud drive to the state it was a couple of hours ago?


Any help will be appreciated, thanks in advance!

MacBook Pro (2020 and later)

Posted on Sep 29, 2021 2:23 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Sep 29, 2021 3:15 PM

Whatever you do on your Mac is reflected in iCloud. If you delete a file from your desktop it moves to trash; it will delete from the desktop folder in iCloud and move to "recently deleted." If you empty trash on your Mac, the file will then be deleted on your Mac and in iCloud. Any backup would only be one that you create using Time Machine; the cloud is primarily a synchronization service, not a backup service.

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3 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Sep 29, 2021 3:15 PM in response to GeorgeSg

Whatever you do on your Mac is reflected in iCloud. If you delete a file from your desktop it moves to trash; it will delete from the desktop folder in iCloud and move to "recently deleted." If you empty trash on your Mac, the file will then be deleted on your Mac and in iCloud. Any backup would only be one that you create using Time Machine; the cloud is primarily a synchronization service, not a backup service.

iCloud Drive Restored folders are empty

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