Apple Icloud Removal
Ermelindo Klatt
I forgot to note down apple id and password which I made on a recently purchased iPad air device, also I accidentally forgot the Passcode, since I am a new user I didn't know that I could be permanently locked out of my expensive purchase, I got the Passcode lock removed after getting the ipad restored but now the activation lock is not letting me use the device. I had tried all methods to retrieve the id or password and none have worked, also since while making the apple id I used a phone no only, I'm not able to log in through any method. As a last resort I took customer support who suggested the option of remote activation lock removal, and despite having the original bill with proof of ownership my request has been rejected. How do I activate my ipad. My money has been wasted. Apple should have emphasised more clearly about such things when we buy them. Also the salesmen should be clearly explaining it to buyers, specifically first time iOS users about it. And there should be early and better solution to such problems. Even the customer support no for my country India doesn't support all network, n I can't contact using the toll free number. I'm so sick of it all. Apple has been quite a disappointment for me.
We cannot help you and Apple will not unless you can provide the original receipt clearly showing the serial number. Activation Lock is a theft prevention feature. Apple bears no responsibility in this case. It is up to the use to learn how to use the device. And the user should save important Passwords in a safe place.
So I updated a machine with a bunch of files on the Desktop and in the Documents folder, and when I upgraded it asked me if I wanted to store these folders on iCloud as well. I hit YES and it began trying to upload everything. Now, I guess I had a large file in one of the folders because the total upload was almost 9GB (i have 200GB of available iCloud space). It failed the upload and has just been stuck on 57kb of 8.89GB uploaded for over a day. I've tried restarting and it hasn't moved. I haven't found a way to quit it either. This has been making my machine incredibly slow and has caused the fans to speed up like crazy. Anytime I try to access an Open or Save dialog, the app I'm using crashes, whether it's Preview, Xcode, Photoshop, or even Safari.
So I went to the iCloud system preferences and unchecked the "Desktop and Documents" item. I figured it wouldn't delete things that were still locally saved on my disk. But I was wrong and now every single file on both my Desktop and in my Documents is gone. Not in the trash, nowhere to be found. Gone.
Can any one help me with this? Has anyone experienced something similar? The iCloud upload is still there and still isn't progressing at all (not sure what its trying to upload anyways since the files were all deleted). My computer is unusable and my files are all gone. I have a Time Machine backup from last week, but I will not have access to for almost 2 more weeks so if there's a way to recover my files sooner and kill this upload task, that would be amazing.
I had the same thing happen to me. I unchecked the iCloud Drive Settings and then rebooted. When it came back up, it was still trying to upload the files. I think the process was called "bird". You can check in the Activity Monitor. Once I dragged all the files out of the /iCloud Folder (local) back to my documents, then I let it percolate and things ended up being okay.
I think Apple needs to put a bit more of a delay in that (e.g. maybe two acceptance boxes). When I clicked on the yes box, I completely forgot that I had several gigs of files in both my corporate and personal Dropbox folders as well as my Onedrive folder. It was the Ondrive yakking at me saying the "default folder has moved" that tipped me off to what was going on. Moving those folders created a bit of a "***" moment. It's all good and the experiece I hope will help others as well as Apple really understand the complexity of moving the contents of the Documents folder to the cloud.
This is HORRIBLE. This just happened to me and I almost had a meltdown. It deleted all of my work documents. I called apple and they helped me restore some of the files. If you go to icloud there is a button that says restore. AFter you do this, then unclick icloud sharing of documents. If this does not restore all of your files, in the finder window type icloud archive and they should be there. That is the last time I try to use icloud. What an insane system.
I BACKED UP ALL MY DATA in my HP laptop WINDOWS 10. I created a separate folder for all the pics and videos I made over few months and transferred from my iphone 11 to this laptop.This evening I got some errors popping up on my Windows saying the device connected to this PC has been removed or something. So I logged out of this M F icloud, they said the files will be deleted from icloud and I clicked YES because I thought I was saving it on my drive on my laptop.NEXT THING I LOST ALL MY FILES AND PHOTOS AND VIDESO. I can't believe there's is no Support on this topic or warning or anything. I am clueless where to find 20GB of data wiped out in just one Logout from icloud ????
Keep calm, they are not deleted. So icloud drive is really confusing. The first thing to understand, is that at some point in the past, your files were created in your laptop's hard drive, and from there at some point were synchronized or simply uploaded to icloud drive.
It is at this point that gets confusing. Once your files are in icloud drive, what is important for Mac as a service provider is that your files are always in icloud drive, safe and sound. Thus, if you buy a new computer, you simple use your files from icloud (from the cloud) as you need them, either by downloading them or by activating "icloud drive" and by clicking options / "desktop and docs folder"
So, when you are already using your macbook with icloud drive activated: FILES WILL BE IN BOTH YOUR LAPTOP's HARD DRIVE AND IN ICLOUD... except in the case you also activated the Optimizing option... then some files you rarely use will automatically be kept in icloud only... this is, will be deleted from your hard drive to save space.
So what happens when you go to system preference - icloud drive, and deactivate icloud drive... well, simply said, your files will be in icloud drive only (in the cloud = NO LONGER IN YOUR HARD DRIVE, kind of)....
but when doing so, that you instruct to keep the files in the cloud only, a backup is saved in your hard drive... you'll find it as "icloud drive (archive)" in your username folder (so pretty much it's still in your hard drive but moved its location, from icloud drive folder in finder to your username where applications etc are).
now, BE PATIENT, it takes times, perhaps for half an hour you will still see in Finder your icloud drive / documents or desktop folders EMPTY... but after some 20-30 minutes, suddenly... voila.. THE FILES APPEAR AGAIN... but perhaps your hard drive is full, and the files appear in Finder / icloud drive / documtns but with the symbol that they are in the cloud only (not in your hard drive).
on mac, open finder - look down left hand columb for iCloud Drive - opeon the iCloud Drive - in there are all the items eaten by icloud - just drag and drop onto your mac desk top - you now have reinstated to desk top
@nematode You write: "If you check the box, all of the files will be downloaded from the cloud and restored back to your computer." and all the icloud files will be downloaded to the local desktop and hard drive. I don't see that option.
I originally deleted the files from icloud and they disappeared from the local desktop. I restored them (except for a couple that said they could not be restored "at this time" but I got them back from Time Machine. My question is how can I keep all the files on my desktop when I turn off the icloud "Desktop and Documents" backup in the icloud preferences? When I check the box, it warns that all past desktop and documents will be removed from the local desktop and saved on icloud.
I just want to have all my files local and turn off icloud for everything. I tried downloading the folders and files with the cloud icon next to them, but I don't know if that will do the trick. When I saw your comment "If you check the box, all of the files will be downloaded from the cloud and restored back to your computer." I thought there was something I could do in icloud to download the files, but the download icon is not active.
I'm very happy for all of you who were able to retrieve your files. None of it worked for me. Every since I downloaded MascOS, things have been strange with my pc. My documents were deleted one day and I tried everything to retrieve them but they're gone. The folders are there but the documents aren't. I was almost done writing my second book and it's all gone. My heart is so broken. :(
I am going through this right now (October 2022). I wanted to download an application on my MacBook air 2015 but I needed version 11. I was currently on 10.14.6 or something. I bought an extra 50gb of icloud storage on my laptop and decided to move all my documents to the cloud. I checked off 'desktop and documents' and it cleared space on my hard drive saying it successfully moved all my desktop and documents to the cloud. Several minutes after downloading the software update, I got a notification saying an additional 30gb was needed to download the update so I gave up and decided to move my documents back to my Hard drive. I went to icloud options and unchecked the documents and desktop and all my documents were GONE. the files were there but the documents are all gone.
I've gone through this entire thread trying to retrieve my data but nothing works. I don't see anything called 'Icloud Archive' and I checked documents and desktop again and nothing has appeared (its been 30 minutes).
I also tried the recovery button in icloud.com and nothing was in there. How is it that my files were transferred but the actual documents in the files are not there? I tried installing recovery softwares but the 1gb for free thing is a lie. I'm being asked to spend hundreds of dollars on recovering like 3 files and these files don't even have the correct name that I am looking for.
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