Users reporting that iWork documents are being deleted via iCloud

Over the weekend users have been reporting on the Apple support forums that they have encountered a severe bug in how iCloud deals with iWork documents when syncing – it deletes them!

The iWork documents created by Pages, Numbers or Keynotes are being deleted when iCloud performs a full “fresh” sync, which for users of mobile iWorks app, leaves no obvious way of them being able to recover their files. However, it seems that Mac users are able to recover lost documents via their Time Machine or using an alternative backup procedure.

From various posts on the Apple support forum, it seems that the problem occurs because iCloud is automatically putting iWork documents into an auto-delete folder. Apparently some users using OS X Lion, have also had success being able to recover files, by looking in a  a hidden folder called “Mobile Documents” and/or “Mobile Documents.delete.(date)” for the deleted content.

Apple has yet to officially respond to the issue, and as it stands, there doesn’t seem to be a fix at present, so the best suggested thing to do is actually turn off iWork document syncing until the problem has been resolved. And for users who have lost documents already when trying to sync, should try the suggestion above.

Check out the video below where one user has posted a video showing the problem in action; watch how the documents disappear after choosing to sync the files to iCloud.

If you are also having problems with iCloud or have lost some of your iWorks documents, let us know by leaving your comments below or via our @Gadget_Helpline Twitter page or Official Facebook group.