WIRED
Most iOS users rarely, if ever, need to head into their device settings and hit the “Reset All Settings” button. But sometimes, particularly with a new OS install, unforeseen issues can force your hand. Unfortunately, a new bug is making device resets problematic for those who use iCloud Drive.
“Reset All Settings” specifically notes that it does not delete any media or data. But after upgrading to iOS 8 and using iCloud Drive, Apple’s cloud-based file storage system, a small number of iOS users who decided to reset all their device settings found that in addition to resetting the device, it also deleted their iWork documents from iCloud Drive. Macrumors, which first identified the issue, found that this deletion expanded from the iPhone and web to synced Yosemite-running desktop machines as well. Since Textedit and Preview documents can’t yet be viewed on iPhone, these files seem unaffected.
Normally, if you opt into iCloud Drive, you can see your documents on iOS devices, OS X Yosemite devices, and on iCloud.com. If you opted not to use iCloud Drive when you installed iOS 8, you can only see these files on iOS 7-running devices, and on Mavericks-running desktops.
As far as bugs go, this one should only affect a very small number of people. Specifically, iOS 8 users who decide, due to install woes or because they plan on selling or giving away their device, to reset the whole thing. But for someone dependent on iCloud and Apple’s ecosystem, finding your iWork files gone is not a small problem.
If you did a full device reset and lost iWork documents, you should contact Apple support and they may be able to help restore your files. Several MacRumors forum members have found some degree of success doing this. If you use Time Machine, your files should still be safely backed up.
In the meantime, if you’re an iCloud Drive user who’s planning on doing a device reset, you may want to hold off. If you must, you should definitely first backup all your Drive files (with Time Machine, to other cloud storage services like Dropbox, locally on a desktop, or all three).
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