Apple’s cloud backup for iPhone, iPad and Mac users may have a serious flaw that could unexpectedly permanently erase files. Worse yet, if you synched all your Apple gadgets together, your files could disappear from all of them.
In the wake of Apple's difficult post-launch days (#bendgate, failed iOS 8.0.1 update, and the Shellshock virus attacking Macs) there seems to be one last problem Apple and its users must deal with - it's an iOS 8 bug that can erase all your iWork documents from iCloud.
I know, "great."
So, word has it that the "Reset All Settings" option found under Settings>>General>>Reset in iOS 8 also (not so conveniently, either) deletes documents from the iCloud drive - permanently.
Matters are made worse by the clear statement (for a function intended to reset factory default settings) that "no data or media will be deleted." Whoops. Now, if that were not enough, if the device running iOS 8 is synched with a Mac running OS X Yosemite - you guessed it - all iWork documents stored on iCloud were gone.
Don't use that setting!
Apple is yet to address the "case of the missing iCloud documents." And while in some scenarios it is possible to retrieve these lost files from a backup folder or via Time Machine, there is still little known in terms of a fix.
The bug has not been publicly acknowledged by Apple, so I really cannot tell you much about a fix. For now, I recommend that you avoid the "Reset All Settings" like the plague (at least until this bug has been acknowledged and with that, a proven solution). If you absolutely must restore to factory settings, you should retrieve all iWork documents from your iCloud account and save them in separate, unaffected environment. You can add them back later, once the bug has been fixed.
Maybe Apple hasn't dealt with this bug because it was working so quickly to neutralize the Shellshock virus? Well, if you were concerned about it (or not sure if you should be), take a look here. I explain the details and provide you with an immediate solution.
