iCloud no longer loads. Lost hundreds of pixelmator files.

Discuss Pixelmator for iOS and mobile image editing.
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2020-10-09 05:42:42

When going into pixelmator it had a pop-up telling me the location where it was saving was no longer available. The only option I could choose was "on my phone". Now all of my files are gone and it is taking up space on my phone that I barely have. I'm very upset everything is gone. Lots of memories since I use pixelmator everyday and now I'm too worried to use it. iCloud Drive doesn't seem to be loading on my phone at all anywhere though and I've checked that I didn't miss a payment. Hopefully it is a server issue or something.
I am still worried that pixelmator or iCloud will sync and erase all my files to match what is showing on my phone though. Does anyone have any advice?

Thanks
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2020-10-09 06:02:31

Update:
I was able to get into my iCloud Drive from a PC but all of the Pixelmator files are 0KB. I am able to see everything in the app under Recent but I cannot select multiple at a time to back them up anywhere.

Any advice?

Thanks
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2020-10-09 06:08:42

0KB on iCloud for PC
Image

Files visible on Pixelmator iOS with thumbnails (not pictured) but click on a file gives authentication error. Also cannot select multiple anyway.
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2020-10-09 06:31:24

Hey there, this sounds like an iCloud sync issue — could you try signing out of iCloud, then signing back in to try resyncing all those files? It might be worthwhile to also check whether the files are also 0KB on iCloud.com. Though the fact that the files are 0KB on iCloud for PC is an ominous sign...

Are you on a beta version of iOS, by any chance?
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2020-10-09 06:48:57

I just thought I saved my files but now I am having another error.

I reset my network settings and now iCloud Drive is showing up again. When I select all of my Pixelmator files (they show as having data and thumbnails on my phone but not on PC for some reason) and select copy then paste into a dropbox folder, they whirl around for a long time but then start showing loading bars like they are in process of transferring but fails and gives me the error in the screenshot below.

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I'm still worried that my files are gone but are just showing data info and thumbnails from a local cache or something. I would really like to put them somewhere safe - I really wish I had thought of this sooner.
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2020-10-09 06:52:01

Hello Andrius, I didn't expect to see a reply tonight!

I was able to get my iCloud Drive working and they only show as 0KB on the windows application. They appear to be normal on the website and inside the Pixelmator app but I am getting errors when trying to transfer them elsewhere. Unfortunately, the file size is huge so I can't do it locally on the phone and iCloud for PC transfers 0KB files. There's no option to select all and download from the website as a .zip file either.
by Andrius 2020-10-09 06:32:19 Hey there, this sounds like an iCloud sync issue — could you try signing out of iCloud, then signing back in to try resyncing all those files? It might be worthwhile to also check whether the files are also 0KB on iCloud.com. Though the fact that the files are 0KB on iCloud for PC is an ominous sign...

Are you on a beta version of iOS, by any chance?
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2020-10-09 06:53:34

Also I am on iOS 13.3, Pixelmator 12?.6.1 (the most recent update from 2-3 days ago). I don't want to update my phone because of issues users are having with the iPhone 11 on iOS 14 but I might update my iPad and try to work from there if I need to.
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2020-10-09 07:07:16

Interesting, interesting, this is almost certainly an OS-level issue, but could you email us about this at support@pixelmator.com? We'll be able to dig deeper into this that way. Thanks in advance and I hope we can help!
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2020-10-09 07:46:52

Thanks Andrius, I did send an email with a link to this post. It is definitely an OS issue. I was able to recover everything now by duplicating the folder on iCloud and then compressing it into a .zip file. Since it was a single file I was able to download it from the website - (the website shows the actual data as opposed to the desktop app???) A lot of weird workarounds but I have all my data now.

On the Pixelmator side - how can I make Pixelmator start saving to the cloud again as opposed to directly on my phone? I can't find the setting to do this and that menu only popped up because it couldn't connect to iCloud. Is it possible to have it save to my Dropbox by default?

Thanks again for the quick replies.
by Andrius 2020-10-09 07:08:03 Interesting, interesting, this is almost certainly an OS-level issue, but could you email us about this at support@pixelmator.com? We'll be able to dig deeper into this that way. Thanks in advance and I hope we can help!
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2020-10-09 08:14:25

Is it possible to have it save to my Dropbox by default?
The Pixelmator file format is package-based (a macOS/iOS thing), which is not supported by Dropbox, so that's not really an option. Did you try completely signing out of iCloud and erasing all iCloud data on your device, then signing back in to have it resync? It will take a while with a lot of data but that option should generally be the most reliable way to get everything working again.