Mac users beware - a macOS Sonoma 14.4 bug could delete saved versions of files in your iCloud Drive

(Image credit: MikroKon / Shutterstock)

The latest update for macOS Sonoma has yet another bug, this time causing havoc for users' saved files in iCloud Drive.

Normally, when you save files within your iCloud Drive all the different versions of that file will be saved for future reference. So, if you’ve been working on a big project or assignment, you can look through all the versions of your file if you need to.

This is the case even when you remove a file from the drive; the past versions of it will still be available to you if and when you need them. Unfortunately for some users, this new bug erases all the previous saved versions when a file is removed from the iCloud Drive - which could mean all your work is gone.

Howard Oakley from The Eclectic Light Company stated in a post that users of macOS 14.4 who have enabled the ‘Optimize Mac Storage’ setting should be warned that there’s a risk of losing all their saved versions of a file if they choose to delete or move it from the iCloud Drive. Oakley notes that this issue “certainly doesn’t happen in Ventura” and that when tested in the earlier 14.3 updates did not observe the problem either.

Clutching my saved files

If you’re worried about your own saved files, don’t! You can try and curb the potential threat by either simply not updating your operating system to macOS 14.4 if you haven’t already, or disabling the ‘Optimise Mac Storage’ setting. This way, your files won’t be booted off iCloud Drive and neither will any previous saved versions.

This bug is merely the latest problem to plague the macOS Sonoma 14.4 update, following reports that the update was breaking some users' USB hubs and even taking down printers as well. So, you’ll want to be as careful as possible if you’ve already updated to the latest version of Sonoma.

So far there haven’t been numerous reports of the bug going around, which means it is likely not a widespread issue just yet. We’ve yet to hear any word from Apple regarding these bugs, which can be interpreted as good news in itself - if Apple hasn’t said anything yet, that’s a good sign that this is a minor issue that will probably be quickly and quietly resolved in a further update.

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Muskaan is TechRadar’s UK-based Computing writer. She has always been a passionate writer and has had her creative work published in several literary journals and magazines. Her debut into the writing world was a poem published in The Times of Zambia, on the subject of sunflowers and the insignificance of human existence in comparison. Growing up in Zambia, Muskaan was fascinated with technology, especially computers, and she's joined TechRadar to write about the latest GPUs, laptops and recently anything AI related. If you've got questions, moral concerns or just an interest in anything ChatGPT or general AI, you're in the right place. Muskaan also somehow managed to install a game on her work MacBook's Touch Bar, without the IT department finding out (yet).