Users of macOS 14.4, which Apple made available for download last week, are at risk of losing older versions of their files under certain circumstances. The versioning that has been integrated into the Mac operating system for years is found in numerous appsthen fails, reports developer and Mac & i author Howard Oakley on his blog. It appears to be a bug that Apple is aware of Feedback assistants has also already been reported (FB13691058) – alternatively, the company could also have changed the way it works, which, however, makes little sense.
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iCloud Drive in combination with the optimized storage space
The versions disappear as soon as files are lost due to lack of disk space (or a corresponding user action) have migrated to iCloud. The most recent version of a file can then be downloaded again (via the cloud icon), but suddenly all previous versions that were previously available on this Mac are gone (but not those from other Macs that may have existed). This phenomenon is not noticeable in macOS 14.3 or macOS 13 aka Ventura, Oakley has discovered.
The problem only affects files that are saved in iCloud Drive – and only if you delete the local download or do this via macOS itself the “Optimize storage space” function done yourself. Many users may have switched the latter on automatically, as it is a standard function – although not entirely uncontroversial as it is problematic in offline operation.
This is how you get around the problem for now
Until Apple restores versioning, you should be careful when handling iCloud Drive files and, if you are interested in the old document versions, use them if possible not delete locally. You can deactivate optimized storage space in the system settings so that this does not happen automatically.
Once the versions are gone, there currently seems to be no way back. Backups usually do not contain the versions. Oakley itself has one own free tool called Revisionist developed that allows you to pull old versions from a file. Otherwise, you have to go through the old versions using Apple’s Time Machine-like interface.
(bsc)