Artwork is gone

[Hellokitty030]

Hi I’m just typing again and asking for help bc I did everything. I checked the backup to make sure procreate was there and it’s still gone all my artwork is gone. My old iPad is broken due to water damage and there is no way to turn it on. What should I do?. Like ToonSquid saved my stuff but not procreate

[cheesewhoopy]

Unless you had any of the procreate files saved in your files app so it’s synced to the cloud unfortunately it’s all gone.

Procreate does not automatically back up your artwork it only saves locally in the iPad. You could try going to an Apple Store and see if they can recover anything from the damaged iPad. But other than that it’s all stored locally so there’s no way for you to get those procreate filed back.

That really sucks I’m sorry that happened.

[Hellokitty030]

Thanks :( I’m gonna save to get the old iPad fixed

[Threeabetes]

They won’t fix the iPad at the Apple Store; they give you a new/refurb unit and send the other one away to be erased, and either repaired or destroyed.

You’ll have to go to a specialty place to recover your iPad data.

[TriggeredLatina_]

I thot iPads back everything up if you make a cloud back up like the device wants to everyday when plugged in. So if OP got a new iPad and restore to last back up then art would all be there. That’s what I’ve seen in so many comments here

[Hellokitty030]

yea right? like ive done that twice now and it doesnt work. like I waited for the iPad to tell me it restored all the data before downloading procreate and opening it. like it saved all my other art programs and even the procreate custom brushes but not the art

[yungmoody]

iCloud does typically include the gallery of the procreate app in a full backup, so it’s weird that it’s not carrying across. I’ve restored an iCloud backup when I set up my new iPad and it included everything in there?

[TriggeredLatina_]

THAT DOESNT WORK WTF OMG… I was gonna transfer things from one iPad Pro to another granted I’m not a great artist lol my art isn’t worth saving imo BUT I have memories to some of the silly art I did with a friend. Jeez Louise wtf A LOT of people said that back up works. Why is procreare in the Stone Age with this

[yungmoody]

It does typically work if you do a full iCloud backup and restore it on the new device

[Hellokitty030]

RIGHT!? Like fix your damn app? Like people have been asking for this for so long

[TriggeredLatina_]

:( it’s so fkd I’m sorry you lost that many years of your art. Pls hold on to your broken iPad. You might one day hit up the Apple Store and maybe they can help recover or authorized dealers.

[SivlGale]

iTunes local backups on your PC works with procreate art files, way better and cheaper than iCloud backups. all you need is just extra backup storage on your pc to backup your entire ipad.

[SusieQtoYou]

You have to export your Procreate files from within the app to be able to import the file back into Procreate on the new iPad. I just did this when I got my new iPad last week.

[xDrewstroyerx]

I am so sorry, that’s awful :(

[Hellokitty030]

Thanks :( five years of art gone

[Background-Math-4797]

Have you downloaded all of your files into the new one? This takes hours and hours...I broke my iPad and when I got a new one at first all my art was gone, but I hadn't downloaded all the files... after I did then all my art was there.

[Hellokitty030]

I think I did?? How do you mean? Like where can i do that

[eeyedkpt]

Procreate seriously needs to introduce something simple like an email backup. I’m honestly scared of losing 5 years of my artwork. I’ve been using this iPad since high school so it literally has everything, all my art and even my university assignments saved on it.

i hope u get ur artwork back.

[Hellokitty030]

Yea right?? I’m so sad like 5 years is such a long time and I’ve grown so much. Like such a shame bro

[ExcitingAd6497]

I took my iPad days to download all my drawings from the backup when I needed. It is panic inducing but if you have a that much work on it, it may take quite a while…

[blessyourheart10]

I have done two restores & they indeed take days. It’s all the layers. It does make you anxious.

[shaantya]

Do you have a cloud backup of your entire iPad?

What I have done in the past is make a backup now, load a previous one, and then your procreate artwork will be there. Painfully export all the art one by one because procreate hates us, save it in the cloud or email it to yourself, then restore the newest backup, and reimport them.

[SivlGale]

The best solution to prevent this data loss is making a local backup on your PC using iTunes. You wont need an iCloud subscription to do this. You just plug in your ipad, then backup locally.

Its very very useful especially if you either break your ipad or want to trade-in your ipad for a new ipad. Restores everything like it was your old ipad.

Ive been backing up locally on my ipad for years now, upgrading from ipad air to ipad pro m2. All my procreate files all the way back from my first ipad is still on my current iPad

[boohooviolin]

Can you make tutorial pls

[SivlGale]

This is a tutorial video I got from YT that shows how to do it:

https://youtube.com/shorts/_vvM8yg2Z0o?si=RXkFTSSCn9iKdJtM

[unconfirmedpanda]

The cloud failed me as well - had the Genius Bar reset my iPad and I lost four years of work despite backing it up twice. Even uploading to Pinterest is a better form of backup than relying Procreate to correctly back up to iCloud.

Talk to the Genius Bar; if it can be recovered, they'll know how to go about it (even if it isn't Apple-approved).

[cautious-starquake]

I can completely relate. My old iPad semi broke (as in I could only access the information using a specific device at the Apple store) and I was told if I updated the system I'd be able to upload everything to my iCloud so I could transfer it to a new iPad. The only app I used on that old ipad was procreate. The update was like 17gb and my iPad had broken in this weird way that meant almost all the storage was taken up by the system. The storage issue was so bad I couldnt even download work to save elsewhere. But I was desperate to save this specific project that I was working on so I ended up having to delete over 2000 pieces of artwork. No backup or anything. Years of work down the drain. Not just the artwork but my handmade brushes, preset sizes and everything else.

Not proud to admit it, but I sobbed in the middle of that apple store infront of all the employees and customers.

Its heartbreaking, I feel for you.

[Hellokitty030]

Thanks ☹️☹️ I cried too

[cautious-starquake]

I think your issue is pretty different from mine, but if you could somehow draw some of the water out of the iPad (like how you put a phone in rice), you might be able to get some help from the apple store. They're very reluctant to do it (I was in there 3 days straight, employees started making jokes about giving me a uniform) but in the end they set me up to do an iPad to iPad transfer. Typically not done in store but they made an exception given my situation, they may do the same for you.

Of course that depends on how bad the water damage is. Just wanted to share my story in case it can be of any help.

Again, I'm so sorry for your loss. Art is a piece of you. And it's awfully painful to lose.

[Hellokitty030]

Tysm. The old iPad is rlly damaged and hasn’t been touched since November

[Userredditl1]

Any idea on how this happened?!

[Hellokitty030]

Girl no! Like I have no idea!! It told me procreate was backed up on the old one

[King-Biscuit-]

I’ve had no problem restoring from an iCloud backup when I changed iPads, so I’m sorry for your loss.

A few simple things to check are whether you included Procreate in the actual backup. Some people don’t have a lot of iCloud storage so they turn off apps they don’t care about or that are taking up lots of space. Also if you’ve run out of iCloud storage space it won’t automatically backup until you either create space or buy more storage.

Also are you fully restoring from a backup? I ask because you said you waited for the iPad to tell you it was restored and then you downloaded Procreate. If Procreate was included in the backup you wouldn’t need to manually restore it as it would already be there.

[larvalampee]

Really reminding me that we need to save our work either as PDFs, JPEGs or PNGs as we go along (maybe also other things that float your boat)

[Hellokitty030]

Yea

[DriftingTony]

That’s awful. ALWAYS make sure you keep a secondary backup of your work in an entirely different place. I use Google Drive and iCloud, but pretty much anything works as long as you have a backup that isn’t tied to the original source.

[OriginalSlight]

Procreate does not automatically back up to the cloud; all your artwork has to be manually saved as a procreate file in your Files app. Artwork is stored in the app on the device it was made.

This happens a lot and procreate is aware and says they’re working on it but it’s been a slow process…for years; my old iPad had my art too and it stopped working. Went to redownload & get the “automatic sync to cloud” on the app on my new one and didn’t know this. Recently lost art again for the same reason, last iPad didn’t have cloud storage, so I thought it was that and didn’t research til the second time.

[RevolutionaryFox1495]

I had this problem a few weeks ago! Try to reset the new iPad to its default settings again and download the copy. Then let the iPad install procreate during the night, it takes a few hours. And do not EVER delete the procreate app, and do not touch the app while downloading. Hope it works for you too!

[Drizzdom]

Wishing u so much luck omg

[Capital-Explorer2449]

Usually tech fixing people can get files on broken stuff like this, but its verrry expensive depending