This is off topic, but I don’t know where to turn.
How do I show invisible files in iCloud?
For years I collected quotations in an iPhone app called QuotesKeeper. One day I tried to open the app after an iPhone upgrade but it was a 32 not 64-bit, and the app and developer had disappeared from the app store.
The settings said it was being synced with iCloud, but there’s no visible sign when I look.
Is there any way to access the file (if it still exists) and retrieve the quotes?
Thanks for any suggestions and please direct me to a more appropriate forum!
I believe that when apps use iCloud to sync like that, it’s a different system from iCloud Drive and files. It’s probably using iCloud through system calls and data storage that doesn’t manifest as files (hidden or not) in iCloud Drive. Your best bet is probably to inspect the iPhone itself using iMazing – this will allow you to look into QuotesKeeper’s file storage on the phone. iMazing will let you copy the files to your Mac and hopefully you can get some data out of them if they’re not in a standard format.
@tommy Sadly, it didn’t work; I saw a few extra files, but not the one for QuotesKeeper. I think @jzw is right in that the old app wasn’t really using iCloud Drive.
Hi, @jzw Thanks for the clarification and suggestion. I think you’re right in saying the app was using iCloud, but not iCloud Drive (where I would have access).
Maybe a year ago I tried iMazing, and I was able to see the actual file but bizarrely, while I could see the image associated with each quotation, and download it just fine, the actual quote was just not there; my guess is that it was munched into some proprietary format and only a data specialist could disentangle the wheat from the chaff.
The kicker was that when the app was active, it did offer an export feature that outputted a .csv, but I never took advantage since, hey, the app will be around forever, right?
Now I’m faced with a similar conundrum in trying to find an app dedicated to all my subscriptions. There’s a nice-looking one called, well, “Subscriptions,” and it syncs with iCloud, but there’s no export. I’d guess it’s the same setup as QuotesKeeper (which to its credit did have an export).
I had been using Bobby, which is just for iPhone, but it, too, lacks an export, even though it uses iCloud.
So I really appreciate your clarifying that syncing with iCloud can mean two very different things!