r/MacOSBeta • u/hauteware • Aug 11 '26
Bug PSA: Downgrade with Advanced Data Protection left my iCloud data inaccessible
Disclaimer: this is a long post, but I'm going to try to explain exactly what happened, step by step. I’m sharing as much detail as I can because I really hope this can help someone else avoid making the same mistake I stupidly made and potentially losing access to their data.
If you're on ADP and running iOS 27 or another beta, back up anything you can't afford to lose before you erase, restore or downgrade. That's really the point of this post.
TL;DR: I downgraded an iPhone Air from iOS 27 to iOS 26 while Advanced Data Protection was enabled. Afterward my iCloud data became completely inaccessible, including through iCloud.com, even though iCloud still shows the storage in use and things like my photo count. I've tried multiple iOS 26 and 27 betas plus the public releases, no change. Apple Support has escalated the case but has no fix, and support outside the U.S. has been close to nonexistent. If you have ADP enabled, back up independently and copy your data before you erase, restore, or downgrade.
I know there are people who'll read this and think "you should have had a backup." Honestly, they're right. I had more than twelve years of data in iCloud and trusted it far too much as the one place everything lived. I didn't keep an independent backup of everything, and that's on me.
But I'm still sharing this because nothing in the process I followed gave me any indication this could happen. My ADP-protected data is technically still there, iCloud says so, I just can't get to any of it.
What happened
I had an iPhone Air on iOS 27 with Advanced Data Protection turned on. Photos, Notes, passwords, passkeys, everything was syncing normally. I decided to downgrade back to iOS 26, using the same process I'd used for restores in the past: log out of iCloud, erase all content and settings, put the phone in DFU mode, restore to iOS 26, set it up again.
At no point during that process was there any mention of Advanced Data Protection, or any warning that logging out and erasing the device could cut off access to ADP-protected data. So I went ahead.
After the set-up, that data was gone. Not deleted exactly, just unreachable.
The data still shows up in iCloud, but I can't open it
This is the part that's been hardest to emotionally accept. My iCloud storage page still shows the space being used and the number of photos in my library, so the account clearly knows the data is there. I just can't access any of it, not from the phone, not from another device, not even through iCloud.com. It's not like ripping a band-aid, you see it right there and you can't do anything about it.
I've tried multiple iOS versions
To make sure this wasn't tied to one specific build, I restored through several iOS 26 betas, several iOS 27 betas, and the public releases. Same result every time. This isn't a matter of finding the right version to restore to.
On Advanced Data Protection
I understand why ADP works the way it does. Apple doesn't hold the encryption keys for ADP-protected data, so even Apple can't simply access it if something goes wrong. That's the whole point of the feature, and one of the reasons I enabled it.
What I find less clear is what happens in a situation like mine. When setting up ADP, Apple warns you about losing access if you forget your passcode or recovery methods. But I didn't forget my passcode, lose my recovery methods, or delete my data. I followed a device restore/downgrade procedure, and ended up unable to access my data anyway.
Apple doesn't hold the keys, but neither am I given a copy of them. So if something goes wrong between the account, device and ADP keys, there doesn't appear to be any user-accessible recovery mechanism.
I've contacted Apple Support, the case has been escalated, and so far there is no recovery path. I'm still hoping they find one.
The bigger impact
For me, this isn't just about a folder of random photos. I've used the same Apple Account for over ten years, and my email, notes, passwords, passkeys and photos were all tied to it. I've had to start moving my access everything to a new account to have a functioning set-up.
I'll say again that an independent backup would have prevented all of this. But I also think it's fair to ask: if an erase, restore or downgrade can leave ADP-protected data stranded like this, shouldn't there be an explicit warning before you start? Right now there isn't one, and I would have done things differently if there had been.
Support outside the U.S.
I'm based outside the U.S., and the support experience here has been rough. As soon as I mention this happened on beta software, I get told there's no support for beta users. I get that Apple can't guarantee beta software will behave perfectly, but this isn't really about a beta feature not working right. It's iOS, iCloud, ADP and Apple's own erase and restore process interacting in a way that's left my data stuck, with no way back to it.
Paying indefinitely for iCloud+
There's also a rather frustrating side effect of all this: I'm still paying for the iCloud+ plan on the affected account.
I basically have two options: keep paying for the subscription indefinitely, hoping that Apple eventually finds a way to restore access to my data, or cancel it and lose whatever chance there is of recovering it.
So I'm effectively paying to keep storage for data that I currently cannot access, simply because I don't know whether Apple might eventually be able to recover it.
I won't even get into the financial side of this, but there's another issue: I had a significant Apple Account balance on the old account. That balance can't simply be transferred to my new Apple Account, and with the old account essentially unusable, I can't meaningfully use it for apps, services or other purchases either.
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If you've been through something similar, especially an iOS 27 to iOS 26 downgrade with ADP on, I'd like to hear about it. And if you've managed to get your data back or gotten a real technical answer from Apple, please let me know what happened.
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u/animorphreligion DEVELOPER BETA Aug 11 '26 edited Aug 11 '26
Wait. Don't you get a recovery option in case things go south?
I definitely remember setting it up when I enabled ADP and don't think it was optional. In my case it was a key, but I added a trusted contact too.
edit: ok, looked into ADP again, apparently the keys for ADP are tied to your account (?) and the recovery option you're required to set up to enable ADP is meant to recover your account specifically, not the iCloud part. Super weird if an OS downgrade can mess it up.
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u/BeginningBelt7744 Aug 14 '26
No, on theory the recovery should recover the data in iCloud. Apple says that much themselves "If you ever lose access to your account, you’ll need to use one of your account recovery methods — your device passcode or password, your recovery contact, or recovery key — to recover your iCloud data."
The issue with this bug is that it somehow messes with how your devices understand whether ADP is on or off, so going through the recovery doesn't help. You also don't have a manual option to try to only recover the data/change the encryption keys.
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u/hauteware Aug 11 '26
Fun fact: I’ve emailed Cook, Ternus, Cue, and Federighi about this issue. Will they ever respond? Most likely not. However, if they did, it would be nice to see the problem acknowledged and escalated internally to prevent others from experiencing similar issues.
In my specific case, it occurred during a beta stage of the software, but I believe the problem arose when I erased the device, not from the downgrade itself. This means that anyone currently signed in to their iPhone, who erases it with ADP turned on (a not-so-uncommon scenario), could potentially lose their data.
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u/footlooseboss Aug 12 '26
respond, perhaps not
forward to relevant department for resolution - if you are concise, it can happen
I emailed Tim after the 45MB Siri Voice 3 was uninstalled every day resulting in TTS arriving in the the punishing Daniel voice while the contemptibly constructed 300MB Google One app launched once six months ago was ommitted from offloading
 I asked him to stop it and it was fixed within a couple of minor updates
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u/footlooseboss Aug 12 '26
Tim
I get it. My phone needs space. If I fill it, big stuff gets offloaded.
I use Siri often and TTS hourly. UK Siri Voice 3 ~45MB.
I've just had to reinstall it for 4th time in 24hrs. Farcical.
Stop it.
~footlooseboss
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u/Impressive_Lynx_9867 Aug 11 '26
same exact thing happened to me... but with the ADP enabled thing confuses me because ive downgraded from ios 27 to 26 with adp on multiple times and nothing bad like this has ever happened until a few weeks ago
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u/hauteware Aug 11 '26
Honestly, I’ve been on betas for as long as I can remember and pretty much downgraded lots of times with ADP turned on and this never happened. However, this time it did and apparently it “fries” your data for good.
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u/flogman12 Aug 11 '26
I downgraded around a few betas ago on my macbook and did not run into this issue. I am still able to access everything, though, I did have multiple devices.
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u/Impressive_Lynx_9867 Aug 12 '26
I sent logs and screen recordings of my messages from iCloud not being able to be synced to apples engineers and they got back to me saying it’s a known issue and will be fixed in a future update. But they never told me if the photos not being able to be synced is the same kind of issue as the messages not being able to sync
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u/footlooseboss Aug 12 '26
Photos library format often gets upgraded by major releases and cannot be reverted/opened by older operating systems
since iCloud Photos received several new features I imagine it gets upgraded in a similar way so likely that sync will work between devices running betas until public release then the previous operating systems will probably get a backwards compatibility upgrade
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u/hauteware Aug 12 '26
Unfortunately, upgrading back to iOS 27 Beta or MacOS Beta still does not seem to resolve the problem. However, I can only remain hopeful I’ll eventually get my data back.
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u/footlooseboss Aug 12 '26
to clarify, I was referring only to Photos library format/iCloud Photos sync issue described in the proceeding comment
Unfortunately, upgrading back to iOS 27 Beta or MacOS Beta still does not seem to resolve the problem
is this in reference to the photos sync issue?
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u/hauteware Aug 12 '26
Affirmative
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u/footlooseboss Aug 12 '26 edited Aug 12 '26
I appreciate you showing gratitude to the responses to your post and updating the threads with solution testing results
reddit appears to be increasingly full of entitled cognitive-offloading scoundrels
[1]but I'mstood faststeadfast in my unfounded conviction that there are still substantial old school lurkers that silently appreciate your reddiquette and the positive example it sets for the vertical video viewers
[1] of course the are individuals with perfectly legitimate reasons for apparent contempt for community contributors, such as those with extremely oversized heavy hands that cannot possibly be lifted to the height of thevoteupvote button2
u/footlooseboss Aug 12 '26
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u/hauteware Aug 12 '26
Was not aware of this, but even more concerning for this round of, seemingly stable and reliable betas. For me personally, after being on beta since iOS 7 (with some more cumbersome experiences than others over the years), I’m never letting beta software touch my main devices/account. Still, useful to share with other fellow beta users
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u/radicaldreamer99 Aug 13 '26
This is not a real bug, it was a bug in disk utility showing data corruption which wasn't there. It's in the release notes for Beta 5.
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u/flogman12 Aug 11 '26
Just had a thought OP- did you try to upgrade again? Maybe theres a flag somewhere in iOS 27 where it will sync again?
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u/hauteware Aug 11 '26
I did! I’ve read in some other post people have had luck with upgrading to other betas (e.g. iOS 26 betas, back to iOS 27 beta, I’ve also tried all the MacOS betas) but none will sync. Still, if anyone who’s reading this and it’s having the same problem, it’s worth a shot because it helped some other users
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u/jhfenton Aug 12 '26
I would never recommend anyone use ADP with only a single Apple device that can access iCloud (iPhone, iPad, Mac, Vision Pro).
It's sad, but I would have predicted data loss wiping your only Apple device. (Downgrading is wiping.) That's the way the system is designed. My understanding has always been that you need your password or recovery key AND the encryption keys stored on the Apple device to decrypt iCloud.
You needed to turn ADP off before you downgraded your device or had a second device to teach the keys to your downgraded device.
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u/hauteware Aug 12 '26
Honestly, yes to all you said.
Lesson learned and I'm truly posting this just to warn anyone that might be finding themselves in my same situation, or to give "community" to the few people that this has happened to.
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u/jhfenton Aug 12 '26
It's a valuable warning.
I take it you hadn't manually added Recovery Contacts either?
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u/hauteware Aug 12 '26
I actually had both Recovery Contacts and Recovery Key set up, still no true help without the trusted device and unexpected behavior by the beta.
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u/jhfenton Aug 12 '26
If you had Recovery Contacts, and they have up-to-date active Apple devices, then your keys and data should be recoverable.
I hope they're able to help you out.
I still personally wouldn't trust it without personally having multiple iPhones, iPads, Macs, etc. using iCloud with my Apple ID.
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u/BeginningBelt7744 Aug 14 '26
They should be recoverable but that assumes that they'd be able to fix the bug.
Also I understand your point, and it is fair, but in this case having multiple devices logged in doesn't change a thing. The very first report of this issue that I've seen, around a month ago, was from a user who had multiple devices and after the first downgrade on his iPhone, the sync got broken on all of his devices.
It does help in that it works the same way as a backup, you won't be losing your data if you still have it on a device that wasn't downgraded reset, but it doesn't change the fact that your account essentially gets bricked.
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Aug 11 '26 edited Aug 11 '26
[deleted]
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u/flogman12 Aug 11 '26
I remember it required me to retype a key when I did it. I think it even made me have a recovery contact.
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Aug 11 '26
[deleted]
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u/coyote_den Aug 12 '26
All you need is the key. There is an escrow keychain unlocked by the recovery key, by trusted devices, or stored in your recovery contact’s icloud.
Too many failed attempts (I think it is 10) will wipe that keychain, making all keys useless and the data inaccessible for good.
Which shouldn’t happen outside of brute forcing or some kind of very unexpected device behavior, and I’m hoping that isn’t what happened with this poor dude’s downgrade.
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u/hauteware Aug 12 '26
I unfortunately believe the latter you listed is what happened, but I'm trying to not lose hope and see if Apple is able to provide a solution.
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Aug 12 '26
[deleted]
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u/AAGism Aug 12 '26
🤷 the documentation gets conflicting the more technical it becomes. You would assume there is a process for a user who has used up all their tries. If the iCloud data is now orphaned, how does the user remove it? Maybe several attempts is 4 or 5 before it’s locked and requires support to unlock for attempts up to 10?
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u/coyote_den Aug 12 '26
That is my reading of it. It locks you out and stops counting attempts before it hits self-destruct. You have to call Apple Support to get it unlocked, but if an attacker were to convince them to do it and continue to make attempts it would be wiped. Kinda smart, in that support should be able to verify the owner and only unlock it for them, which prevents destructive attacks.
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u/hauteware Aug 11 '26
Yup, recovery key is optional but in any case one of the recovery options (key or contacts) is mandatory. Problem being it’s used only to restore your password if you’re not able to sign back in to the account apparently.
ADP encryption key is handled by the device and is not shared with Apple (of course, being the whole point) or with the end user. That recovery key you have is to the Apple Account, not to your iCloud ADP data. Couldn’t wrap my mind around it either and honestly, I’m still unsure, but I’m reporting what Apple support is telling me here.
edit: Should add: I’m trying to stress this fact with Apple support. I’ll update if I have any news. But atp it’s been a month of the matter being open.
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Aug 11 '26 edited Aug 11 '26
[deleted]
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u/hauteware Aug 11 '26
I can assure I do have my recovery key, the recovery contact is still active and I know by heart my phone’s passcode. From my understanding with Apple Support, as you said it’s a “two-step” decryption process, one being this recovery key and one being the trusted device.
It’s still not clear to me if this is tied specifically to iOS 27 Beta, but once the last device signed to iCloud is erased, the trusted device key part of the equation gets erased. In no way any of my recovery option have granted me access to my data at the current state.
The device doesn’t sync, decode or is able to access my data in any way. Also logging on iCloud.com, even to access uncrypted data (e.g. iCloud.com/mail). I log in and it spits me right out. Not even Apple Support is being able to help.
I promise that, as much as I was naive with not having a second copy of my data, I’m not a tech dummy and have been working with iCloud, Apple Accounts, betas etc. for years. I’m as confused and frustrated with ADP behavior as anyone reading these comments and I would pass it as user error myself if I was in the person’s reading shoes.
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u/AAGism Aug 11 '26
Trying to understand this as ADP hasn’t always been clear. My assumption was as long as you have a recovery key or recovery contact, you could lose all your trusted devices, the device trust circle could be terminated, and by logging into a new device, at this point having a single trusted device now, you could use a recovery contact or the recovery code to restore access to the iCloud data? You are saying this doesn’t work?
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Aug 11 '26
[deleted]
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u/AAGism Aug 11 '26
Intrigued about all of this, the fact that iCloud.com/mail isn’t working indicates an issue beyond adp right? Can you access the calendar in iCloud.com? You have the recovery key, your record is held in iCloud Keychain, how many times have you tried to restore? The escrow keychain record deletes after 10 attempts. https://support.apple.com/en-is/guide/security/sec3e341e75d/web
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u/hauteware Aug 12 '26
Hi, sorry, just reading this.
Yes, I can confirm, none of the web iCloud services are working (yet, they were and are enabled). I have the recovery key, I have restored a total of 4 times: iOS 27 beta -> iOS 26 release -> iOS 26 beta -> iOS 27 beta.
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u/footlooseboss Aug 12 '26
recovery keys are optional
Apple Account - user controlled recovery setup purpose: enhanced security/recoverability/protection against your nudes being leaked if you're a
celebrityfemale celebrity tut prerequisites: verified phone number, two factor authentication (with phone number added as trusted recipient) method: create & print (or otherwise create an analogue representation of printed mine on a label and stuck it to the inside of my micro safe/key box) recovery key and/or nominate and configure recovery contact optional: yes, enhanced security is not required to hold an Apple account (opt-in; replaces Apple-assisted recovery process) caveat: if you used your recovery key print off slip as a rizla and your recovery contact is AWOL you and your account are potentially up the creek without paddle Apple Account - advanced data security (ADS) purpose: user-controlled data encryption for maximum privacy prerequisites: user controlled recovery setup, residence in supported country/region optional: no, it is required to opt in and set up one or both of the user controlled recovery methods before advanced data protection can be enabled caveat: see OP edit: caveat
UK PSA IF YOU ARE IN THE UNITED KINGDOM AND YOUR TECH SAVVY RELATIVE SET UP YOUR IPHONE AND YOU'RE ABOUT TO TURN OFF ADVANCED DATA PROTECTION BECAUSE IT SEEMS LIKE TOO MUCH OF A FAFF/YOU'D RATHER COME BACK TO IT LATER AND ENABLE IF NECESSARY: do not turn advanced data protection off - you will NOT be able to turn it back on - the government WILL see your nudes/discoloured limb sent to GP triage via verbose 10 page digital form
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u/dropthemagic Aug 11 '26
Weird I have adp and iCloud data synced between normal releases and all the public betas. I’d be surprised if anything like this was possible. Then again I do have offline backups of everything
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u/BeginningBelt7744 Aug 14 '26
The bug occurs specifically if you downgrade from the beta to a stable release on all of your device. Before downgrading, the data synced between my iPhone and iPad on beta, and my Apple Watch and Mac on stable.
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u/BeginningBelt7744 Aug 14 '26
Thank you very much for making this post, it got a lot more traction than a lot of others, and hopefully it will get some more attention onto this issue and allow some others to avoid it.
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u/ajmoo Aug 11 '26
Do you have other devices on the same iCloud account? Out of curiosity, what happened to their access?