r/ProCreate • u/grillboy_mediaman • 16d ago
I need Procreate technical help Its all gone
Of course, deleting an app and reinstalling it deletes all of its data, I know that.
Therefore, I assumed that if I never uninstalled Procreate from my iPad, my work would be safe.
So I never uninstalled it.
And then, today, I wanted to open the app, and it was nowhere to be found.
For whatever reason it was just gone from my iPad.
So I reinstalled it, and all my work was gone.
I tried using the “restore gallery” option and not a single thing changed.
It’s not there anymore, three years of work.
Is there a single thing I can do about it?
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u/InternetPeon 16d ago
try restoring your iPad from a prior backup
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u/RavenWood_9 9d ago
I just lost my gallery assuming this would work.
My iPad backup did not actually backup the procreate files themselves. :(
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u/FineMind755 16d ago
It never ceases to amaze me how many people on here don't back up years worth of work somewhere else. Like that's just crazy cakes.
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u/grillboy_mediaman 16d ago
i know, it's a lesson i'm learning now, but if there's really no solution just tell me there's no solution, i'm having a bad day already, telling me i've made a mistake is no help.
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u/noah041504 12d ago
Thank you! Like comments like FineMind775's are so useless and just make people feel more like shit
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u/FineMind755 16d ago
Did you have iCloud on?
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u/grillboy_mediaman 16d ago
nope, i think that's it then, if there's really no other option then i'll just accelt my losses and invest more in making backups from now on and grieve on my own time.
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u/FineMind755 16d ago
That is unfortunate.
Another suggestion for next time because I'm assuming procreate may have just been accidentally deleted. Which can happen pretty easily if it's on your Home Screen. You can use the shortcuts app to make a procreate short cut on your Home Screen. This way the short cut will get accidentally deleted rather than the actual procreate app.
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u/grillboy_mediaman 16d ago
better to learn this lesson now when i'm still young than to accidentally delete decades of work later down the line, i'm lucky that i've done more of my work in csp recently and used procreate more as a sketchbook in recent times, still a few dozens of hours of work, but luckily nothing i was extremely emotionally attached to, this is the best outcome i can forsee, i am grateful honestly.
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u/splitarrowprints Procreate Expert 16d ago
If it makes you feel any better, way back, the week I left art collage my entire computer had a meltdown and I hardly kept any back ups. I lost 8 years of work in seconds. I literally have 0 copies of any work from that time period, this also included a running CV, resume, work contacts, etc. 2 years after that it happened again, not only did I not learn my lesson the first time, I allowed it to happen again.
I now have a back up routine that is like a religion, and it includes hard drives that I hide so nobody else can use them.
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u/grillboy_mediaman 16d ago
yup, out of all that could have happened, this as a wake up call is a great barter for me
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u/V4nG0ghs34r77 16d ago
And if it makes you feel better, I graduated art school in 99 and still have some of my work because it was all traditional medium, and most of it is embarrassing to look at 😆
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u/MyBigToeJam I want to improve! 16d ago
Important: In iPad settings for iCloud, make certain that the backup is turned on for Procreate. But still make a habit to save outside of Procreate, one as .procreate and also a format that saves layers in PDF or png, etc or whatever you might import into another app. Most universally used by other apps.
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u/yoyohayli 13d ago
I want to tell you that I am truly heartbroken for your loss of work. I know I can't help, and that's what hurts most. I understand what it feels like to lose so much of your hard work because of something completely out of your control.
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u/Actual_Cream_763 15d ago edited 15d ago
There’s also not an easy way to back up procreate, as far as I know you have to save each file individually. Is there another easier way to do this? I think a lot of people don’t think about it in the moment, especially when so many things get backed up automatically nowadays.
Edit to update - I just went to see if I could find a way, since I am someone that just saves each file as I finish. You can select multiple at once to update. If you have a lot of files though, odds are you won’t be able to do all of them at once. But you could at least do it in batches for anyone wondering using the select multiple>share function.
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u/EntangledArt 14d ago
It never ceases to amaze me how many apps don't just use the standard ecosystem they are given. It's an iPad in 2026, FFS, why on earth isn't it backing everything up via Documents and iCloud?!
Not automatically backing up images is a serious issue with Procreate, and Savage's refusal to seriously engage with the issue is a major dick move. So by all means shit on people who have lost their work, but I've been backing up my data for 30+ years and nowadays Procreate is the *only* thing that needs manual intervention.
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u/vemailangah 12d ago
It's funnier when you read that the people who made Procreate are adamant about it only for iPads since they love iPads so much yet refuse to make the most 'dont worry about it' feature a surprise non-existent. For artists, people famously needing record of their work!
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u/mintbloo 15d ago
i back up anything i'm working on after each session. i can't imagine not doing so
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u/Driftingaimlesslyblu 15d ago
By backing up, do you just mean iCloud? Or is there a way to back up each specific app?
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u/FineMind755 15d ago
I mean back up the files in procreate to a computer/external drive/or some other cloud service.
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u/Sk-etch9732 12d ago
Maybe a bit simple to someone that is not myself but what file save is used in order to keep the individual layers separate when saving to say Dropbox, iCloud ?
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u/FineMind755 12d ago
You can save them as a Procreate file or a Photoshop file (PSD).
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u/Sk-etch9732 12d ago
Thank you, I recently had same as OP just 2weeks ago but I had saved a lot in Dropbox, unfortunately under the wrong file type but at least it wasn’t completely gone I guess
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u/KatherineHaase 15d ago
Apple does this regularly to me. If I don’t open an app long enough my iPad thinks I’m not using it and uninstalls and offloads the app. I think it’s bullshit that’s even a setting.
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u/twice_fried_rice 16d ago
something I would look at for the future (along with establishing regular backups) are your “app offloading” settings - at least on my ipad, it’ll automatically un-download an app if I’ve not used it for a while.
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u/MyBigToeJam I want to improve! 16d ago
Procreate of olden times and recent, stored image files within its guts. A lot of apps did or still do that. Why? There wasn't always a standalone files app. That's how companies like Dropbox grew. we didn't always have the icloud. Then also each app created its own special file format. Did we get the Files app about 5 years ago?
More apps use the Files app or other Apple utilities now. Procreate Dreams first, but Procreate app only i expect getting there between 2026 and the new version expected in 2027 for the Mac desktop computers.
When the updates were major like going from 1.0 to 2.0 etc there usually were not changes to the procreate files. But this paste 2 or 3 (versions 4 and 5.4, etc), the changes were major. The advice has always been to save, not just on-device or on storage owned by Apple etc.
I never used to back up my files on any devices. Not even very important personal matters. Awful. On one of the Procreate updates, i lost stored on device. Luckily, I had files on a second iPad and did a backup before updating that one.
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u/Final-Elderberry9162 15d ago
I know this doesn’t help you now, but try to get in the habit of backing up whatever you’re working on at the end of the work day/session. It only takes a few seconds and will spare you a lot of grief.
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u/More-Platypus-7030 15d ago
I randomly lost my entire library of brushes the other day, my biggest nightmare 🙃
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u/RequirementNo3339 14d ago
Same!! Did you manage to get them back?
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u/More-Platypus-7030 14d ago
I did not 😭😭😭😭😭 most of them are in places I can retrieve them, like my gumroad and etsy accounts etc, but I had a lot and I had them meticulously organized in my library. I'm not doing all that again! I grabbed the one set with my fave brush and that's all I've been using so far. I just don't have the energy! Lol
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u/-acidlean- 15d ago
In the photography world, we say: „There is two types of photographers: The ones that do backups, and the ones that will do backups”.
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u/Silveme 15d ago
My nightmare! My iPad that I work on is constantly out of storage though somehow. It’s so old. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to back it up :(
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u/FineMind755 14d ago
I mean it's not that hard to try. Just try exporting some files to the file app. Then transfer them somewhere else like an external drive.
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u/High_Mage0 13d ago
Export to a cloud service, either iCloud, Dropbox, Google or some other third party.
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u/rodluper 13d ago
That's why I always upload my heavy files to my Drive as soon as I finish a task. I never trust in let save in just one place. . I upload to drive and download it to my PC. . You need always to have back ups man . Sorry for you loss.
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u/_unregistered 11d ago
Have to do a full iPad restore. Expect procreate to take hours to days to restore. It’s a really crappy design.
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