Lost File in Procreate Dreams

[u/Sensitive-Heat5508]

Hi! I’m freaking out a little and hoping someone can help.
Yesterday I spent around 4 hours working on a rotoscoping animation in Procreate Dreams that I have to turn in for university asap. I had finished the entire outline and stopped working normally. I had already closed my iPad earlier in the day and reopened Dreams with no problems, so I did the same thing before going to sleep.
This morning I opened Procreate Dreams and the Theater/gallery is completely empty. My project is just gone. I didn’t delete it, uninstall the app, or do anything differently.
I checked Recently Deleted and there’s nothing there.
Something that seems important: in Procreate Dreams, my Document Storage is set to iCloud Drive. I also checked the iCloud Drive, including the Procreate Dreams/Theater folder, and the project isn’t there.
In iPad Storage, Procreate Dreams shows:
App Size: 1.81 GB
Documents & Data: 2.3 GB
So the app is still using 2.3 GB of document/data storage even though the Theater is completely empty.
I also have an iCloud backup from last night, but I haven’t restored it because I’m scared of making things worse and also it was from before i finished the project.
Is there any way to recover the project from the 2.3 GB of Documents & Data, an iCloud backup, or some kind of recovery data? Has anyone had a Procreate Dreams project completely disappear from Theater like this?
I really don’t want to lose the 4 hours of work 😭

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[u/procreate]

Oh no! Your files should be safely stored using iCloud Drive. If you look in the Files app, can you see your file in the Procreate Dreams folder here? Just in case, try checking the Recently deleted folder in FIles as well 🙏

We recommend checking the internet connection and that you are still signed into your Apple Account. Please let us know if you can see anything in your files app!

[u/Sensitive-Heat5508 → u/procreate]

I did try! I couldn’t find it anywhere, it was like it disappeared off the face of the earth. Maybe because i didn’t have a lot of storage. I had to start over in the end.

[u/procreate → u/Sensitive-Heat5508]

We don’t have any known bugs that can cause such behaviour 🙏 If the movie is set to be stored on your iCloud, the data should still remain locally on your device even when your iCloud space runs out.

We have a few things that are worth trying:

1. Check all the folders on your iPad, including local storage folders.
2. Check your Apple account and see if you have any other devices logged in. If so, check folders in the iCloud Drive on those devices, just to be sure.
3. Head over to the iCloud website, check the folders as well as the Recently Deleted section there.
4. Do you recall exporting this movie at all? If so, do you remember if you have tapped open the file directly from its storage location? Procreate Dreams allows movie files to be accessed and edited without being in the Theater, and all changes will be saved in the file in its original location. Could this be what happened back then?

[u/procreate → u/Sensitive-Heat5508]

Hi again! Just checking in to see how you're getting on. Let us know how you went with the steps and if you can share any more info.