Stefan Mileschin

It is not as if you needed those files right?

In a classic Jobs’ Mob programming gaffe, the latest macOS Sonoma 14.4 update has unleashed a bug that's wreaking havoc on iCloud Drive's versioning system.

Apple fanboys who fancied the "Optimize Mac Storage" feature are now in for a nasty surprise – their file histories have vanished into thin air.

Normally, macOS creates file versions every time you hit save. But Howard Oakley from The Eclectic Light Company has sounded the alarm for those running on macOS 14.4.

If you've got "Optimize Mac Storage" ticked and decide to give a file the boot from iCloud Drive's local home, kiss all those previous versions goodbye.

Any macOS version before 14.4 would allow booting a file to keep its history intact. But now, in a twist of irony, Apple's "optimization" acts more like a memory wipe – once you download that file again it is never seen or heard of again.

Oakley's own sleuthing confirms this blunder is a macOS 14.4 cock-up, feature – no such shenanigans in Sonoma 14.3 or Ventura.

https://fudzilla.com/news/58665-maco...file-histories