icloud deleted my desktop files and I can't find them on my icloud backup

[iMore Question]

After turning off icloud so that it would stop bugging me to upgrade and pay apple more money, it deleted all my files from my desktop. Yes.. instead of allowing me to save my files on my computer it wiped them and put them up in the cloud. I only noticed when my ableton projects were missing core files which have completely disappeared off my computer AND the cloud. I have gone into icloud through the browser, as well as my icloud drive on my computer and all that shows up are empty folders that had held my files. I looked in 'deleted files' from icloud and it says i have none. When i try and re-check the icloud option for storing my desktop and documents in the cloud (i'm only doing this in a bid to force it to allow me to access the backups through my computer and return them from the cloud) it won't let me check the box until i upgrade to a plan where I pay apple to get more icloud storage. I'm losing my mind here, pleaaaase help.

 

[Just_Me_D]

Please contact Apple Support regarding this matter. Thanks.