Doren_Sean_Michael
Level 1 (12 points)
Mac OS X

Q: iCloud Drive not syncing locally

I started this Discussion because there are several started already with the exact same issue, so I’ve tried to find them all and post links to this Discussion, mainly because I have spent over 4.5hrs on the phone with Apple today still with no solution and this is my story.

 

It’s obvious from these other Discussions that there is a problem and Apple needs to fix this issue. Overall Yosemite is working fine excluding this one very big problem.

 

I have updated to all the latest software apps, iOS’s & OS’s.

 

My iCloud Drive is working fine on my iPhone 6 Plus, iPad Air & on iCloud.com.

 

My iCloud Drive is not syncing locally on my iMac.

 

My iCloud Drive on my iMac simply shows an empty folder or broken folders/files. If you place an item in there it doesn’t show up anywhere else and none of the items that are showing up on my iCloud Drive on my iDevices & iCloud.com will show up locally on my iMac.

 

Occasionally I have seen a handful of either Pages, Numbers or Keynote folders with my files with an iCloud icon & a dead progress bar next to them in my local iCloud Drive folder, but none of these files are accessible via their respective local app counterparts, they just appear to be frozen in time.

 

While on the phone with Apple and talking with 3 different representatives (including 2 Senior Advisors) they had me do a whole gambit of things which I have listed below, but none of them did anything constructive. I was told that my issue would now be sent to Engineering and I would have a solution in 1-2 business days.

 

Below are all the things that were attempted & requested by Apple to perform in no particular order. After each request the local iCloud Drive folder was checked and nothing ever changed.

 

1. Zapped the PRAM

2. Booted into Safe Mode (Extensions off)

3. Rebooted cable modem.

4. Rebooted router.

5. Rebooted iMac dozens of times.

6. Tried hardwired & Wi-Fi connections.

7. USB tethered to iPhone using LTE.

8. Signed out of iCloud account & logged back in.

9. Disabled iCloud Drive & reenabled dozens of times.

10. Created another Admin account and switched users.

11. Waited 24hrs+ and still nothing in local iCloud Drive.

12. Reinstalled Yosemite.

13. Repaired Permissions.

 

I hope Apple or someone has a solution for this very soon because it’s impossible to work efficiently when you can’t use your Pages, Numbers nor Keynote apps to create or edit documents locally.

 

The only thing they offered, which I was already aware of, was that I could download my documents from the iCloud Drive via iCloud.com and work with them locally or work with them online at iCloud.com. I’d prefer to work locally using my shared documents, but that’s exactly what I can’t do.

 

Please share if there are other things you have attempted and/or if you have also called Apple in utter frustration and if they offered any solutions other than what I have listed.

 

I’m willing to try anything at this point, but my guess is that there will be an update very soon to address this and other problems.

 

Thank you,

-Doren

iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10), 3.5GHz Intel Core i7, 32GB, 27"

Posted on Oct 19, 2014 8:09 PM

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Q: iCloud Drive not syncing locally

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  • by genwatson,

    genwatson genwatson Aug 31, 2015 11:36 AM in response to cmaus
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 31, 2015 11:36 AM in response to cmaus

    I had the same problem and this helped like a charm!  Thanks!

  • by PeWi,

    PeWi PeWi Sep 15, 2015 1:32 AM in response to cmaus
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 15, 2015 1:32 AM in response to cmaus

    Had the same issues in OSX 10.11 GM (El Capitan) which has been solved using your recipe.

     

    Go to ~/Library/Application Support

    Move the folder CloudDocs to the trash.

    Kill the processes cloudd and bird using Activiy Monitor or Temrinal.

    Your iCloud Drive starts downloading your stuff suddenly.

    Thanks,

    Peter

  • by how12,

    how12 how12 Oct 1, 2015 1:48 PM in response to cmaus
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 1, 2015 1:48 PM in response to cmaus

    I am not seeing my iCloud drive files on my Mac.  They are not downloading.

     

    I tried trashing the CloudsDoc and killing bird and cloudd, but still not resolved.

  • by CheesedOffWithIT,

    CheesedOffWithIT CheesedOffWithIT Nov 5, 2015 2:25 AM in response to Doren_Sean_Michael
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 5, 2015 2:25 AM in response to Doren_Sean_Michael

    My iCloud folder on my iMac (on Yosemite) was not syncing... all I did was back up my local iCloud files, go to Systems Preferences click on iCloud, uncheck the iCloud Drive checkbox (your computer will remove local files stored on the computer associated with iCloud), recheck the box and your folders will be repopulated with the files you have stored on iCloud.

     

    AT LEAST THIS IS THE THEORY - it seems to have worked but there are no guarantees... and whether it remains in sync is another question.

  • by tbnv,

    tbnv tbnv Nov 15, 2015 3:00 AM in response to PatrickDotStar
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 15, 2015 3:00 AM in response to PatrickDotStar

    The linked message by PatrickDotStar solved the issue I had on Yosemite then on El Capitan.

    Sync is working like a charm now.

  • by Chris Hey,

    Chris Hey Chris Hey Nov 17, 2015 8:54 AM in response to Doren_Sean_Michael
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 17, 2015 8:54 AM in response to Doren_Sean_Michael

    I have some more information that my help

    I have two macs both partially syncing to iCloud drive.

    To try and resolve the problem I wanted to log out of iCloud drive so I first tried to back up my data (200Gb) to an external disk but the copy stopped after a few GB.

    I then investigated the copy and found that it had stopped at the first file that in the original iCloud drive directory had a cloud symbol with a down arrow against it.  In the iCloud drive directory I could not open the file.

    Next I down loaded and replaced file from my www.clouddrive.com site.  I had to delete the original as the new file did not over write the old one.  At this point I could open the new file in the iCloud drive directory.

    I then tried to do a new copy to the external drive of the iCloud drive directory this was more successful in that it got further this time and continued until it hit the next file that had the cloud and down arrow symbol.

     

    The problem seems to be that some files are not downloaded properly even though they can show as being quite large and have an application identifier after the dot.

     

    It is my assumption that the same problem that prevents the file being copied also prevents it correctly syncing.

     

    It is not practical for me to replace all the files that have the cloud arrow symbol as I have 1000 but if you only had a few it may solve your problems if you replaced them.

     

    Hope this helps

  • by tbnv,

    tbnv tbnv Nov 17, 2015 9:57 AM in response to Chris Hey
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 17, 2015 9:57 AM in response to Chris Hey

    In my case, deleting "Other Documents" using an iOS device (Settings >  iCloud > Storage > Manage Storage) solved the issue, like suggested before. That folder contained more than 8GB of data ("Unknown" and/or "Encrypted"). I think there is a lot of junk and corrupted data in "Other Documents", and deleting it unblocks the whole iCloud Drive and data synchronization.

     

    Maybe this won't work for other people.

     

    I didn't hesitate to delete it because the files were simply unaccessible and unreadable.

  • by JosephA7,

    JosephA7 JosephA7 Feb 25, 2016 8:16 PM in response to cmaus
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 25, 2016 8:16 PM in response to cmaus

    Nice, I didn't have the folder to delete, or it was hidden, but I did the second part while watching my iCloud Folder and sure enough, all my updates downloaded. Thank you very much. This has been stuck for weeks.

  • by mandrem,

    mandrem mandrem Mar 10, 2016 6:49 AM in response to cmaus
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 10, 2016 6:49 AM in response to cmaus

    It's also working with El Capitan ...

  • by AriChapi,

    AriChapi AriChapi Mar 14, 2016 3:21 PM in response to cmaus
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 14, 2016 3:21 PM in response to cmaus

    hi,

     

    I got the same problem with iCloud: Files seemed upload but I could not open them, they were displayed as "iCloud synchronised files" under OS X El captain on a brand new mac.

     

    I tried your method,

    Deleting CloudDocs and Killing cloudd and bird using Activiy Monitor. It worked great! I could see the files uploading and I was able to open them this time! All seemed to upload properly, but when the upload was over, it all started again: all the sudden everything switched to iCloud synchronised files, I had to delete again clouddocs and kill again clouds and bird...

    What am I missing? I do not want this to start all over again all the time...


    Many thanks if you can help

  • by JonasRfih,

    JonasRfih JonasRfih Mar 29, 2016 2:50 PM in response to Doren_Sean_Michael
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iCloud
    Mar 29, 2016 2:50 PM in response to Doren_Sean_Michael

    Hi all,

     

    I bought my first mac a few weeks ago.

    Last week i upgraded my storage to 200 gb and created a folder called 'Photos', where i placed all my picture folders (about 90 gb of photos in total).

    Everything uploaded fine, but now and in the recent couple of days more and more of my photos have grayed cloud icons with down arrows and some with dotted borders.

     

    I am currently frustrated as half of my entire collection is now out of reach. My Mac or iCloud Drive won't keep or download them to my machine.

    I have tried the log out, log in method without any luck.

     

    Any news on this, i can se that this has been an ongoing issue since 2014! :O

     

    Kind regards,

    The new Mac guy with all his photos stolen* by iCloud Drive.

     

    *or at least held hostage.

  • by Geertmae,

    Geertmae Geertmae Jun 10, 2016 5:56 AM in response to cmaus
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Jun 10, 2016 5:56 AM in response to cmaus

    Worked for me also with El Capitan. Many thanks!!

    Geert

  • by alisham,

    alisham alisham Jun 28, 2016 6:37 PM in response to Doren_Sean_Michael
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Jun 28, 2016 6:37 PM in response to Doren_Sean_Michael

    I just kill process named bird from Activity Monitor... and all my icloud drive start to sync again immediately (note: if not working try kill process bird and cloudd).

  • by tonythorfraser,

    tonythorfraser tonythorfraser Aug 19, 2016 7:02 AM in response to Doren_Sean_Michael
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Aug 19, 2016 7:02 AM in response to Doren_Sean_Michael

    Same issue here. Up to date everything, iClould doesn't sync. Cmaus's suggestion works. Paste these commands into a terminal window and all syncs up nicely.

     

    rm -fr ~/Library/Application\ Support/CloudDocs/

    ps -ef |grep cloudd |grep -v grep | awk '{print $2}' | xargs kill -9 $1

    ps -ef |grep bird |grep -v grep | awk '{print $2}' | xargs kill -9 $1

     

    I uploaded these commands into iCloud as I have two macbooks (work + personal) and each time I want to see a doc from the other I have to repeat the process.

  • by ApexRon,

    ApexRon ApexRon Aug 19, 2016 7:51 AM in response to Doren_Sean_Michael
    Level 1 (9 points)
    iBooks
    Aug 19, 2016 7:51 AM in response to Doren_Sean_Michael

    As of this date, I have found several design "oversights" in the Apple iCloud and iCloud Drive solutions as well as serious deficiency in tools to sort out what is causing syncing problems and how to recover.

     

    One of the biggest problems is the coexistence of iCloud and iCloud Drive. In my opinion, once you select iCloud Drive on MacOS then all the other options should then use iCloud Drive not iCloud. Now it may do that in the background but finder sure doesn't display it that way.

     

    A third party MacOS app gives you the option to save their database on iCloud. Then, a while later, I found that iCloud Drive stopped syncing and had to purchase an app to tell me what files were queued up but not syncing. The oldest modified file was that MacOS app, so I changed the option to place its database locally and then everything else sync'd up.

     

    On MacOS I created a large size Pages document because of images and tried to save in a folder I created on iCloud Drive. Well that stopped sync as well because iCloud Drive kept on dropping the connection. I removed the images and the document uploaded.

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