iCloud Drive won't sync or not showing files

Thanks for your clear instructions on what needed to be done. However, it didn't work for me. Following your procedure resulted in only three measly files showed up whereas my entire Documents folder disappeared from the iMac after upgrading to Catalina. Fortunately all the files still show up in iCloud Drive. Should I just drag the Documents folders from my iCloud Drive to my iMac or is there a way to sync the Documents folders from iCloud Drive to the Mac?

It's happen to me before and I've spent hours with Apple on the phone... basically, they have no clue about it. Every big upgrade creates problems with Apple's iCloud files.

When Mojave came out I lost all my iCloud stored documents. I had Apple Care on the phone with en empty iCloud and showing full storage and they couldn't figure out what it was... for the record, they offered no solution other than buying more storage space!

Yes... they blamed me for not having a back up! Apparently we need a back up for the computer, another back up from the cloud and a back up for the back up... they would still not guarantee you wouldn't loose all your data after upgrading... I draw a line with Catalina and I give up on Apple. Good luck to you all!

I downloaded Catalina. It seems right after my former icloud documents all disappeared in finder. I can only go to individual software (Pages, Numbers) to find any of my documents, but originally, all documents were stored. I have a "relocated items" folder but I clicked all the way down to something like "you have no access".

I'm having the problem with iCloud Drive files not syncing as well. I tried this solution, but it didn't work for me. Neither have any of the solutions I've seen here so far, including logging in and out of iCloud, turning iCloud Drive off then on, adding Documents and iCloud Drive to the sidebar of Finder. None of these worked, files on iCloud Drive still don't sync immediately when an update is made to it. 10.15.1 update didn't fix this problem either.

This worked perfectly. My iCloud Drive folder was visible in the Finder sidebar but only contained empty Documents and Desktop folders. I was missing nearly 200Gb of files. The Restore Files link opened a dialogue that displayed recently deleted files from apps that use my iCloud Drive—this was not at all what I needed—however after about 20-30 seconds, all of my iCloud Drive file structure appeared in Finder and my Desktop was instantly covered in files. Thanks V4NH0RN3!

That's terrible to hear. What I lost were all the documents that had been on my computer, Fortunately I had backed up all the documents onto iCould Drive where they are still there..

Okay, I solved my problem thanks to iGeeks blog. It was as simple as going to Finder, Preferences, Side Bar and checking the boxes on iCloud Drive and Documents. Now I'm sitting pretty with Catalina.

The folder “Default” can’t be opened because you don’t have permission to see its contents. that was the actual message as I went down through all the Relocated Items file



worked. simple

Glad to have been of help.

V4N0RN3: My problem is solved and apparently so is Butterfat's. I simply needed to go to Finder Preferences, click on Side Bar and check the boxes on iCloud Drive and Documents.