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Can't enable icloud Drive On iPhone 11

Hi, I have an iPhone 11 Pro Max running iOS 13.4. My carrier is T-Mobile. When I go into the Files app, I’m presented with a big blue button that says "Turn on iCloud Drive."


When I press that button, it takes me to the iCloud panel in Settings. In that panel is a switch to turn on iCloud drive. When I flip the switch on and it turns green, it opens up a screen that says "Upgrade to iCloud Drive."


The problem is that the actual "Upgrade" button doesn't do anything when pressed, and neither does the "Cancel" button. They are also overlapping each other.


I am now stuck and unable to activate or access my iCloud Drive. Has anyone else experienced this issue? Any help would be appreciated. I have enclosed a screenshot of the three screens in question:Thank you!

iPhone 11 Pro Max, iOS 13

Posted on Mar 30, 2020 1:26 AM

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Posted on Mar 30, 2020 8:50 PM

Hi, I ended up doing a hard reset of my phone, then restored it from backup. As it was restoring, it gave me the option to enable iCloud Drive, which I did.


Everything seems to be fine now. Thanks for your suggestions. I appreciate it.

84 replies

May 1, 2020 7:30 AM in response to Nightflyre9

Thank you for your kind words. I hope that you won't face any problems with your iPhone.


I agree with every word you said about Apple. However, I disagree that the quality of their devices is any better than other companies. I have an iPhone and iPad. Generally, at the beginning, they work amazingly fast. However, after 1 year or 1 year and a half, you start facing system and battery problems. Devices can suddenly shut down.


Customers pay around $1000 to get a device that most likely will be replaced after 20 months! When I got my iPhone, I thought that I am getting a distinctive device that will last for a long time. I was shocked that the device performance deteriorated sharply after one year. All is possible. It can suddenly stop. All data can be deleted without any hope of recovery.


Therefore, my advice is to always keep a back up and never ever trust Apple.

May 1, 2020 9:17 AM in response to Nightflyre9

Thanks for the useful insights everyone. This is definitely eye opener as I trusted to go for Apple after a decade of using Android phones. Android phones are indeed much more easy to maintain/customise I feel.


Having said that, to have to factory reset just to enable this setting back feels barbaric. I appreciate your efforts and the time you've taken to share with the community (you are not wrong anywhere) :). It's just that the Apple team should acknowledge this UI Bug and fix it in the next release. I cannot factory reset as my whatsapp is not backed up and I cannot loose the chats. There needs to be some or the other workaround until this is fixed. I tried to do it on my iPad pro 10.5" but the same error pops up there as well.


I do not want to jump to any conclusions but in my 2 months of using this, I'm doubting this purchase sooner than I anticipated. I'm not saying the phone is not good, it definitely is Amazingly fast and has an impeccable hardware; its just these annoying software glitches that are hindering the experience which you won't bother much on Android due to the cost differences.


Hope there is something else that I can try.

Jul 1, 2020 1:42 PM in response to Nightflyre9

I hope someone else can shed some more light on this; I reset and restored my iPad from an iCloud backup, but when it was finally back up and running, the same thing happened, and I just don't understand. The iCloud Drive Windows app seems to be working just fine, but whenever I try to access iCloud Drive in a browser, I get an error message ("iCloud Drive has stopped responding"). And the problem with iCloud Drive on the iPad is exactly as described by the OP

Jul 1, 2020 3:47 PM in response to spawklz

Spawklz, try to access your iCloud using a Windows computer. Once you’re in iCloud, go to "Pages" and you should be able to initiate "iCloud Drive" there. This solution seems to have worked for a few people, as you can see from the comments above.


My original advice to do a hard reset should be a last resort. Try this option first. Good luck!

Jul 4, 2020 4:07 AM in response to Nightflyre9

Thanks for your post. We had the same issue with multiple devices and two Apple IDs. As I did't want to do a hard reset of any of my devices in use, I did a hard reset on an unused iPad (partially broken screen) and manually configured it to use my Apple ID. After I had enabled iCloud Drive on that iPad, the other devices using the same ID were happy to let me enable iCloud Drive as well!

Jul 14, 2020 6:19 AM in response to Kdon88

Kdon88, rather than do a hard reset, try the following method first: using a Windows computer, go to iCloud.com, sign in, and locate "Pages." Once you’re in "Pages," you should be able to initiate iCloud Drive from there. This method has worked for others.


As far as WhatsApp goes, your messages should be saved to the point of your latest back up. But you could do another back up before you go to "Pages" if that makes you feel better. Good luck!

Jul 18, 2020 1:47 AM in response to nikil1980

Once you’re in Pages, do you see anything that says "Upgrade to iCloud Drive"? Evidently, this is what you need.


If you’re unable to find it or if it doesn’t exist for you, maybe you should consider doing a hard reset. Originally, a hard reset is what I did because I had no other options at that time. It worked for me.


Before I did the hard reset, I plugged in my phone and let it charge for a few minutes. When your phone is plugged in, that is the only time it creates a back up. This is why you want to plug it in for a while before you do a hard reset. Once I was confident the back up had completed, I went into my phone's settings and simply did the reset. When my phone powered back up, it gave me the option to enable iCloud Drive.


As you may have noticed, most people are against doing a hard reset because they think it’s a big deal and that it takes a long time. For me, it was neither. It was quick and easy. If you’re unable to use Pages as described, consider doing a hard reset. Good luck!

Can't enable icloud Drive On iPhone 11

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