iCloud folders are "Waiting to update"

Hey again! Thanks for that.

Can you also confirm if similar behavior happens on iOS devices, (If you have them), it sounds like it wouldn’t as the website appears to work okay.

I know it’s happening on more than one of your Macs, but on one of them can you relaunch Finder and see if it makes any difference?

Apple > Force Quit > Finder > Relaunch.

And I know more isolation may need to be done, but if you keep a backup, I may try this which helped me fix a similar issue recently with iCloud Drive, although it would say more if we knew if it happened in safe boot, on another network, or in another user account:

First I always keep a local copy of my documents, you can disable iCloud Drive and save a copy, likewise Time Machine should back it up, considering you don’t use Optimize Storage, but still, it’s not exactly reliable right now.

Move this folder to the Desktop:

~/Library/Application Support/CloudDocs

The restart your Mac.

Next, open Activity Monitor in /Applications/Utilities, search “bird” double click the process and select Quit.

And finally relaunch Finder:

Apple > Force Quit > Finder > Relaunch.

I could be way off but this worked for me after many, many other steps had failed, but otherwise:

Safe Boot

Test admin account

Different Network

Good luck! Let me know how it goes!

Hi again

I had the time to do this today, and it seems to have solved at least one of the problems. I removed the CloudDocs folder and restarted (although, perhaps foolishly, I quickly saved a document in icloud without thinking about it, so the folder had started being rebuilt before the restart). Once it had booted up again, I relaunched finder, and it began checking everything I have locally against what's in icloud, e.g.:

After a fair amount of this, it completed 'uploading'. A lot of files were now 'waiting', and for a few of them I tried removing the download and then downloading them again. Nothing happened for a while, then suddenly everything was marked (correctly) as Downloaded:

So, thanks again @DiZoE for the suggestion!

I'm still having the problem of Finder displaying the incorrect available space:

vs

As you'll see, it has been decreasing as I've added files, but it still thinks there's about 10GB more space available than there actually is. I'll try another restart or two (including safe mode) and update if there's any developments.

ECC

Hey again!

I get it, you pay money for a machine and cloud storage and want to be sure it’s accurate. Although this is a bit ifferent issue than the original post, (Although related), I’d probably still rebuild the Spotlight Index for that:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201716

If the Finder is reading it wrong, or About This Mac, that would be the step I’d take, make sure to bring the disk Macintosh HD into the Spotlight > Privacy window then remove it, and give it a day or so to finish, (Again you can see the progress by pulling up Spotlight search and typing something to see if indexing, otherwise, you can use Terminal though probably not necessary.

I’m not positive, but I’d think that having the option to “Optimize Storage” for both iCloud Drive and photos, may result in a mixed storage result from time to time, and the Mac is always calculating what’s on the Mac and what’s not, while at the same time, probably also uploading/downloading/storing files and photos in iCloud. (That’s if Optimize Storage is enabled)? Otherwise, it should be a bit more consistent like your other devices.

Hope that helps! Happy to help out further if I can, as anyone here!

Hey again! No worries, glad to help. Hope it works out okay! Otherwise I’d say testing in a new user account, testing in safe boot, and even while connected to another network would be a good way to narrow it down. Hope you find the path of least resistance!

Hey again! Good to Hear!

As for the other issue:

Do you have other devices using iCloud that show the same?

Does the local storage on your Mac also look inaccurate?

In case it’s an indexing issue:

Cluck on Spotlight Search, (Or press Command Space Bar).

Type any word without hitting Return just to see the results.

Do you see a blue bar that says, “Indexing”? If so and it’s still stuck there after a day or so, that process may need to be restarted.

Otherwise, and depending on the other answers, something else is going on.

Although it’s normal to fluctuate a little, usually not by that much but there are other factors to consider. Cheers!

May have come in to the Forum a bit late in the day. But just noticed the same myself and just on both Big Sur iMacs, "Waiting to Update" and "Waiting to Upload" on some iCloud Folders. Yet the files contained are appearing to sync to each iMac OK. Just falsely reporting that the Folders haven't. Sometimes Renaming a Folder activates a ReSync and corrects it, but not always.

Interestly, Apple's iCloud App on my Windows 10 PC is fine.

To sum it up, the Syncs have happened, but the two Big Surs falsely state they haven't.

Hey again!

Thats a strange one, inconsistent behavior it sounds like, yet consistently not working right.

So do you sync Desktop and Documents with iCloud as well?

Likewise, do you know if you have the Optimize Storage option enabled on both Macs?

I’m assuming your iCloud and Mac storage is fine.

Can you go to iCloud.com, try to upload data to the website directly and see if it updates on all devices or not?

Likewise, on the web site, in iCloud Drive, is there anything stuck in Recently Deleted?

Hey ekrc-c!

So are you saying everything is working now? Or just that files uploaded via the browser and downloading normally, but won’t upload to iCloud?

Hope all is sorted out then, but if not, I’ve found it shouldn’t matter where you put that folder as long as it’s in a different location/restart/re-sync, it’ll re-create itself as new.

If you were worried about quitting that process, then I’d first move the folder/restart/Relaunch Finder and see how it goes.

To be honest I don’t know which of those three steps did it, or if it had to be the combination of all of them, but I figured I’d do all in one as they’re all related in a way.

I’ve never had a problem quitting a process if I know it’s function, but everyone’s system is different which is why I mentioned backing up of course.

Anyhow if all is good, awesome! Otherwise hope that helps!

Hiya, I have a similar problem on my MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015) running Big Sur version 11.2.3. Optimize Mac Storage is turned off (i.e. unchecked).

Several folders in my icloud drive have either a "waiting to update": or "waiting to upload":

symbol next to them, but none of the files within those folders have either image, and from a look on icloud.com it seems like all of the files are succesfully uploaded. I just deleted everything in Recently Deleted there.

I think this problem with the icons has been going on for a long time and I've only recently noticed it, as I've started putting more files in icloud. I recently purchased more icloud space and moved more files into icloud drive over the last two nights.

Now, the finder status bar also displays the incorrect amount of space left in icloud:

System preferences and icloud.com agree that this is the correct amount of space left:

So it seems like the problem lies with Finder on my Mac. I've tried relaunching it several times and restarting the Mac, but that hasn't helped. I am storing Documents and Desktop in icloud, so I wondered @DiZoE in relation to your suggestion to:

Move this folder to the Desktop:

~/Library/Application Support/CloudDocs

whether I should move the folder to a different location, eg. Downloads, which is not stored in icloud?

I'm also reticent to Quit icloud processes. A few years ago I quit one of the icloud photos processes, because my library had stopped syncing for some time. This seemed to permanently break the sync, and my (admittedly cack-handed) attempt to correct that corrupted my Mac and I had to do a full restore from TimeMachine... So if there are any other suggestions, I'm keen to hear them.

Thanks in advance,

ECC

Hi DiZoE, thanks so much for getting back so quickly.

Sorry, my last post wasn't clear. The synchronisation of files is working well, i.e. files created on my Mac (e.g. screenshots) are uploaded and appear on icloud.com; and files added to icloud.com are downloaded to my Mac.

However, I've still having the problems with Finder outlined above: some folders are permanently labelled as waiting for upload/update, and the free space in icloud is incorrect.

Since yesterday, I've done what wArch did with many of my folders: created a new folder at the same location, moved the files into it, deleted the old folder, then renamed the new folder to match the old folder's name. However, I don't think I can do that for the top-level Desktop and Documents folders. This is the current situation:

All of the folders in Documents are 'Downloaded' but the Documents folder is still 'waiting to upload'. As mentioned the 'waiting to upload' notice on Screenshots is not really correct: e.g. I've just taken the screenshot pasted above and it has uploaded successfully to icloud.com. Even once I create a new Screenshots folder and Images folder, I expect the Desktop folder will still be labelled as waiting to update/upload, like the Documents folder.

So, yes thanks so much - that's very helpful. I'll move the CloudDocs folder and try a restart and relaunch of Finder and see if that works to reset Finder's understanding of icloud status.

Thanks again, ECC

Hey there! Can I ask the make and model of your Mac and OS version? And any steps that have been attempted? Likewise, are these folders related to iCloud Drive/Desktop/Documents? Or something else? Depending, I may have a solution. Thanks!

Thanks again DiZoE for your continued help!

So, dealing with those questions in order:

• I've checked my other devices, and my iphone, ipad, icloud.com and Mac system preferences all agree on 63.4GB used/ 136.6GB available space. Only Finder on my Mac shows 146.66GB available.
• Local storage on my Mac seems to be roughly right. Finder shows 73.34GB available, while the 'About This Mac' Storage tab shows 74.98GB available. DaisyDisk agrees with the Storage tab, showing 75GB of free + purgable space (the latter is timemachine snapshots I think). So Finder is slightly wrong, but perhaps that is explained by counting purgable space differently?
• Searching with Spotlight doesn't seem to have any issues. I do remember seeing an Indexing bar in the past, but it never stuck around for very long.

I also did a safe mode mood this morning, and that didn't change the incorrect figure which Finder shows for space available in icloud.

Thanks again, ECC