Prioritise certain files to be uploaded first to iCloud drive

Question

Prioritise certain files to be uploaded first to iCloud drive

(This has been raised before but no satisfactory answer was provided)

I need to upload a few PDF files to transfer them to another computer. For some reason, iCloud has decided it needs to upload dozens of other files that are a low priority for me (upward arrow in the iCloud status field).

-- There is no progress button by the iCloud folder in Finder so I don't even know if they are actually uploading.

-- The amount to upload field in finder does not appear to be reducing

-- The ones I want uploaded are not appearing, even as a placeholder, in the web version of iCloud.

I tried making an artificial change to the files I want uploaded, because someone said it would be uploaded immediately, but nothing happened. There is an up arrow but no progress uploading.

There seems to be no way of knowing which files are actually uploading (not just scheduled to upload) or of prioritising some, nor of pausing others.

What can I do (other than use Dropbox or OneDrive)?

iMac 27″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Apr 20, 2021 9:34 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

BDAqua

Level 10

245,177 points

Apr 20, 2021 1:01 PM in response to AndyEdinburgh

I find iCloud pretty useless, I use pCloud where I can control everything & see what is uploading at what rate & a progress bar & what the next ones are, plus I can just drag & drop the files I want.

But open Activity Monitor, click on Network tab to at least get an idea if anything is going out.

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Answer 2

Apr 20, 2021 2:43 PM in response to BDAqua

I use iCloud because it seems the best for optimising storage on a Mac (it does not work properly on Windows). I tried Dropbox and OneDrive already but came back to iCloud. It has usually worked OK if rather mysteriously. Even now, it is still synching .doc files that I make. When I made a test folder in the iCloud root today, it propagated in seconds.

On the other hand I have all these PDF files that show an up arrow in the iCloud status filed in Finder, though I don't know why they are uploading right now; the status bar is showing no activity and there is no pie-progress indicator next to iCloud in Finder.

I looked in Task Manager as you suggested. The tasks with 'iCloud' in the name are com.apple.iCloudHelper, iCloud Control and iCloud Control Extension. These are all showing 0.0% CPU time. What does that tell me? I tried quitting them; com.apple.iCloudHelper and iCloud Control Extension came back straight away but still with 0.0% CPU. Looks like I'll have to restart to get iCloud Control back...

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Answer 3

Apr 21, 2021 3:11 AM in response to BDAqua

I use iCloud an iCloud drive for documents and desktop. I keep pretty much everything on the iCloud drive so I can use it on any computer.

I have a 2 Tb subscription in which 1.43 Tb is available.

My iMac is the 'master' computer, which I use for backing up using both TimeMachine and Backblaze. It therefore keeps local copies of everything. It has a 1.12 Tb Fusion drive, of which 363.78 Gb is presently free. The laptops have 512Gb disks and use iCloud with 'optimise storage'.

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Answer 4

BDAqua

Level 10

245,177 points

Apr 20, 2021 3:21 PM in response to AndyEdinburgh

How much space do you have left on iCloud, & is it iCloud Drive, or just iCloud?

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Prioritise certain files to be uploaded first to iCloud drive

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