After updating to Ventura, iCloud drive cannot communicate with helper app

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After updating to Ventura, iCloud drive cannot communicate with helper app

I cannot turn on iCloud Drive in system preferences. When I do,it stops responding and says it cannot communicate with a helper app. It asks me to go my Apple ID and turn on iCloud Drive pref pane. Then Apple ID sysem setting stops responding, then my Finder stops responding. Have to force quit Finder, which fails. Everything freezes and I have to manually shut down. When I finally reboot (which takes forever), same problem. Disk repair utility shows no problems. I know this has been brought up before, but I am unable, for some reason, to turn on iCloud Drive on my MBP 2018 intel machine running Ventura.

Thanks for any suggestions.

MacBook Pro

Posted on Nov 14, 2022 12:06 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

guattari Author

Level 1

20 points

Dec 4, 2022 4:43 PM in response to guattari

So, after hours online with Apple Support, and more hours spent trying everything (safe mode, delete caches, delete daemons and launch agents, signing in and out of apple id, creating new user account, even reinstalling OS and reinstalling from a Time Machine backup), etc.) we finally found a simple solution, for my machine anyway. Reset all User permissions in Terminal. Here is the command.

diskutil resetUserPermissions / `id -u`

after that (and all the pain of the other solutions), iCloud Drive now works normally. Thanks to Apple Support for sticking with this problem.

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Answer 2

mikeg28806

Community Specialist

Nov 15, 2022 2:33 PM in response to guattari

Thanks for posting in the Apple Support Communities guattari,

Isolating to see whether the same issue occurs in safe mode, can help narrow down the cause, and determine whether other software starting up with your Mac may be coming into conflict.

The following steps explain how to start your Mac up in safe mode:

Before you begin

To start up your Mac in safe mode, you need to know what type of Mac you have.

1: On your Mac, choose Apple menu > About This Mac.

2: Look at the information in the window to determine what type of Mac you have:

If you see an item labeled Chip, followed by the name of the chip, you have a Mac with Apple silicon.

If you see an item labeled Processor, followed by the name of an Intel processor, you have an Intel-based Mac.

3: Use the corresponding set of instructions below to start up your Mac in safe mode.

Start up your Intel-based Mac in safe mode

1: Turn on or restart your Mac, then immediately press and hold the Shift key until you see the login window.

2: Log in to your Mac.

3: You might be asked to log in again.

On either the first or second login window, you should see “Safe Boot” in the menu bar.

Verify your Mac started up in safe mode

If you’re unsure whether your Mac started up in safe mode, you can use the System Information app to check the mode.

1: On your Mac, press and hold the Option key, then choose Apple menu > System Information.

2: In the System Information app, select Software in the sidebar.

3: In the System Software Overview, look at the value listed next to the item labeled Boot Mode.

• Safe: The Mac is using safe mode.

• Normal: The Mac is not using safe mode.

Start up your Mac in safe mode

We hope this helps!

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Answer 3

Ben_Z1

Community Specialist

Nov 16, 2022 8:55 AM in response to guattari

Guattari,

We appreciate that additional info and testing this issue in safe mode. Next, updating your macOS installs new security content and bug fixes that can resolve behavior like this. Ensure you are running the latest version of macOS using these steps from Update macOS on Mac:

1. From the Apple menu  in the corner of your screen:

• Choose System Settings. Then click General in the sidebar, and Software Update on the right.

• Or choose System Preferences. Then click Software Update.

2. If Software Update finds new software, click the Update Now or Upgrade Now button to install it.

3. Enter your administrator password, if asked. During installation, your Mac might restart, and you might see a progress bar or blank screen several times.

If Software Update says that your Mac is up to date, then no new software is currently available for your Mac model. Software Update shows only updates and upgrades that are compatible with your Mac.

If your Mac is fully updated and this continues, Apple Support would be the best equipped to investigate this issue further. Contact them here: Contact - Official Apple Support

Cheers!

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Answer 4

guattari Author

Level 1

20 points

Nov 16, 2022 8:43 AM in response to mikeg28806

The problem persists in Safe Mode. When I click either OK or Go to Apple ID settings, everything freezes. I can wait for hours for the system to return. Then iCloud drive is off and its pref pane greyed out. Rebooting again puts things back to normal and iCloud Drive is now off. After many time of trying to turn on with the same results (cannot find helper app and freezing), I now just leave it off and don't use sync. I have no way of even checking which of my apps are syncing data to iCloud Drive on my MacBook).

So my question is... I've tried everything I can find, including 1) rebooting 2) signing out and in of Apple ID, which merely starts iCloud Drive again and freezes 3) trashing Caches folder in ~/Library/Caches, which produces its own headaches and doesn't change the problem 4) Booting in Safe Mode 5) Repairing disk in Recovery Mode, where everything shows things are fine.

The only thing I am resisting is re-installing the OS. I will wait for the next update of Ventura. If that doesn't change anything, maybe I will re-install using an older Timeline backup, although I have no idea when the problem actually began or if it started when I updated to Ventura.

So I guess I will do without iCloud Drive on my MBP for now. It works fine on my iMac, phone and iPad. I don't have any other ideas.

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Answer 5

guattari Author

Level 1

20 points

Nov 16, 2022 10:12 AM in response to Ben_Z1

well, my MacBook Pro is completely up-to-date running Ventura 13.0.1. I guess I’m stuck with Apple support although my machine is a year out of warranty and I don’t expect much to be honest I don’t think reinstalling the system is going to do much, but maybe that’s my only option. I guess I’ll just wait for any update to Ventura and see what that does. Probably the most vexing problem I’ve had with Apple software.

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After updating to Ventura, iCloud drive cannot communicate with helper app

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