Why is iCloud syncing paused on my iPhone 13 mini?

Hello AndrewIH,

The first thing we would suggest would be to power cycle the iPhone by following these steps found at Restart your iPhone - Apple Support:  

1. Press and hold either volume button and the side button until the power-off slider appears.

2. Drag the slider, then wait 30 seconds for your device to turn off. If your device is frozen or unresponsive, Force restart iPhone - Apple Support

3. To turn your device back on, press and hold the side button (on the right side of your iPhone) until you see the Apple logo.

While simple, this can refresh the iOS, apps and connections. 

If the problem continues, and the issue is confined to Messages, follow these steps:

1. Tap on Settings > [your name] > iCloud > Show All
2. Look for Messages
3. If On, tap Messages
4. Toggle "Sync this iPhone" off
5. Wait 10 seconds
6. Toggle "Sync this iPhone" back on

The purpose of these steps is also to reset the connection with the servers.

Have a good day.

The same thing has been happening to me in 16.2 on my iPad, but while the Files app tells the syncing is paused (at the bottom of the window and and has an exclamation mark with circular arrows around it next to iCloud Drive in the side bar), it is actually syncing in the background. To get rid of the incorrect app badging, I followed the instructions srbwanderer has above but for Settings > [your name] > iCloud > iCloud Drive > toggle off, wait a bit, and turn it back on. After the Files app reestablished syncing with the iCloud Drive servers, the app badging is fixed. Hope this helps.

I’m sorry this is so terribly late. I upgraded to the iPhone 15 today & faced this small issue. Here’s how I fixed it:

Settings > Tap your profile > iCloud > Under “Apps Using iCloud” tap “Show All” > Messages in iCloud > Sync Now

Your messages will begin to sync!

here's your solution!

If you're seeing a "Syncing Paused" message on Messages on an iPhone, you can try these steps:

1. Go to Settings
2. Tap your name
3. Select iCloud
4. Select Show All
5. Find Messages
6. If it's on, tap Messages
7. Toggle Sync this iPhone off
8. Wait 10 seconds
9. Toggle Sync this iPhone back on

here's the solution to the "syncing paused" message-

If you're seeing a "Syncing Paused" message on Messages on an iPhone, you can try these steps:

you're welcome :)

1. Go to Settings
2. Tap your name
3. Select iCloud
4. Select Show All
5. Find Messages
6. If it's on, tap Messages
7. Toggle Sync this iPhone off
8. Wait 10 seconds
9. Toggle Sync this iPhone back on

Check your iCloud storage if it is full, it can cause issues. Remove some data to create space, or you can purchase more iCloud storage. Additionally, check Apple's system status here: Apple - Support - System Status. If it is green for iCloud, then there’s no issue from Apple's end. Best regards.  

[Edited by Moderator]

try this-

If you're seeing a "Syncing Paused" message on Messages on an iPhone, you can try these steps:

1. Go to Settings
2. Tap your name
3. Select iCloud
4. Select Show All
5. Find Messages
6. If it's on, tap Messages
7. Toggle Sync this iPhone off
8. Wait 10 seconds
9. Toggle Sync this iPhone back on

As per Floydius, try starting a sync proc from Settings\Apple ID\app name. It worked for my sync problem with Messages.

This happened to me with new a new iPhone16 Pro Max. The fix was to disable iMessage, reboot, enable iMessage, then force sync.

Oh ok. I ended up just turning off sync messages to iCloud. Every time I messaged someone it was trying to save it to my iCloud. I haven’t had the message pop up anymore. I am sure Apple will fix this problem (hopefully soon). Pretty annoying.

Just to share my experience with New Iphone15 ProMax that have the same issue and I was supported by Apple support team and we tried all what mentioned in below and the last thing we find its a bug in IOS 17.4.1 and its a fake message , since I did a restore to other Iphone 15 and it was sync successfully even it was showed " iCloud Syncing Paused".

so as per Apple support, I will wait till next version IOS update .

Same exact thing is happening to me since 16.1. iPhone 12 Pro is pausing photo syncing to iCloud to save battery but my battery is at 100%. I then have to tap the resume syncing command. Is it a sync issue or power management issue?

Back up your iPhone to a Mac or at least to full iCloud. (Go to settings)

update your iPhone to 16.x

the bad syncing issue doesn’t disappear but is less frequent since updating

create a free proton account and use free proton VPN and let apple know on their feedback pages that you want better support and better tech beyond pregnant man emojis.

just in case anyone comes accross this thread in the future, I had this same issue in the messages app on my macbook pro.

if you "Sync Now" just from within the messages app settings, it goes for a bit and then pauses without explanation. (Messages -> Settings -> iMessage tab -> "Sync Now")

however, doing it through iCloud:

System Settings -> Apple ID -> iCloud -> Apps using iCloud (Show more Apps) -> Messages in iCloud -> Status (Sync Now) -- it seems to work properly.

not sure if these are referring to the same sync process or something different.

Doesn't do anything if the issues are serverside, iCloud has some serious capacity problems. At one point I had to call Support because some batch script hung and 20Gb of deleted files counted towards my quota, and I stopped receiving emails. Support had to delete those manually. Even now when I am syncing, it syncs a file or two, pauses, syncs again, pauses...