Trouble Opening iCloud Documents

Why Can’t I Access Files on My iCloud? I have folders listed by years (2023, 2022, 2021, et. al.) with documents. I’ve always been able to open any of them. Now, for some reason, many of them have an iCloud symbol next to them. The files won’t open. If I right click the iCloud symbol, I can “download” the file. But one of two things happens when I try: either it shows the symbol that it is downloading (which never seems to download) or it just does nothing. So now, when I need old data that I’ve saved, I’m in real trouble because I can’t get to it. I’ve not had this problem in the past. Help!!!