iCloud encountered an error while trying to connect to the server

gtigan

I downloaded apple iTunes and now I can access mail. I did download Firefox, but am using the Chrome browser. It worked! I can sign in to iCloud and get mail and everything else.

I know the feeling. I've been in this business a long time. It's an issue somewhere in the connections and how the browsers and icloud handle them. Firefox has proven to work foe me to connect to iCloud on my Laptop Win 11 super fast gaming machine. iCloud works with Edge when IPV6 is turned off but that causes problems with other apps like FB.

However, my win 10 surface pro connects to iCloud through Edge with IPv6 on! WTF

I've been having this issue all month. It makes no sense whatsoever. I thought it might be Bonjour after googling but it's not... Reinstalled, updated, reset anything I could but whenever I go to a browser (any browser) to log into icloud or me.com I get this error message.

The ONE thing I did find that would work to allow me to connect would be to plug my iphone directly into my PC. NO idea why the heck this works but so far it's allowed me to connect through a browser to icloud and me.com. I never had any issues before. I'd like to figure out wth is going on. I share things back and forth between my PC and Mac and logging into my icloud was the main way I did that.

I cannot find any IPV6 on my PC. Could you please share instructions on how you accomplished this?

Fully agree. Rather than having everyone taking all this time working with doing these same steps and no one has stated that it worked for them. Apple needs to get it fixed. On a temporary basis, I am able to use ICloud when I use the Firefox browser pretty consistently. I have been using that as a get around. Don't know if that will work for others but for me Firefox is pretty consistent. I tried using Microsoft edge and the connection is intermittent.

I have been frustrated by this issue for weeks. Windows 10\Chrome. Based on other helpful insights in this thread I downloaded Firefox and, fingers crossed, so far so good. I don't like having to have a separate browser window open but I'll take it over not having access to iCloud Contacts from the desktop. Terribly inconvenient when you want to grab an email address from Contacts and can't and have to resort to finding it on the iPhone and typing it in.

Connection to iCloud works with Firefox on Win 11 PC. Don't switch IPv6 off as described by others as that causes other issues with Facebook, etc.

Do you have the Intel Killer Performance Suite on your pc/laptop?

I can’t open mine on Windows 10 pc for the past 3 days! With the same flipping error! I chatted with apple… with no answers. I didn’t have the Microsoft app for ICloud, I only used it straight from the web. So, I downloaded the Microsoft iCloud app and tried it…. still the same error! It’s so frustrating when you have a file on your phone that you need to print for a customer but you need it on your computer first for proper enhancements.

This is a much larger and more complex problem than Apple is admitting to. We have several Macs, iPhones, and PCs and we're getting no rhyme or reason why some configurations work, and others don't. Here are the OS/Browser combos I've tried, and with the exception of "Old Mac" all OSs and Browsers exceed the minimum requirements for iCloud published by Apple:

Windows 10 / Chrome: Error

Windows 10 / Edge: Error

Windows 10 / Brave: Error

Windows 10 / iCloud App: Error

iPhone / Brave: WORKS <-- This proves it's not a browser issue

iPhone / Safari: WORKS

Old Mac / Chrome: Error

Old Mac / Safari: Error

New Mac / Chrome: Error <-- I have MacOS Ventura 13.5 and Chrome 116.0.5845.110 -- Why the error?

New Mac / Safari: WORKS <-- This proves it's not my internet connection, and it's not a security software issue.

Something else is happening on Apple's end. iCloud running from a Windows/Chrome environment was literally working fine one day, and then errors the next. No changes in the local environment proves the change is on Apple's side.

Please fix!

Definitely not simply a browser issue. This forum is flooded with posts of problems involving iCloud with a wide variety of PC configurations. I am using the desktop sync with iCloud and it has been broken for a week now on two different computers running two different versions of Windows. Dropbox is running perfectly fine on both machines. Apple broke something with iCloud and hopefully they get around to fixing it.

Same thing here, sort of. Started on stable Windows 10 Pro laptop; icloud suddenly dropped calendar syncing with Outlook. Started troubleshooting. Uninstalled icloude; reinstalled. Can get to icloud in a browser (Edge, Chrome, Opera, Firefox). Hours spent on tech support call including apple tech looking at my screen via my phone.

Wound up doing a clean install of Windows 10. MAJOR pain since many, many application suites had/have to be reinstalled, not to mention various utilities. Still no joy with iCloud.

Called back to tech support to pick up on the case. The tech ultimately said upgrading to Windows 11 would likely fix it. Did that (also a major pain) and still no joy. iCloud app fails; all browsers fail.

So it appears I've gone through these hoops and tremendous wastes of time for absolutely not positive outcome.

Hi again... Tried removing IP6 and then rebooting. Same issue remains. Talked with Apple support who agev me the same advice I've read here... update Windows, try another browser. I use Firefox but tried Chrome and Edge all with the same message "ICloud encountered an error connecting to the server." It seems the issue is an Apple problem. Hoping they are trying to remedy. Opening iCloud on my iPhone and iPad works with no issues. Thanks for the suggestion.