How do I sync iCloud drive with external user account on MacOS Sequoia?

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Level 1

4 points

How do I sync iCloud drive with external user account on MacOS Sequoia?

I updated to Sequoia two weeks ago from a much older version on my 2018 Intel Mac mini.

My user account (1.06 TB) is stored on an external SSD since my Mac mini only has 256 GB of internal storage.

I quickly noticed that iCloud Drive was no longer syncing, even though Photos and Contacts continued to sync as before. Everything had worked fine prior to the update to Sequoia.

After spending a long time with Apple Support, the conclusion was clear: for iCloud Drive syncing to work, the user account must be located on the Mac’s internal drive, not an external one. Apparently, this is a new requirement. This is outrageous because it forces users to buy Macs with large internal drives (2 TB in my case), which Apple sells at exorbitant prices.

I find it hard to believe I’m the only one facing this issue. I’m open to any advice you may have—thank you so much!

For your information, my iCloud pane shows as follows:

And when I try to activate it using the "Sync this Mac" feature in the dialog box that appears

j'obtiens le message d'erreur suivant

I am sure not to be the only one in this situation. I would love to hear your suggestion. Any available synchronisation software allowing me to sync iCloud Drive with the "Documents" and "Desktop" folders in my account located on the attached hard disk drive ?

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Mac mini, macOS 15.2

Posted on Feb 9, 2025 10:30 AM

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Answer 1

Feb 9, 2025 10:49 AM in response to PatrickBA75

PatrickBA75 wrote:

I updated to Sequoia two weeks ago from a much older version on my 2018 Intel Mac mini.

My user account (1.06 TB) is stored on an external SSD since my Mac mini only has 256 GB of internal storage.

I quickly noticed that iCloud Drive was no longer syncing, even though Photos and Contacts continued to sync as before. Everything had worked fine prior to the update to Sequoia.

After spending a long time with Apple Support, the conclusion was clear: for iCloud Drive syncing to work, the user account must be located on the Mac’s internal drive, not an external one. Apparently, this is a new requirement. This is outrageous because it forces users to buy Macs with large internal drives (2 TB in my case), which Apple sells at exorbitant prices.

I find it hard to believe I’m the only one facing this issue. I’m open to any advice you may have—thank you so much!

For your information, my iCloud pane shows as follows:

https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/37b7f0da-683a-429f-8354-b7c23794d62a

And when I try to activate it using the "Sync this Mac" feature in the dialog box that appears

https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/5559fd56-7c7d-4409-85d6-f31725d1f3a8

j'obtiens le message d'erreur suivant

https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/80e80a8e-5d8f-424e-890e-5d8d46804a8f

I am sure not to be the only one in this situation. I would love to hear your suggestion. Any available synchronisation software allowing me to sync iCloud Drive with the "Documents" and "Desktop" folders in my account located on the attached hard disk drive ?

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

you can try a simply A SafeBoot Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support will sort many anomalies

Login and then Reboot as normal and test. Caches get rebuilt automatically.

no resolve— sign out of your AppleID/account and back in again to jump start the sync

Sign in to or out of your Apple Account on Mac

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Answer 2

PatrickBA75 Author

Level 1

4 points

Feb 10, 2025 1:57 PM in response to leroydouglas

Hello @leroydouglas, I did as you suggested: safe reboot (after updating to Mac OS 15.3.1 that was just released) and then log out and back in my AppleID account. No change.

Apple Support level 2 told me after a check on my Mac that to synchronise my Documents and Desktop Folders using iCloud Drive my user account needs to be on the HDD of my Mac, which is not the case as my HDD is too small (256 Go of which only 166 Go is available) compared to my user account which is 1.06 To.

As the synchronisation of my adress book, calendars, notes and Photos work well, I need to find a fix pour iCloud Drive sync, which is either:

A software to sync my two folders (Documents and Desktop) with iCloud Drive. Do you know any software that could do that ? I heard SugarSync or MultCloud but have not tested them

A replacement solution such as synchronisation of my Documents Folder with pCloud which would allow me to me to access my documents from my iPhone or iPad via the iOS app of pCloud.

What do you recommend ? Many thanks in advance

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