iCloud files not synching across devices, creating overwrite errors

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iCloud files not synching across devices, creating overwrite errors

I continue to have this problem. I work sometimes on my iPad, sometimes at my Mac (rarely, but sometimes, on my iPhone). I always save files only to the iCloud (not to my iPad). I am primarily using MS Word and Excel. If I work on the document on one device, then a while later go to the other device to work on it, it rarely is the latest version.

Example: I have a document example.doc. I opened it this morning (6 April) on my iPad and made some edits. I'm now at the Mac and want to work on it. But when I open Finder to the document, it shows a version from 29 March. I have closed Finder and Relaunched it (twice). I see a cloud next to the date modified on the Mac (not sure what that means?), but am afraid to open it as I fear it will overwrite any changes I made while on my iPad. I duplicated it and then opened the copy, and it is indeed an outdated version.

Short of emailing myself files back and forth, what is a solution to this? And why is it happening? Isn't the whole point of the cloud that things are accessible from anywhere?

iMac 27″, macOS 14.6

Posted on Apr 6, 2025 4:02 AM

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Answer 1

Apr 20, 2025 7:26 AM in response to albiea

I often edit the same LibreOffice Writer .ods document on the iCloud Drive with a Mac running Sequoia and then with a Mac running Monterey.

Sometimes when I open the .ods on the other Mac I see that it is not yet refreshed its modification date -- iCloud starts refreshing at the same time as LibreOffice is launching, but annoyingly LibreOffice opens the old version. So I must then close and re-open the refreshed document.

So I must somewhat baby-sit iCloud Drive modification dates so I don't start editing an old .ods version.

Sometimes I have kicked iCloud Drive awake by saving a dummy document or duplicating some document there, so it refreshes its contents.

Usually iCloud Drive refreshes automatically after a few minutes, though. But this an annoyance if I want to quickly grab the other Mac and start editing the same document.

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Answer 2

Apr 6, 2025 6:21 AM in response to albiea

Files update pretty quickly for me-- maybe a couple of minutes, often quicker. The obvious thing to check is the quality of your internet-- but I figure you have investigated that.

The open cloud that you see means that the file is on your compute locally and also at iCloud.com

I see that you are using Sonoma. I'm not sure that the options are the same, by if you right-click on a file, I think that you have the option to "Remove Download."

This will leave the file name in place as a link, but its cloud will change to one with a down arrow indicating that this file is actually kept only at iCloud.com. When you click on that file it will load a copy directly from iCloud.

Let us know if that gets you the updated version…

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iCloud files not synching across devices, creating overwrite errors

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