TimeMachine won't back up because iCloud hasn't finished syncing

My TimeMachine backups have been refusing to run for the last few days. The error is "Time Machine cannot back up because some iCloud Drive files have not finished syncing." However when I look in the Finder sidebar by iCloud Drive, it has a checkbox and says it finished syncing hours ago. The same is true for the other user on this computer.


My Photos app says that it's synced on both accounts as well. There are no other accounts on the computer currently (I did create another and then delete it before it synced).


Is there any place that will show me which files aren't syncing?


If I need to temporarily turn off iCloud syncing for the accounts, is it better to keep copies locally (in case they really weren't synced), or delete the local copies?


I've done numerous reboots. Any other advice? Thank you!


Sequoia 15.5


ps- I've also looked in the console for clues - do any of these look relevant?

com.apple.icloud.searchpartyd: Missing CloudStorageService!
com.apple.icloud.searchpartyd: No BeaconStoreActor available!
/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/EcosystemAnalytics.framework/Support/ecosystemanalyticsd
: Error querying cloud docs root URL: Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=2 "No such file or directory" UserInfo={NSDescription=No such file or directory}


Mac mini

Posted on Jul 15, 2025 4:29 PM

Reply
4 replies

Jul 17, 2025 8:40 AM in response to Teacher-dad

After a couple more days of log outs, reboots, disk utility, searching, and reaching out to Apple support, Time Machine finally decided that yes, iCloud Drive really was synced, and it started backing up again.


I'm happy that my problem resolved itself, but I'd be a lot happier if I had any idea what caused the problem in the first place!


And though backups appear to be happy now (fingers crossed), all of the errors I noted above are still appearing in the console log. Yay!

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

TimeMachine won't back up because iCloud hasn't finished syncing

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.