Why won't Numbers documents update to iCloud?

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Why won't Numbers documents update to iCloud?

I see any title and time stamp changes on other iOS devices and even on my Mac, but the documents never finish updating to iCloud. So I can see but not use the Numbers documents on my other devices (second iPad, iPhone and Mac). On the (original) iPad, I see the progress bar and/or up arrow on the document indicating the document still needs to upload to iCloud, but the update never happens. I even see a rotating dotted circle with "Updating 4 spreadsheets" on the Numbers title bar. Again, the update never completes. This problem is not happening (and has never happened) with Pages, but consistently happening with Numbers. I do not know how to troubleshoot the issue or force a Numbers sync or determine why the Numbers documents are not syncing while the Pages documents are syncing quickly. This is not a network issue or iCloud authorization issue. Pages wouldn't sync if any of those were a problem.

iPad (3rd gen) Wi-Fi, iOS 5.1.1

Posted on Jan 7, 2013 1:22 PM

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Answer 1

Jan 7, 2013 2:15 PM in response to wellsfry36

Welcome to the Apple Community.

• Save as many documents as you can to your desktop from iCloud.com or from the iCloud document panel in the appropriate Applications.

• Turn off document syncing on every device.

• On your mobile devices make sure document syncing is turned off not only in the iCloud settings, but also in the settings for each app.

• Check the apps on your mobile devices no longer have any documents in them.

• On your computer go to system preferences > iCloud > manage and delete any documents you see in your iCloud storage.

• Restart all devices.

• Re-enable document syncing device by device, ensuring that syncing is working properly before re-enabling syncing on the next device.

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Answer 2

wellsfry36 Author

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Jan 7, 2013 2:33 PM in response to Winston Churchill

Is this a joke? There's no way to troubleshoot the Numbers iCloud sync problem? There should be an advanced screen where one can see some error message like, "AppleFTP failed with error 6734," and then a bug can be filed so a developer can fix the sync error.

The "resolution" suggested here is:

Take all your files off iCloud. (Because you can't trust iCloud.)

Turn off iCloud on all your devices. (Because iCloud doesn't work anyway.)

Make all your devices forget about iCloud. ((Because iCloud doesn't work with iOS.)

Try, try again. (Just in case iCloud and iOS have figured out how to work together.)

Taking all Number, Pages, and Keynote documents off just to see if one can get Numbers to work again doesn't sound like a solution, just a way to avoid fixing the bug that caused Numbers to get into this state in the first place.

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Answer 3

Jan 7, 2013 3:00 PM in response to wellsfry36

Do what you want, it's up to you, but you most likely have corrupt files stopping syncing taking place and need to remove them to get started again.

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Answer 4

wellsfry36 Author

Level 1

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Jan 7, 2013 3:51 PM in response to Winston Churchill

I appreciate you taking the time to address my question and providing thoughts about how to get working again. Thank you. The steps you offer might solve the problem, but it's so incredibly cumbersome and never addresses the underlying issue. But I thank you for your thoughtful time.

Actual debugging steps would be helpful. Rather than guessing, I'd like to know if I actually have a corrupt file (and which one) so I can remove that one file instead of removing all files. And if/when it happens again, I'd like to know how to quickly address it. I don't think one should have to reset the entire solution in order to get one piece to work.

At least with MobileMe, I could download and upload all files in one step. With iCloud I have to selectively download or move each file, which is not at all user friendly. Easier download/upload would make the steps you suggest less cumbersome.

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Answer 5

Jan 7, 2013 4:10 PM in response to wellsfry36

It might well be possible to identify and eliminate just the corrupt file(s). It's just that on mobile me it was almost always possible to delete a corrupt file from a single source and have it deleted everywhere, whereas that doesn't seem to be possible in many cases with iCloud and removing everything I found to be the quickest.

FWIW, some of my documents were corrupt just after iCloud came out, I fiddled away for a while and made more documents corrupt, I then removed everything from everywhere, started again and haven't had a problem in what must be a year and a half now..

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Answer 6

wellsfry36 Author

Level 1

0 points

Jan 8, 2013 11:32 PM in response to Winston Churchill

The iCloud gods were smiling on me. I deleted the new files that never finished uploading and emailed a template version of the numbers spreadsheet to track weekly revenue. Once that opened in Numbers, I just copied and renamed for each week in January, and so far it's working. No problems accessing those files from other devices now either.

I would still really like a debug tool to understand what and how things get hung up in iCloud. Otherwise, the bugs will never get fixed. Folks will just use workarounds like the one you offered. I'd also like a way to force a sync or have some indication of why files don't always sync immediately. iCloud usually syncs quickly and keeps all files up to date. But when it doesn't, I'd like real troubleshooting steps to allow the user community to provide useful data to the developers.

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Answer 7

UweD

Level 1

15 points

Oct 27, 2014 8:12 AM in response to Winston Churchill

• Save as many documents as you can to your desktop from iCloud.com or from the iCloud document panel in the appropriate Applications.

• Turn off document syncing on every device.

• On your mobile devices make sure document syncing is turned off not only in the iCloud settings, but also in the settings for each app.

• Check the apps on your mobile devices no longer have any documents in them.

• On your computer go to system preferences > iCloud > manage and delete any documents you see in your iCloud storage.

• Restart all devices.

• Re-enable document syncing device by device, ensuring that syncing is working properly before re-enabling syncing on the next device.

This indeed worked perfectly. TYVM

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