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Level 1

25 points

why is iCloud drive not showing all my folders?

Greetings and Salutations,

Upgraded everything to ios8 on the iPad, and to Yosemite on the iMac and Macbook Pro. I bought 200gb of iCloud Drive storage and then moved what was on an external drive to the iCloud drive on my iMac. No problem. Then I go to the Macbook Pro, open the iCloud Drive and what do you know? Only about half of the folders and documents are showing up! Same thing on the is iPhone 6 and the iPad 2 with iOS 8.

Anyone else having this issue with iCloud Drive not syncing correctly? Appreciate the help!

MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2010), iOS 8.0.2

Posted on Oct 17, 2014 1:18 PM

112 replies

Oct 24, 2015 3:18 PM in response to hwminc

Just wanted to add another "me too":

I added files to the 'iCloud' folder on my Mac, which is connected to WIFI.

Wait 10 mins.

I go to my iPhone and go to 'iCloud Drive' and it is still showing old content and isn't showing deletions that I did.

There doesn't appear to be any way to 'refresh' the file listing in the iCloud drive app. (there should be)

There also doesn't appear to be a way to 'force sync' the folder on the mac.

Clearly this feature is pretty useless if you can't use it to transfer files from a mac to a phone and vice-versa, and this syncing needs to be happening in under a minute, not hours, to be useful.

Surprised nobody from Apple tech support has acknowledged this fundamental bug/problem to this thread yet. Looks like I'll have to keep using DropBox, which is the superior service currently.

Csound1

Level 9

59,973 points

Oct 24, 2015 3:30 PM in response to Jeff Axup

Jeff Axup wrote:

Just wanted to add another "me too":

I added files to the 'iCloud' folder on my Mac, which is connected to WIFI.

Wait 10 mins.

I go to my iPhone and go to 'iCloud Drive' and it is still showing old content and isn't showing deletions that I did.

There doesn't appear to be any way to 'refresh' the file listing in the iCloud drive app. (there should be)

There also doesn't appear to be a way to 'force sync' the folder on the mac.

Clearly this feature is pretty useless if you can't use it to transfer files from a mac to a phone and vice-versa, and this syncing needs to be happening in under a minute, not hours, to be useful.

Yet that is exactly what I do, not in hours, not even minutes, it's seconds. I must have a different version of IOS from you.

PJoao

Level 1

0 points

Oct 24, 2015 5:45 PM in response to hwminc

I cannot see all my iCloud Drive files on my iPhone (iPhone 6 and iOS 9.1) on the iCloud Drive App, but I can see them on my iPad (same App), MacBook and on iCloud.com. I am correctly logged on my iCloud account but the files are just not there. Already reseted the iPhone, logged out and logged in on my iCloud account and nothing. The iCloud Drive App is just blank!!!

Does anyone have the same problem?

Nov 8, 2015 1:45 AM in response to hwminc

I had the problem of Folders for iOS apps (e.g. GoodReader) not appearing in my iCloud Drive on my Mac.

I just fixed this in El Capitan. If someone could confirm if Yosemite and earlier have the same folder structures that would be great.

Here is what I did.

Note - this method requires the use of terminal and the rm command - please read these instructions carefully. You will need to replace <YOUR USER NAME> with your actual username. If you do not feel comfortable about this, you might need to find someone you trust who can do this for you. Sorry I can't help any more than that.

Go to http://cloud.com, login in there using your iCloud credentials and make sure that your folder and file structure is EXACTLY how you need it to be in the iCloud drive tab. That will represent the master copy, as you are about to blow away the local copy on your Mac. Take your time here and get it right. It is important to note here that you should see all the folders for your iOS apps - if you do not seem them, do not proceed - make sure that your iOS apps actually are saving data to iCloud first.

Go back a day later and make double sure 🙂

Turn OFF iCloud Drive by unticking it in your iCloud Preference Pane in System Preferences - this step will REMOVE THE LOCAL COPY OF YOUR iCLOUD DATA and is irreversible. However your data will remain untouched on Apple's iCloud servers - which is why you did steps 1 and 2, above.

In terminal, issue the command:
cd "/Users/<YOUR USER NAME>/Library/Caches"
This will take you to a directory that contains a folder called CloudKit - this contains some cached data used for the syncing process. We are going to delete that folder in the next step. The quotes are not smart quotes, but straight ones and are placed there on the off chance that you have some odd characters (including a space) in your username. I don't think they will, but I am being sure.

In terminal, issue the command (This is the dangerous one, so get it right):
rm -rf ./CloudKit
This command removes the CloudKit folder from the Caches directory. We will create a new folder in the next step. The './' is just a reinforcement of the command to remove it from the directory you previously "cd" to

Turn ON iCloud Drive in your iCloud Settings in System Preferences - this reenables iCloud Drive locally, creates a new CloudKit directory in the Caches directory, and re-downloads a copy of your iCloud Drive data.
After doing this, I am now downloading all my data off iCloud again - and the missing folders are appearing as the process gets to them.

Note that you need to make sure that you have enough data in your monthly allowance to redownload all your iCloud data again, otherwise you may run into plan issues.

Also note that Dropbox creates folder structures first and THEN populates them with files. iCloud builds the tree as it goes. The process is the same, the order different 🙂 - you just see the folders earlier with DB, that's all.

Hope this helps...

Nov 8, 2015 1:59 AM in response to Daniel Figucio1

Sorry that should be

Go to http://icloud.com, login in there using your iCloud credentials and make sure that your folder and file structure is EXACTLY how you need it to be in the iCloud drive tab. That will represent the master copy, as you are about to blow away the local copy on your Mac. Take your time here and get it right. It is important to note here that you should see all the folders for your iOS apps - if you do not seem them, do not proceed - make sure that your iOS apps actually are saving data to iCloud first.

Autocorrect bit me without me realising it. http://icloud.com - NOT http://cloud.com

Totally embarrassed now 🙂

Nov 19, 2015 1:22 PM in response to hwminc

I'm at my wits' end over this. I use iCloud Drive on my MacBook Air and the contents there do NOT match what is displayed in both iCloud Drive app on my iPhone 5s nor do they match when I log in to iCloud from my work PC. Seems to be some kind of sync issue and I have no idea how to get everything to match.

Help?

Lewis

Nov 19, 2015 2:12 PM in response to FluxCapacitor328

Did you try what I suggested above? It's been flawless for me ever since.

if some cached data is broken sync won't ever catch up, that's why I also deleted stuff from the Caches directory before reenabling iCloud Drive on my Mac.

Nov 20, 2015 7:43 PM in response to Daniel Figucio1

Daniel - I haven't tried it yet as I want to make sure I fully understand what I'm doing. So you're saying there is a local copy of my iCloud Drive on my MacBook Air? Or a local copy stored... somewhere else?

Dec 7, 2015 2:34 PM in response to hwminc

I believe it is time for a class action lawsuit. Apple is taking millions of our dollars and not living up to their contract. I bought extra storage space so I could access my files from anywhere only to find that anywhere meant my home computer only.

Csound1

Level 9

59,973 points

Dec 7, 2015 4:24 PM in response to SamFromTV

Ignoring the effect of not being able to explain why it works for millions of users you could start one yourself. Why rely on others to do work you believe in?

Dec 13, 2015 12:55 PM in response to SamFromTV

Ummmm, I can access my files from anywhere. Web, iCloud Drive app on my iOS devices and on my mac.

That's not what this thread is about, anyway. Some folks had issues seeing synced content on their macs.

Since I followed the above steps, I have not had an issue.

Dec 13, 2015 1:10 PM in response to FluxCapacitor328

Sorry for not responding earlier. Been busy!

There will be a local copy of the data on your MacBook Air. iCloud Drive is a file sync process (like DropBox). Data is kept on your MacBook Air as well as in the cloud at iCloud.com.

The process I described above will do the following (I hope I make this plain enough, sorry):

Firstly you are going to the iCloud.com website and making sure the files and folders are where you need them
Then you are going to wait a bit and make sure again. Once you delete the local copy on your MacBook Air, the copy at iCloud.com will be your master copy, so that's why i am being super careful here.
You will then turn off iCloud Drive on your MacBook Air. This deletes the local copy, not the cloud copy.
You are then going to delete the folder that stores some management data around the synchronisation process from the Caches Directory - these are not your files, but data that is used to track the process of synching.
Once you have done that you will be turning on iCloud Drive again for you MacBook Air. This will recreate the management data and then start synchronising from iCloud.com back to your computer and vice versa.

Again, note:

this process will take a while to download your data again.
you should make sure you are not going to soak up your monthly allowance from your internet provider - especially if you do this over cellular
you should have enough space on your MacBook Air to keep a local copy of the data. If you bought 1TB in iCloud and you don't have 1TB on your MacBook air, you won't get a local copy of everything. I can't advise what you will end up with as I am not privy to that information.

Again - I just want to point out I have not had an issue since doing this. I can't guarantee it will work for everyone, but it did for me.

Hope this helps,

Daniel.

Feb 16, 2016 12:43 PM in response to hwminc

Same issue here… 33 items in a folder, but only one shows on Mac desktop? IU'm only using the iCloud drive as a workaround for another Apple issue of importing filtered photos (it can't any more, the functionality has been removed by Apple inadvertently or on purpose, who knows, but it's two years now and not fixed). I just wanted to send one photo to a friend and been stuck in this over half an hour. I've been using Macs since 1986 and they've just become ridiculous

I am still unable to import the photos (the original issue), nor view them on my Mac. Basically, I can't copy a file from one Apple device to another. I wish there was a floppy disk drive on my iPhone… it was easy then!

Yes!

Level 1

0 points

Mar 20, 2016 5:37 PM in response to FluxCapacitor328

Hi there,

I had the same issue. Here's how I fixed mine.

- Go to System Preference

- iCloud drive

- Option

- Make sure you check Preview.app and other apps that you are using.

Hope this helps.

Apr 22, 2016 7:00 PM in response to hwminc

Similar here:

Somehow, it's been quite long, I cannot see complete iCloud Drive files on my iPhone.

I got only 4 folders, iThought, Keynote, Numbers and Pages on my iPhone's iCloud Drive.

But there should be a lot more. (Not even 'Preview' folder, it should be a default one, right?)

It looks totally fine on my Mac (OSX 10.11.4), iPad (iOS 9.3.1).

To fix it, I've tried three ways:

1. Log-out my iCloud account, restart iPhone and Login again.

2. I've tried create new folders, move all those older files to the new ones. And deleted my older folders.

3. Disable iCloud Drive # Home on iPhone, and then enable it...

None of above works.

My iPhone 6 configurations:

iOS 9.3.1

128GB (35GB available)

iPhone 6, iOS 9.3.1

why is iCloud drive not showing all my folders?