iCloud Drive not syncing locally

I started this Discussion because there are several started already with the exact same issue, so I’ve tried to find them all and post links to this Discussion, mainly because I have spent over 4.5hrs on the phone with Apple today still with no solution and this is my story.

It’s obvious from these other Discussions that there is a problem and Apple needs to fix this issue. Overall Yosemite is working fine excluding this one very big problem.

I have updated to all the latest software apps, iOS’s & OS’s.

My iCloud Drive is working fine on my iPhone 6 Plus, iPad Air & on iCloud.com.

My iCloud Drive is not syncing locally on my iMac.

My iCloud Drive on my iMac simply shows an empty folder or broken folders/files. If you place an item in there it doesn’t show up anywhere else and none of the items that are showing up on my iCloud Drive on my iDevices & iCloud.com will show up locally on my iMac.

Occasionally I have seen a handful of either Pages, Numbers or Keynote folders with my files with an iCloud icon & a dead progress bar next to them in my local iCloud Drive folder, but none of these files are accessible via their respective local app counterparts, they just appear to be frozen in time.

While on the phone with Apple and talking with 3 different representatives (including 2 Senior Advisors) they had me do a whole gambit of things which I have listed below, but none of them did anything constructive. I was told that my issue would now be sent to Engineering and I would have a solution in 1-2 business days.

Below are all the things that were attempted & requested by Apple to perform in no particular order. After each request the local iCloud Drive folder was checked and nothing ever changed.

1. Zapped the PRAM

2. Booted into Safe Mode (Extensions off)

3. Rebooted cable modem.

4. Rebooted router.

5. Rebooted iMac dozens of times.

6. Tried hardwired & Wi-Fi connections.

7. USB tethered to iPhone using LTE.

8. Signed out of iCloud account & logged back in.

9. Disabled iCloud Drive & reenabled dozens of times.

10. Created another Admin account and switched users.

11. Waited 24hrs+ and still nothing in local iCloud Drive.

12. Reinstalled Yosemite.

13. Repaired Permissions.

I hope Apple or someone has a solution for this very soon because it’s impossible to work efficiently when you can’t use your Pages, Numbers nor Keynote apps to create or edit documents locally.

The only thing they offered, which I was already aware of, was that I could download my documents from the iCloud Drive via iCloud.com and work with them locally or work with them online at iCloud.com. I’d prefer to work locally using my shared documents, but that’s exactly what I can’t do.

Please share if there are other things you have attempted and/or if you have also called Apple in utter frustration and if they offered any solutions other than what I have listed.

I’m willing to try anything at this point, but my guess is that there will be an update very soon to address this and other problems.

Thank you,

-Doren

iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10), 3.5GHz Intel Core i7, 32GB, 27"

Posted on Oct 19, 2014 8:09 PM

Top-ranking reply

graemeyer

Level 1

4 points

Posted on Nov 19, 2017 6:23 PM

There are multiple different "Library" folders on your mac, you need to make sure you check the right one (the user library) which is hidden. You can find this by launching finder, holding down the option key, and clicking go in the menu bar (the library folder you want will only appear in this list when you hold the option key). You should see the CloudDocs folder in there.

Can't believe this is an issue that has persisted throughout the OS X upgrades over the past three years. I spent 10 hours on the phone with Apple trying to solve this, finally found this thread and fixed it in less than 30 seconds.

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189 replies

u6se_kjt

Level 1

4 points

Apr 1, 2015 1:10 PM in response to RollyForbes

Yep I agree it is discouraging, I have lost a great deal of faith today especially ... came close to losing some important data due to the chaos with iCloud sync. Thank goodness I suffer from back up paranoia ..

I have a mac and an airbook both using iOS airport wifi 5Ghz, always been a reliable wifi connection. iCloud and mac working great! .. What I have discovered with the Airbook & solid state drive which I love dearly is that iCloud like Safari does fails to respond more often than not with the wifi connection when you come out of sleep mode! ... Today I did a simple restart and suddenly iCloud worked without a problem on the AIrbook.

Seems to be that the wifi, Safari & especially iCloud sync have an issue re-initialising when waking up from a sleep mode on the Airbook.

wilWater

Level 1

0 points

Apr 10, 2015 12:55 PM in response to cmaus

I just have to thank you CMAUS because your solution fixed everything for me! I had been trying for over a week to get this issue solved, and your solution was the one that did it! No thanks to ANYONE at MAC/APPLE support. They are all useless!

I can't tell you how happy it has made me to see all of my Pages documents start syncing again!

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!

cmaus

Level 1

20 points

Apr 10, 2015 3:32 PM in response to wilWater

I'm happy my solution worked for so many. It's nice to read your comments.

Apr 14, 2015 3:16 PM in response to Tony Davenport

I tried everything else and nothing worked. This worked beautifully. Thank you!

ras.2000

Level 1

0 points

Apr 21, 2015 5:26 AM in response to Doren_Sean_Michael

Going to Library->Preferences(see instructions below for how to do this) and throwing away the com.apple.icloud.fmfd.plist file and then running sudo periodic daily weekly monthly solved it for me!

Navigating to the user Library Folder.

1. From the desktop - hold down the option key and press on to the "Go" menu item

2. Choose Library from the choices

3. Navigate to the desired file

4. Place it on the desktop for safekeeping

Restart

Apr 22, 2015 7:37 AM in response to Doren_Sean_Michael

I had this problem, the following solved the problem for me:

1. Go to the local iCould Drive

2. Choose all items, e.g. files and directories (Command + A)

3. Copy all (Command + C)

4. Delete all (Command + BackSpace), then confirm with "Delete"

5. Paste items back (Command + V)

Worked as charm for me. Good Luck.

Usama

Csound1

Level 9

60,063 points

Apr 22, 2015 7:43 AM in response to Doren_Sean_Michael

I use the iCloud drive across 3 Macs, 2 iPhones, 1 iPad and 1 Windows PC. It works perfectly on every one, every time.

As does every other installation I have seen, so what is different about yours?

u6se_kjt

Level 1

4 points

Apr 22, 2015 8:00 AM in response to usama kadri

Thx Usama

Recommend to also caution users by keeping a backup copy of local sync cloud files on desktop or elsewhere, not just in Ctl C (memory). The potential to lose valuable data is very high. If data is deleted and there is a pause with by anyone, the cloud has the potential to begin syncing and deleting files also stored in cloud before re-pasting local data. This can be a very messy high risk procedure to people unfamiliar with computers.

cheers.

Csound1

Level 9

60,063 points

Apr 22, 2015 8:17 AM in response to u6se_kjt

u6se_kjt wrote:

Thx Usama

Recommend to also caution users by keeping a backup copy of local sync cloud files

iCloud files (a) do not sync and (b) a copy is kept on your Mac all the time. (in ~/library/mobile documents)

Understand that there is no sync, you just save to and read from the iCloud Drive.

u6se_kjt

Level 1

4 points

Apr 22, 2015 8:26 AM in response to Csound1

Thx Csound1

To be honest, Apple have a huge responsibility (obligation) here with management of personal data that they should have fixed well before now.

Typical users should not be forced to go into hidden directories to fix problem, would you agree?

Csound1

Level 9

60,063 points

Apr 22, 2015 8:41 AM in response to u6se_kjt

You stated that local copies should be kept on the Mac. They are kept on the Mac already.

Any other suggestions?

u6se_kjt

Level 1

4 points

Apr 22, 2015 8:52 AM in response to Csound1

It was commented in thread to "Ctl C only" then delete "all file cloud files" stored on local machine

Big no no .....

Always copy and store a back up of files somewhere if planning to do delete something as high risk as local cloud files.

Csound1

Level 9

60,063 points

Apr 22, 2015 8:56 AM in response to u6se_kjt

What are you jabbering about?

iCloud files are stored locally on the Mac, if you delete them they no longer exist on the iCloud drive, so they no longer exist on your Mac or any other device accessing files from that drive.

As they already exist on the Mac they will be backed up by Time Machine

This is not rocket science.

u6se_kjt

Level 1

4 points

Apr 22, 2015 9:01 AM in response to Csound1

Really sorry,

I had no idea your were of such superior intelligence ... and of course that everyone else in the universe knows equally as much as you claim to.

Clearly you are a specialist in global communications too.

Thanks for your positive insight ..

Csound1

Level 9

60,063 points

Apr 22, 2015 10:43 AM in response to u6se_kjt

u6se_kjt wrote:

Really sorry,

I had no idea your were of such superior intelligence

Well now you do, please try to keep up.

And do some research.

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iCloud Drive not syncing locally