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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

189 replies

AriChapi

Level 1

0 points

Mar 14, 2016 3:21 PM in response to cmaus

hi,

I got the same problem with iCloud: Files seemed upload but I could not open them, they were displayed as "iCloud synchronised files" under OS X El captain on a brand new mac.

I tried your method,

Deleting CloudDocs and Killing cloudd and bird using Activiy Monitor. It worked great! I could see the files uploading and I was able to open them this time! All seemed to upload properly, but when the upload was over, it all started again: all the sudden everything switched to iCloud synchronised files, I had to delete again clouddocs and kill again clouds and bird...

What am I missing? I do not want this to start all over again all the time...

Many thanks if you can help

Mar 29, 2016 2:50 PM in response to Doren_Sean_Michael

Hi all,

I bought my first mac a few weeks ago.

Last week i upgraded my storage to 200 gb and created a folder called 'Photos', where i placed all my picture folders (about 90 gb of photos in total).

Everything uploaded fine, but now and in the recent couple of days more and more of my photos have grayed cloud icons with down arrows and some with dotted borders.

I am currently frustrated as half of my entire collection is now out of reach. My Mac or iCloud Drive won't keep or download them to my machine.

I have tried the log out, log in method without any luck.

Any news on this, i can se that this has been an ongoing issue since 2014! :O

Kind regards,

The new Mac guy with all his photos stolen* by iCloud Drive.

*or at least held hostage.

Geertmae

Level 1

4 points

Jun 10, 2016 5:56 AM in response to cmaus

Worked for me also with El Capitan. Many thanks!!

Geert

alisham

Level 1

4 points

Jun 28, 2016 6:37 PM in response to Doren_Sean_Michael

I just kill process named bird from Activity Monitor... and all my icloud drive start to sync again immediately (note: if not working try kill process bird and cloudd).

Aug 19, 2016 7:02 AM in response to Doren_Sean_Michael

Same issue here. Up to date everything, iClould doesn't sync. Cmaus's suggestion works. Paste these commands into a terminal window and all syncs up nicely.

rm -fr ~/Library/Application\ Support/CloudDocs/

ps -ef |grep cloudd |grep -v grep | awk '{print $2}' | xargs kill -9 $1

ps -ef |grep bird |grep -v grep | awk '{print $2}' | xargs kill -9 $1

I uploaded these commands into iCloud as I have two macbooks (work + personal) and each time I want to see a doc from the other I have to repeat the process.

ApexRon

Level 1

48 points

Aug 19, 2016 7:51 AM in response to Doren_Sean_Michael

As of this date, I have found several design "oversights" in the Apple iCloud and iCloud Drive solutions as well as serious deficiency in tools to sort out what is causing syncing problems and how to recover.

One of the biggest problems is the coexistence of iCloud and iCloud Drive. In my opinion, once you select iCloud Drive on MacOS then all the other options should then use iCloud Drive not iCloud. Now it may do that in the background but finder sure doesn't display it that way.

A third party MacOS app gives you the option to save their database on iCloud. Then, a while later, I found that iCloud Drive stopped syncing and had to purchase an app to tell me what files were queued up but not syncing. The oldest modified file was that MacOS app, so I changed the option to place its database locally and then everything else sync'd up.

On MacOS I created a large size Pages document because of images and tried to save in a folder I created on iCloud Drive. Well that stopped sync as well because iCloud Drive kept on dropping the connection. I removed the images and the document uploaded.

LACAllen

Level 8

43,500 points

Aug 19, 2016 10:23 AM in response to ApexRon

It sounds like you may be referring to the OSX beta.

Discussions of the beta are not allowed on the communities until it is released to the public.

ApexRon

Level 1

48 points

Aug 19, 2016 10:35 AM in response to LACAllen

Nope, only referring to current product. However, I do like the new naming convention because it is easier to realize that I am talking about a Mac operating system; MacOS rather than OS X on a Mac.

As far as the yet to be released version, we will just have to wait and see if that resolves any of the iCloud challenges that users are currently experiencing with MacOS 10.11.6 or older.

Aug 19, 2016 1:36 PM in response to Doren_Sean_Michael

I'm not on any betas either. OS X El Capitan Version 10.11.6 downloaded straight from the app store. Syncing definitely doesn't work.

Another thing that I don't really like is it doesn't show up as a mount point. If it did, I would use it all the time.!!!

Aug 19, 2016 8:44 PM in response to cmaus

This did it for me. Thank you cmaus. Everything is syncing normally again. I am using El Capitan and it started not syncing the other day. This trick fixed it.

likefeel

Level 1

4 points

Oct 5, 2016 11:32 AM in response to Doren_Sean_Michael

bird[289] Unable to quarantine: 93

Nov 1, 2016 2:49 PM in response to cmaus

Thanks! This worked!

Dec 7, 2016 12:52 PM in response to cmaus

Just wanted to bump this post. Worked for me on Sierra 10.12.1. Couldn't find any files in iCloud drive. Followed instructions, and now all is well. Thanks!!

Dec 18, 2016 10:08 AM in response to Doren_Sean_Michael

Sigh, I've been looking around everywhere for help with Notes not syncing. Apple is f-ing clueless. I grabbed a freshly wiped iPhone. Went straight to settings and logged into iCloud. Created ONE note and it's not showing up on iCloud.com. iCloud is such a f-ing joke!

Eric Root

Level 10

684,597 points

Dec 18, 2016 12:30 PM in response to Shareef Yousef

Information only. I have read several discussions by people experiencing the same type of problem. Several have been in touch with Apple Support and it appears it may be an Apple server problem.

iCloud Drive not syncing locally