iCloud Drive not syncing locally

Same problem - Macs just don't sync for ages but I find creating a new folder on the offending mac's iCloud drive jerks the syncing into action. Anyone else finding this? And like the chap above, I was an iCloud Beta user

Solution

I believe I just found a solution for this problem.

I had the same issue with iCloud drive and nothing I tried helped (I really tried everything). Until now.

On your iOS device go to Settings -> iCloud -> Storage -> Manage Storage -> Other Documents -> Edit -> Delete All (Backup first if you haven't already)

And that's it. I have done this and now if I create folders or put documents in iCloud drive on Yosemite, iCloud.com or Windows (had to reinstall iCloud on Windows) it now get uploaded and synced as it should. And its syncing really fast.

This fixed it for me and I hope it works for you too.

iCloud Drive is another epic FAIL by Apple in an attempt to provide any reasonably dependable cloud syncing services, go figure! Last month when Yosemite was released, I signed up for 300 gb of storage and added 70+ GB to my iCloud Drive folder which I just wanted to keep synced between 2 Macs. It took forever to sync, as a matter if fact, Im not sure it EVER did fully sync. I have Xfinity (Comcast) as my ISP and as most are aware, they have a 300 GB a month Bandwidth limit. I have never exceded it, and normally do go over 200 GB a month (and I don't use Netflix or any other streaming/download movie services). I started getting warning from Comcast that I was reaching my limit and then i went over my limit, and eventually by the end of the month, I used over 800 GB of bandwidth. Then, 2 days into the new month, I had used over 50% of my monthly limit, Im like ***! I decided to turn off iCloud drive and the problem was resolved. So I decided stop syncing that 70+ GB of data, move my data to a different drive/folder and deleted it from my iClould drive in Finder thinking it was gone but no! It's still on the cloud. Anytime I turn on iCloud Drive back on it wants to eat up my bandwidth again and start syncing that data. I finally just had to turn off iCloud Drive on all of my computers/devices and contacted Apple. They couldn't even delete the files on the cloud. They put my account in troubleshooting mode and it's been almost 2 weeks now and Im still waiting for them to fix this issue. At this point I just what them to delete those documents so I can turn iCloud Drive back on so the applications that use iCloud Drive can sync its data, but at this point in time, I can't use those applications because I can't turn iCloud Drive back on, not if I want any bandwidth left for the rest of the month. Im so dissipointed in Apple, they have totally screwed up with iCloud Drive! What a shame, I really thought they would get it right this time, but they just can't seem to get a clue how to make this service work. Maybe they need to buy DropBox and or SugarSync so they will have someone smart enough to fix it!

Creating a new folder in an iCloud Drive folder on my MacBook Pro seems to fix it for that particular application.

I'm having a similar performance problem with syncing files from iCloud to my macbook and I think I've tracked it down to a server side issue.

Up-sync is almost always very fast saturating the link while down-sync is slow very often.

I've tracked iCloud drive (it's using nsurlsessiond) connections on my macbook pro using nettop and tcpdump and it seems that the iCloud drive storage servers are located in the 32.65.253.* ip-range (owned by AT&T - which is strange enough).

On some IPs, my network link is fully saturated delivering files very fast, while on some it seems to be limited to 25KiB/s per connection. I've also discovered that creating a new file in iCloud drive (sometimes) re-initiates the nsurlsessiond connections, giving you a chance at connecting to a faster server.

That being said, I've only monitored iCloud drive connections for a short time, so I have no idea if this behavior just coincidental.

Hi.

I have the same problem.

In fact, I see that there are two folder type : "Folder" or "Application Library" (you can click on the "i" on iCloud Beta -> iCloud Drive to see the type)

The synchronization only works with file type 'Application Library".

I was having the same problem. Couldn't access documents on another mac with Yosemite. Added pdf's on my mac mini, files are on iPad, but not on my 2010 macbook pro. I signed out of iCloud on both computers, repaired permissions, and signed back in. Now its working as it should.

Dear diary, It's December 27 and my iCloud is still an inferior cloud storage service that simply does not work. If one has to use Terminal and Activity monitor to keep it half awake, I must say that Apple simply never figured out this cloud thing from the days of MobileMe. With iCloud Apple is too busy trying to figure out how to use iCloud to completely rule your Mac apps, and allowing iCloud to act like a classic cloud drive. They don't have time to notice that at the fundamental level iCloud as a storage system simply does not work. Right now I am experiencing Yosemite not syncing down at all. I've experienced iPhone force syncing older Numbers spreadsheets. Yes, overwriting newer files with older without even warning me that it is and idiot does not know which is newer. I've experienced half a Reminders list synced on other devices and unsynced contacts. I am still hoping Apple will eventually figure this out but for now I am really waiting for Calendar to make me miss an appointment. Yes, waiting. At that point my 10 year old love affair with Apple will start to unravel. Things syncs tasks without a hiccup ever using their own system. DropBox syncs files without a hiccup and DropBox on iPad is about 7 times more useful and functional on iPad. 1Password uses iCloud and I've only noticed it being late syncing once. I suspect it is because they too are having to deal with iCloud. Things works, Evernote works, 1Password works* DropBox works, Billings works, Microsoft OneDrive works. Yes MICROSOFT, the one with icon app that looks like a pile of crap. With Apple iCloud I ALWAYS first have to check whether things are synced before I do anything. I am not really curious to find out if maybe Google is the solution to iCloud disaster, and who knows where that might take me.

Has anybody tried running "sudo fs_usage cloudd" to try and get an idea of what exactly cloudd is doing? I have, and it's pretty distressing. All it does over and over and over again (while CPU usage is pegged at near 100%) is rifle through my keychains:

15:21:47.300858 statfs64 /Users/jay/Library/Keychains 0.000025 cloudd.181804

15:21:47.300933 open F=28 (R_____) /Users/jay/Library/Keychains/vault.keychain 0.000019 cloudd.181804

15:21:47.300938 fstat64 F=28 0.000005 cloudd.181804

15:21:47.300968 mmap F=28 A=0x0113507000 O=0x00000000 B=0x86000 <READ> 0.000028 cloudd.181804

15:21:47.300978 close F=28 0.000008 cloudd.181804

15:21:47.315009 statfs64 /Users/jay/Library/Keychains 0.000026 cloudd.181804

15:21:47.315091 open F=28 (R_____) /Users/jay/Library/Keychains/clients.keychain 0.000020 cloudd.181804

15:21:47.315096 fstat64 F=28 0.000005 cloudd.181804

15:21:47.315121 mmap F=28 A=0x01127ca000 O=0x00000000 B=0x71000 <READ> 0.000023 cloudd.181804

15:21:47.315131 close F=28 0.000009 cloudd.181804

15:21:47.325549 statfs64 /Users/jay/Library/Keychains 0.000022 cloudd.181804

15:21:47.325614 open F=28 (R_____) /Users/jay/Library/Keychains/digitalquay.keychain 0.000016 cloudd.181804

15:21:47.325619 fstat64 F=28 0.000005 cloudd.181804

15:21:47.325644 mmap F=28 A=0x0112b99000 O=0x00000000 B=0x71000 <READ> 0.000022 cloudd.181804

15:21:47.325652 close F=28 0.000008 cloudd.181804

15:21:47.336851 statfs64 /Users/jay/Library/Keychains 0.000020 cloudd.181804

15:21:47.336916 open F=28 (R_____) /Users/jay/Library/Keychains/unknown.keychain 0.000016 cloudd.181804

15:21:47.336921 fstat64 F=28 0.000004 cloudd.181804

15:21:47.336953 mmap F=28 A=0x0113d85000 O=0x00000000 B=0xa2000 <READ> 0.000030 cloudd.181804

15:21:47.336962 close F=28 0.000009 cloudd.181804

15:21:47.352911 statfs64 /Users/jay/Library/Keychains 0.000026 cloudd.181804

15:21:47.352982 open F=28 (R_____) /Users/jay/Library/Keychains/login.keychain 0.000019 cloudd.181804

15:21:47.352988 fstat64 F=28 0.000005 cloudd.181804

15:21:47.353005 mmap F=28 A=0x0110883000 O=0x00000000 B=0x51000 <READ> 0.000016 cloudd.181804

15:21:47.353015 close F=28 0.000009 cloudd.181804

15:21:47.367906 statfs64 /Users/jay/Library/Keychains 0.000046 cloudd.181804

15:21:47.367982 open F=28 (R_____) /Users/jay/Library/Keychains/login.keychain 0.000021 cloudd.181804

15:21:47.367989 fstat64 F=28 0.000007 cloudd.181804

15:21:47.368008 mmap F=28 A=0x0110883000 O=0x00000000 B=0x51000 <READ> 0.000017 cloudd.181804

15:21:47.368019 close F=28 0.000010 cloudd.181804

15:21:47.381760 statfs64 /Users/jay/Library/Keychains 0.000026 cloudd.181804

15:21:47.381840 open F=28 (R_____) /Users/jay/Library/Keychains/vault.keychain 0.000020 cloudd.181804

15:21:47.381845 fstat64 F=28 0.000005 cloudd.181804

15:21:47.381879 mmap F=28 A=0x0113507000 O=0x00000000 B=0x86000 <READ> 0.000031 cloudd.181804

15:21:47.381889 close F=28 0.000010 cloudd.181804

15:21:47.393191 statfs64 /Users/jay/Library/Keychains 0.000026 cloudd.181804

15:21:47.393274 open F=28 (R_____) /Users/jay/Library/Keychains/clients.keychain 0.000019 cloudd.181804

Have a look and see what it's doing on your machines?

Maybe it's because I have password protected iWork documents in there? Why would it be doing this?

So I have had an identical problem for a week or two (all other iCloud Drives syncing fine, my home iMac refusing to). Tried several of the proposed fixes, none worked. I have fixed my case, see below.

I suspect there is more than one issue underlying this common outcome. In my case two error log files (bird_2014-12-17-054425_regional-2.crash and cloudd_2014-12-26-003849_regional-2.crash for example) repeatedly were created with sequential datestamping. The bird logs contained this error:

"*** Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSGenericException', reason: 'Error executing SQL: "end" (13) (13/0x000d/database or disk is full)'

and the cloudd log files contained:

"*** Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSGenericException', reason: 'Error executing SQL: "begin exclusive" (266) (10/0x010a/disk I/O error)'"

I fixed this by:

- logging out of iCloud, and letting the system delete all my iCloud Drive files (there were none), Contacts, Calendars, etc.

- restarting into the Recovery Disk (command-R on reboot)

- launching Terminal from the Utilities menu;

- typing "resetpassword", and waiting for the GUI for the reset app to appear.

- resetting ACLs and permissions for my user account where indicated;

- quit the app, return to the main screen, and launch Disk Utility;

- using DU, repairing permissions and preparing boot disk.

- relaunch

- login to iCloud.

After an hour or so I see that my iCloud Drive has now synced.

Thank you, cmaus, your fix worked for me! It looks like I lucked out; for those still struggling, I know your pain. Good luck!

What I have discovered is that iCloud should not be expected to work like Dropbox. iCloud is meant to store and sync only those apps that support it, like Pages, Keynote, Preview, Numbers, TextEdit and PrinterPro. Simply dragging any file into iCloud from Finder confuses the syncing protocol. To make syncing work you have to delete all those files that weren't uploaded using a compatible app. As described by someone earlier in this thread, those corrupting files can be deleted from an iOS device under General:Usage:Manage Storage:Show All:Other Files. The Other Files are those that weren't uploaded properly. If you want to use Dropbox, fine, but it isn't as convenient as using iCloud with the supported apps.

I ended up creating a second user account on my machine and transferring all my documents and data/prefs across to it manually. The new account never had any problems syncing with iCloud, but nothing I tried could get my original account to sync. After migrating, I swapped the usernames and home dirs of the accounts.

I now have a new account with the same username and home dir as before, but it is much cleaner (I had migrated across about 5 macbooks without a clean user install) and it has a working iCloud Drive setup. Lots of "sudo mv", "sudo chown", and locating of prefs for things like Dropbox, but all done in 2-3 hours.

If nothing here is working for you, and you are familiar with the command line, I suggest giving this a go.

HI,

I don't know if this is exactly the same problem but my iphone and ipad sync well with icloud drive but my macbook pro sits there with an old list. I waited an hour once to see if it would update with the pages change I did on my ipad, no luck. What does work is moving a file in finder/icloud (on the mac) into or out of an icloud folder. When I do this all files start syncing.

hope it helps someone.

Basic rule in using iCloud is NOT to move files into iCloud from the finder. Only put them there using supported apps, like Pages. Other files will hang up syncing. iCloud works beautifully with the supported apps but is not meant to store all files like Dropbox. But Dropbox will not automatically sync files over all devices like iCloud with the supported apps.