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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

Reply
189 replies

Mar 22, 2015 1:52 PM in response to Doren_Sean_Michael

I just started having this issue yesterday with Numbers files syncing with iCloud. I created some new files on my iPad and usually have them updated on my iPhone or Mac within seconds. Now it's either not syncing them at all or with one file it took all night to show up, but I couldn't click on it to open it on my other devices. I have an "updating # spreadsheets" message at the top, but it doesn't seem to update. I've never experienced iCloud drive issues before this weekend. And, I've made no changes to settings, etc. You don't realize just how much you rely on this functionality until it's not working properly. I wish Apple would update their page, currently it shows no issues, but people clearly are having issues. Just let us know and tell us you are working on it so we can quit wasting time messing with our device settings when that's not the problem.

Mar 22, 2015 2:03 PM in response to Doren_Sean_Michael

I really agree with the last post. This is obviously this is a problem experienced now by more than one person around the same date, so something is up.What is really frustrating is, why have a system status page that always shows status as green. Because, it does waste everyone's time.


I'd be more relaxed if Apple just said, "yes, we know this is an issue and we are working on it."


https://www.apple.com/support/systemstatus/

Mar 22, 2015 2:19 PM in response to H2PINC

I am having the same problem. It's happening on my new computer so I spent a long time on the phone with Apple Support, who acted like this is an isolated problem (though I mentioned this thread - and the countless others - several times). It's also clear that they don't know how to fix the problem - after forty-five minutes I was told that it has to go to engineering. Ugh.

Mar 23, 2015 7:49 PM in response to Doren_Sean_Michael

GOOD NEWS!!!!


It looks like Apple fixed the iCloud Drive issue. Of my 3 Macs, 1 iPhone and 1 iPad, No Devices were syncing for the last week or so.


Happened to look 5 minutes ago and noticed my iMac at home was completely synced correctly 🙂


On my iPhone, I opened Keynote and documents that were stuck, were now syncing and counting down (same for Numbers & Pages), in fact, as of right now, iPhone is completely synced up. Same with iPad, syncing is counting down and syncing everything correctly (was previously stuck).


My MacBook Pro is in the process of downloading files now (didn't before).


I just screen shared my iMac at work and it is in the process of downloading files too (didn't before).


Will check tomorrow and do more testing - but it looks like tomorrow may be a good day.

Mar 23, 2015 8:32 PM in response to Michael Ginsberg

I can verify that Pages, Keynote & Numbers downloaded and synced mine too, although it looks slow and not syncing right away on my iPhone but I guess at least Apple is working on it! shouldn't have took that much time, But I'm Thankful that at least its being addressed and resolved. Hope we get a more robust iCloud Drive, it still needs a lot of work on the backend. Not as smooth as Google docs... just saying!

Mar 23, 2015 11:41 PM in response to Michael Ginsberg

Well, I had high hopes...


There was a short flurry of activity as things started syncing once I restarted each app but that quickly came to a grinding halt. One of my files must be trying to upload sideways or something because the whole mess has been bound up again for the past couple hours and is just as constipated as it was for the past few days.

iCloud Drive not syncing locally

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