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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

Mar 24, 2015 4:45 AM in response to Doren_Sean_Michael

Since today 0700 CET sync seems to work again. All files on every device are alright now.

H2PINC

Level 1

4 points

Mar 24, 2015 6:45 AM in response to Wolff-leipzig

It is working. It seems a bit unacceptable and poor business not to even acknowledge anywhere (even in your Apple status website) that there isn't an issue. Instead, Apple just quietly fixes the issue and drives it's customers nutty. Is it just me that thinks this?

sldous

Level 1

4 points

Mar 24, 2015 8:23 AM in response to H2PINC

As of this morning all my apple devices are now syncing perfectly. Will repost later if this changes.

Mar 24, 2015 9:13 AM in response to H2PINC

Yeah, that is poor customers policy.

But im quite sure that some programmers are currently being flogged in the dungeons of infinite loop.

ZilexHel

Level 1

8 points

Mar 25, 2015 7:29 AM in response to gpoulson

Works perfectly now. In fact, I was able to solve the problem already earlier by creating a new profile. Somehow the sync is corrupted profile-specifically, not related to Apple ID or the computer. In other words, simply create a new profile for your computer with the same Apple ID and it should solve the issue, if you still have problems.

Mar 25, 2015 9:59 AM in response to cmaus

CMAUS' solution worked for me. I went through two people at Apple support, the last of whom collected hundreds of log files (25MB) and sent them to engineering after admitting he'd never seen anything like it. That was days ago and I never heard back from engineering. With tech support, we tried:

- downloading uploading from the web app: worked fine

- rebooting: duh

- signing in and out of iCloud: duh

- creating a new user account and signing into an iCloud drive he created: no go

- deleting the CloudDocs file, which is how I found where it was. We didn't stop any processes. No go

- getting the 23MB of log files

Total time spent on the phone, 1hour 50 minutes.

My problems started after installing the March SSL bug fixes in OSX. I had also just signed up to pay for 20GB the day before the problems started, naturally. It only effected the Pages and Numbers directory, not other directories. iCloud was downloading about 150kb per day, so it was limping along on a half cylinder or maybe a squirrel engine.

After performing CMAUS' solution, iCloud updated and sync'd in about 5 minutes (I only have about 20MB stored in it).

One trick, to find ~/library, open Finder, click on the Go menu option (top menu), then hold down the "option" key. Library will show up in the list and you can click on it to open it. Originally, I wasn't able to run CMAUS' method at first because I couldn't find the library. Yes, I know I should know more about the OS X system, but after spending 30 years with DOS and Windows, I switched because I just wanted something that would work without tinkering all the time.

Thanks CMAUS!

Mar 25, 2015 6:24 PM in response to Doren_Sean_Michael

Change your wi-fi spot or internet connection wherever. Its done.

u6se_kjt

Level 1

4 points

Mar 30, 2015 1:16 AM in response to Doren_Sean_Michael

Thx for creating this thread ... like everyone else it seems incredible that this bug could continue to go on for so long. Not the perfect solution but if it is of any help, whenever the finder stops working go to your cloud using the browser, file uploads still seem to function here without issues. Suggests that Yosemite is for sure the source of the problem.

M. Coco

Level 1

6 points

Mar 30, 2015 10:49 AM in response to Robb Allan

This resolved the issue for me - thank you!

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.

Mar 30, 2015 4:32 PM in response to u6se_kjt

For what it's worth, I was having this problem when using my Mac at home. Did the typical router/modem reset and the particular Pages document I was working with online seemed to start syncing to my Mac where it wasn't before - however, I find it hard to believe it was my network, seeing as how everything else (smart tv, iPhone, xbox one) connected to the network was having no issues.

I guess we'll just have to see how this plays out, if it truly is a Yosemite thing, or something else entirely.

Mar 31, 2015 7:23 PM in response to Doren_Sean_Michael

Great - the problem starting again today. Working on a Keynote presentation at work. Came home and the document on my Mac was 5 hours old, never updated. Noticed my iPad was stuck at syncing. My iphone Synced OK. I went to iCloud.com and it worked but every few minutes it kept telling me there was duplicate and asked me to "keep one". This is getting really frustrating. I just want it to work like it used to.. I could easily use DropBox (which works great), but then I don't have simple iPad/iPhone accessibility.

Apr 1, 2015 12:42 PM in response to Michael Ginsberg

This is discouraging. I was considering moving a bunch of files over to iCloud Drive but it sounds like it's all the same problems as the last incarnation of cloud storage, with conflicts, duplication, and lost files. Google Drive works so well. Dropbox works so well. Why can't Apple figure this stuff out?

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.

iCloud Drive not syncing locally