Kevin McManus
Level 1 (9 points)
Mac App Store

Q: Anyway to Disable Automatic Sync

Hi,

 

I would like to turn off automatic sync of my files on iCloud to my local macs similar to how Dropbox Selective Sync. If anyone has had any lack turning of local iCloud Drive sync, maybe with a simple command line in Terminal.

 

I upgraded from the 5GB plan to the 200GB plan on the first day. Working with AppleCare  since then has not fixed this issue yet (many support calls, visits to the Apple store, screen sharing troubleshooting all over several weeks)

 

The lack of iCloud Drive preferences, especially the selective sync, is a big fail.

 

If you upload more files to your iCloud drive then what any of your computers could physically store by themselves, then the whole sync fails.

 

Apple engineers have coin this local iCloud Drive copy as a "cache", apple geniuses in the store refer to it as a "shadow" copy, but I refer to it as a "clone" because its a bit for bit copy.

 

Try uploading 50GB to your iCloud drive and then activate iCloud drive on a computer with less then 50GB of free space. You mac will quickly run to ZERO free disk attempting to clone the 50GB on the iCloud Drive.

 

You can view the sync process from within Activity Monitor. Apple has been reluctant to narrow what processes are responsible for the sync, but after researching and viewing while my computer was over heating and my fan ran continually, I found that "Bird" and "cloudd" were using 99% to 105% of CPU.

 

Thanks

MacBook Air (13-inch Mid 2012), OS X Yosemite (10.10.1)

Posted on Nov 29, 2014 9:47 PM

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Kevin McManus

Q: Anyway to Disable Automatic Sync

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  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Nov 30, 2014 12:55 AM in response to Kevin McManus
    Level 10 (108,955 points)
    iCloud
    Nov 30, 2014 12:55 AM in response to Kevin McManus
    Call it "Clone" or "shadow copy", but that is exactly what is happening, to ensure what Apple promised in this document:

    iCloud Drive FAQ

     

    Here's what you can do with iCloud Drive:

    • Store and access all of your documents in one place from any of your devices
    • Keep files and folders up to date across all your devices
    • Create new files and folders from iCloud-enabled apps
    • Work on the same file across multiple apps

     

     

    The lack of iCloud Drive preferences, especially the selective sync, is a big fail.

     

    Selective sync has not been intended; iCloud Drive is behaving like the old iDisk right now.

    I would like to turn off automatic sync of my files on iCloud to my local macs similar to how Dropbox Selective Sync.

    There is no public documentation on the iCloud damons and other processes. Any fix by stopping certain processes would not be stable anyway. iCloud is still under development, because the integration of the iCloud Photo Library is still missing. I would wait for the next system update, before doing anything desperate.  For the time being, store only a very basic set of documents in iCloud. And be sure to send feedback to the developer team, that selective sync is essential.

     

    Apple - iCloud - Feedback