Cloudd is consuming my harddisk constanly

Back up all data before proceeding.

This procedure will unlock all your user files (not system files) and reset their ownership, permissions, and access controls to the default. If you've intentionally set special values for those attributes on any of your files, they will be reverted. In that case, either stop here, or be prepared to recreate the settings if necessary. Do so only after verifying that those settings didn't cause the problem. If none of this is meaningful to you, you don't need to worry about it, but you do need to follow the instructions below.

Step 1

If you have more than one user, and the one in question is not an administrator, then go to Step 2.

Triple-click anywhere in the following line on this page to select it:

sudo find ~ $TMPDIR.. -exec chflags -h nouchg,nouappnd,noschg,nosappnd {} + -exec chown -h $UID {} + -exec chmod +rw {} + -exec chmod -h -N {} + -type d -exec chmod -h +x {} + 2>&-

Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C.

Launch the built-in Terminal application in any of the following ways:

☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

☞ Open LaunchPad and start typing the name.

Paste into the Terminal window by pressing command-V. I've tested these instructions only with the Safari web browser. If you use another browser, you may have to press the return key after pasting.

You'll be prompted for your login password, which won't be displayed when you type it. Type carefully and then press return. You may get a one-time warning to be careful. If you don’t have a login password, you’ll need to set one before you can run the command. If you see a message that your username "is not in the sudoers file," then you're not logged in as an administrator.

The command may take several minutes to run, depending on how many files you have. Wait for a new line ending in a dollar sign ($) to appear, then quit Terminal.

Step 2 (optional)

Take this step only if you have trouble with Step 1, if you prefer not to take it, or if it doesn't solve the problem.

Start up in Recovery mode. When the OS X Utilities screen appears, select

Utilities ▹ Terminal

from the menu bar. A Terminal window will open. In that window, type this:

resetp

Press the tab key. The partial command you typed will automatically be completed to this:

resetpassword

Press return. A Reset Password window will open. You’re not going to reset a password.

Select your startup volume ("Macintosh HD," unless you gave it a different name) if not already selected.

Select your username from the menu labeled Select the user account if not already selected.

Under Reset Home Directory Permissions and ACLs, click the Reset button.

Select

 ▹ Restart

from the menu bar.

Hi- I've been having the same problem. My computer is only a few months old. I have done all the updates (but I suspect that might actually be the problem). I've noticed I get the cloudd error in console (actually a set of 4 for Notes, Quicktime, TextEdit, and Mail) like...

cloudd[336]: Failed to create dir at /Users/USER/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail/*/Assets: Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=513 "You don’t have permission to save the file “Assets” in the folder “CloudKit”." UserInfo= {NSFilePath=/Users/kelly/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail/Data/Library/Caches/ CloudKit/Assets, NSUnderlyingError=0x7ff765952410 "The operation couldn’t be completed. Operation not permitted"}

sandboxd[357]: ([336]) cloudd(336) deny file-write-create /Users/kelly/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail/Data/Library/Caches

Each time I get the error, the system writes a file to /private/var/folders/jg/gycf9sdx2fnbh3yt2lgtyxwr0000gn/T. The file it keeps writing is a copy of an attachment I sent in an email once. Over the course of a couple of days, the computer continually copies the attachment here and will fill up 350GB (my entire hard drive). -Of course I have hunted through my emails trying to find the exact attachment so I can delete the email, but I've had no luck yet.- If I restart my computer, the 350 filled GB are cleaned up, but then the process just starts again.

I have tried the instructions Linc suggested (Thank you so much, Linc. I see your name on stuff around here a lot. I hope you have a cape to go with your superhero computer skillz, because you're amazing.), but they didn't work. I've reset permissions and ACLs in Recovery Mode several times, but I suspect that if reseting helps, the problem is recreated whenever the computer restarts (i.e. it undoes the reseting).

It does somehow seem to connect to permissions issues though. For me, I run into problems whenever programs attempt to write to /Library/Caches or /Library/Containers. I don't know anything about coding, but I've been trying to download some python stuff. I often get errors like this though...

$ sudo pip install virtualenv

The directory '/Users/kelly/Library/Caches/pip/http' or its parent directory is not owned by the current user and the cache has been disabled. Please check the permissions and owner of that directory. If executing pip with sudo, you may want sudo's -H flag.

When I check permissions on the folders, I see (using ls -@l)

drwxrwxr-x@ 77 kelly staff 2618 May 14 16:32 Library

com.apple.FinderInfo 32

drwxr-xr-x 74 kelly staff 2516 May 27 15:04 Containers

drwxr-xr-x 92 kelly staff 3128 May 27 15:39 Caches

Unfortunately, I don't know if those are "correct" or not. (In System Preferences, I'm classified as "Admin")

I know none of this helps you solve your problem, Alex, but I thought maybe if different people chime in, this info might help us find the solution.

One other thing, I migrated(restored) my info from my old computer to this one using Time Machine. Although the process went smoothly, I do wonder if that might have something to do with the issues. Did you do that as well?

Thanks,

Kelly