Stuck on Downloading Messages from iCloud

Same here. It was downloading Messages for so many hours after enabling the feature that I left it running after I went to sleep, and sure enough, the next morning it appeared to have finished what it was doing. Today, however, it started the downloading again and is still going as I type this. Why? Only about 10-15 iMessages went in/out since yesterday.

Apple seems to continue to have big issues with their iCloud-reliant features. I have dealt with this stuff since the late-80's, but how do people who buy Apple computers because they "just work" deal with these incessant and continuing issues?

Apple, you need to re-evaulate how quickly you add new features and how much time needs to be spent fixing all the issues with the features you already enabled.

I have the same issue since the release date of iOS 11.4. And i only activated it on my iPhone and iPad.

I mean I can live with the messages not syncing, i even was okay with turning the feature off, but turning it off results in the same problem as my devices want to download all messages before deactivating the feature...

The biggest problem is, that I won’t receive some messages when I’m in WiFi and my devices are trying to sync. When my iPhone is charging and in WiFi some messages only arrive on my iPad or my Apple Watch...

I’m pretty much stuck in this situation...

I had the same issue on my iPhone and have now fixed it. Note that I may have lost messages doing this but I can’t be sure.

I disabled the feature on my iPhone by going to Settings>iCloud>Messages=Off. I then deleted the messages stored on iCloud by going to Settings>iCloud>Manage Storage>Messages>Delete & Disable. Then I enabled it again my going to Settings>iCloud>Messages=On. I went to Messages and the status changed to uploading messages paused, please plug in device and connect to WiFi. I did this and within a few minutes it started to upload.

I can confirm that this problem exists in both High Sierra and in the beta release of Mojave. While I have managed to get it to work in Messages for macOS (both said versions) on my MacBook, it does not work on my iMac in either installation (High Sierra or Mojave beta): instead I have the exact problem of the original poster: in Messages on macOS it simply indicates ‘Downloading Messages from iCloud...’ and a status bar beneath the messages list in the window, and then does nothing. It will hang this way for days at a time; and my network activity monitor confirms that during that period, no data is actually be transferred — so it says it is downloading, but nothing is actually downloading from the cloud (i.e. it is not a server load or bandwidth issue).

For reference, I have already:

- Rebooted the system, soft and hard

- Disabled and re-enabled cloud sync for messages in Messages > Settings

- Disabled and re-enabled the entire iMessage/iCloud account in Messages > Settings

- Disabled and re-enabled iCloud in System Preferences > iCloud (and to confirm, all other iCloud services are working fine, including desktop and documents sync, photo sync, etc.).

- Disabled and re-enabled iCloud message syncing on my iOS device.

- Completely re-formatted the hard drive and done a completely new installation of “Macintosh HD” as well as the installation of macOS and upgrade to Mojave beta.

None of the above has provided any help in getting the sync to work in messages. I continue to see the “Downloading Messages from iCloud…” slider at the bottom of my message screen, with the blue status bar, while nothing downloads or loads. As before, this occurs both in the High Sierra installation, as well as the Mojave beta,

As this is touted as one of the major new features of macOS, I think a swift fix is necessary.

I was just on the phone with a tech support supervisor for an hour, and received no workable fixes there. I have also filed a Feedback ticket in the Mojave beta for this problem.

Just to confirm that this isn't a server load issue: it is actually a complete failure to actually be downloading at all. If you have a network monitor installed on your desktop, you can confirm this easily: the 'downloading messages from iCloud' status bar is active (in my case, for three solid days), but during that time no data at all is being transferred.

I am on with them now. Will advise. As jacklink01 stated, they have a tech bulletin on this and they will escalate you to Senior Advisor level. I am waiting to speak to the higher level support now. Suspect logs will be sent.

I spoke to the senior advisor and they kicked my case up to engineering. They did not request logs, but said they might in a few days. Seems to be several different paths they are exploring. In my discussions with the senior advisor, they looked at all of the background settings on my account first (stuff on their server) and said that everything was correct. Maybe in your case it was a simple setting issue?

My iPhone stopped saying it was downloading. If I go to iCloud prefs and turn Messages off, I get a message saying the download isn't complete. I say ok, wait a bit, and turn it back on. And Messages no longer even tries to upload/download.

On my iMac, if I click "sync now," it pauses a second and not much happens. On the Activity Monitor, Messages is all 0s.

This thing is not working well.

Hi,

Having no issues on iPhone or iPad. On Mac with MacOS High Sierra, though, if I am away from my computer for a couple of days, it takes hours to sync messages again. I just returned home at 3 pm today after being away for 48 hours, and launched the messages app on the Mac. It didn't stop downloading new messages until 6:45 pm. It shouldn't take almost four hours to sync messages across devices that haven't been used for a day or two.

Hi,

So, one more post to describe the same issue... I don't have any ' high value ' text message so I could delete them one by one, in case the problem was from one of them, stuck somewhere... But no, no SMS, nothing on my devices, all correctly set-up. But every time I check Messages in iCloud, I can see in my iCloud storage that the Messages database is taking 34MB... So my guess is this file is corrupted... Service disabled from now, 30 days before this file to be permanently deleted from iCloud ? Will give a try in one month... Or is there a way to access this archive via a secret iCloud directory ;-)

Nor me and it’s just my iPad. I’ve now turned off messaging in iCloud and deleted what’s in iCloud...go back onto my messages and it’s still trying to download messages from iCloud. I’ve disabled it but doesn’t work

I've been in same situation for 18 days now. I've spent hours and hours on the phone with Apple Support trying everything. There's simply nothing *you* can do, it's obvious at this point that it's something *they* need to fix on their side, if it's an iCloud bug or a macOS bug. 11 days ago I sent them, after they requested it, a very extensive log report of all iCloud activities in the Messages app for 24 hours. They were supposed to reply me in 24/48 hours. No word from them at all. I also emailed two times the person who's handling my case. No reply at all again. Not only I'm very mad because of this issue, but also because Apple support left me with no answers and definitely not a fix.

huh, now that you mention it, on my MacBook Pro, which had been "Downloading..." for days, I now also have countless conversations, which wasn't the case only yesterday.

maybe they did find that elusive switch that had to be flipped, finally...here's to hoping that they did!

I have same issue on my iPhone but I haven’t synced it to any other devices & my text messages will not send to recipient. So I effectively have no texting on my phone. ******!!!! It just started the downloading messages from iCloud today, earlier today it was fine but went to send a text & it wouldn’t send. Have no idea what happened to start this. Any ideas yet on why out of the blue this happens??

Hi mercadof,

RELAX and give it a go. I experienced the same situation and it is not a problem.

I would recommend you to let your device connected to WiFi and power. Usually in idle state your iPhone will get all the iMessages download in 4-5 hours (depend on the size of backup). There is absolutely no need to restart or logout login to your iCloud account.

Happy iPhonning. 🙂