Files showing status of files in iCloud as "error"

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Level 1

4 points

Files showing status of files in iCloud as "error"

I have recently enabled iCloud Drive on my iMac (Sequoia 15.6.1). It all seemed to sync ok, but a random selection of files show the "!" symbol and hovering reveals the message "error". I've checked the meaning of symbols and this one is supposed to indicate that the file could not be uploaded because the iCloud Drive is full.

In fact, the drive has 130Gb available. My desktop iMac has 511Gb, so it's not as has bee suggested in earlier posts that the hard drive is nearly full.

I have also opened files with this status on both the desktop and in Safari from iCloud Drive. The files opened in both cases so they must exist in both locations.

Why, then, is the ! symbol showing on this random selection of files on my iMac?! They are spread across a number of folders and subfolders, so there is no logical reason that I can see for this to happen. The folders marked with ! contain a number of files marked!.

Any help would be appreciated.

iMac 27″, macOS 15.6

Posted on Sep 17, 2025 06:14 AM

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Answer 1

Sep 17, 2025 08:35 AM in response to jonnytele

That's weird. I, for one, don't know why. There could be lots of reasons, I guess, and some of them might not make sense to those of us who are not computers. It sounds like you've tried some appropriate things. What do you see when you right click on one of these files?

Does it give you the same options as other files? Does it say Keep Downloaded, Remove Download, Download Now, or what?

Try these steps:

Restart the computer (of course)
Re-start in Safe Mode. This bypasses certain potentially disruptive processes, and it often helps. Safe Mode is different for different computers, so see this:

Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support

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Answer 2

jonnytele Author

Level 1

4 points

Sep 18, 2025 03:18 AM in response to Richard.Taylor

It's a bit odd, isn't it?

I get various messages on right-click.

If there's no status shown, I can Keep Downloaded, or Remove Download.

If there's a black arrow, I see a tick by Keep Downloaded and no other options. I can Show Downloaded Folder.

If there's a !, there are no options except Show Downloaded Folder.

Some files that originated on my iPhone offer the option Keep Downloaded, which works fine.

My Documents folder shows a black arrow and a tick by Keep Downloaded.

Other sub-folders of Documents that show a !, contain some items that are black arrow status, and some that are !. So it's consistent that a folder that contains ! will show a ! even though some are downloaded.

Documents with ! status are perfectly accessible both from my iMac (as if they are downloaded) and iCloud.

I think this covers most cases. I'll restart now as I don't think that I have since the iCloud Drive was activated.

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Answer 3

jonnytele Author

Level 1

4 points

Sep 19, 2025 06:28 AM in response to jonnytele

Restart didn't help.

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