Files on Mac persistently not synchronizing with iCloud Drive

I have had this issue since at least macOS Big Sur and it has persisted through my upgrade to Monterey and to this day on 12.5.1. I have iCloud Drive sync turned on, Desktop and Documents Folder option turned on, and Optimize Mac Storage turned off. I have a 2TB local drive and a 2TB iCloud account. I have about 1.61TB used on my local drive and in iCloud Drive. A subset of my top level Documents folders show that they are constantly not synced:



Those upload amounts and up arrows never change. As you can see, sometimes the little cloud icon is a dotted line, sometimes it's a solid line, and they can flip from one to the other. If I drill down into the folders with cloud icons, sometimes I reach a subfolder with no files with pending syncs, and sometimes there's a file with a pending sync. Sometimes the folder looks synced when I compare it to what I see in iCloud.com, and sometimes a folder or file is missing altogether from iCloud.com.


There seems to be no rhyme or reason for what I'm seeing either on my Mac or when compared to iCloud.com, at least not that I can discern. I never see a context menu item that allows me to force a sync or tell me why it's not syncing. It's very frustrating that there is no obvious way for me to troubleshoot this issue.


Other than just turning all this syncing off, deleting what's in iCloud Drive, and just starting all over again (which would take days), is there anything I can do to see a reason for this error, or even a way to just force a complete re-sync?

MacBook Pro

Posted on Aug 29, 2022 05:00 PM

Reply

Similar questions

4 replies

Aug 30, 2022 04:01 PM in response to Geez Jan

Hi Geez Jan,


I also have issue on my Mac since February this year and I just can not find the solution. I found some ways to correct the folder that is stucked, but not the cause of the problem. It seems that it is a Mac OS bug. Please, see this forum iCloud for Mac is stuck on "waitin… | Apple Developer Forums.


I have tried the Apple Support, but they did not give me a solution. They told me they would send the issue to engineering staff, but I have never received the answer.


If anyone has a solution, please share with us. By the way, I have a Macbook Air 2020 M1 running Monterey 12.2.1.


Regards,


Luiz

Sep 25, 2022 05:24 AM in response to Geez Jan

I thought I'd give an update on this, in case anyone is interested. About two weeks ago, I decided to make one last attempt to fix this issue. Having an unreliable copy of my files in the cloud was not acceptable to me.


I backed up all 1.5TB of my files twice to two external drives. I deleted all my files from my Mac and from iCloud Drive. I turned all iCloud Drive syncing off, and rebooted. I wanted to start over completely from scratch. Then I turned everything back on and copied my files back and it started syncing again. After several hours of syncing I had the same errors again, sometimes with the same folders and files as before, and again with no indication whatsoever what the errors were or how to fix them.


So I turned off iCloud Drive Desktop and Documents Folders syncing and got Dropbox instead, and it seems to be working great so far. I would really rather be using iCloud Drive, but it's not reliable enough for me.

Sep 25, 2022 08:57 AM in response to Geez Jan

Hi Geez Jan,


I have also tried various solutions too, but so far I have not been able to fix the problem. In my case, I choose the folders to sync in iCloud Drive and manually place them in the iCloud Drive folder. But the problem that appears is the same as what you reported. If Apple really doesn't solve this problem, I will also switch to another app. It's not what I want, but there's no way to continue using the app with this issue.


Regards,


Luiz

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

Files on Mac persistently not synchronizing with iCloud Drive

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.