Networking
We help to solve your Wi-Fi woes and connection conundrums
Unstick files in iCloud Drive
QSometimes I put files into iCloud Drive that get stuck, and take hours to sync. How can I unstick them?
AThis common problem can sometimes be hard to fix. If you have a Mac that’s running much of the time, consider making that a local Content Caching server in System Settings > General > Sharing, as that can help considerably. It will also help if you can disable Optimise Mac Storage and don’t put Desktop & Documents Folders into iCloud, if you have sufficient local storage.
First check your Mac’s internet connections, and iCloud service status at apple.co/3s1Gb1Z to check if they’re working normally. If only one or two files are stuck, move them back to local storage to see if that lets syncing complete. If it does, move them back into iCloud one at a time, allowing them to sync individually. If that doesn’t help syncing complete, shut your Mac down, leave it ten seconds or so, then start it up again. Shortly after you’ve logged in, iCloud syncing should resume more successfully.
Some force the responsible service to restart. To do that, open Activity Monitor, select its CPU view and select the process named ‘bird’, then click the Stop tool at the top. Shortly after that, macOS will restart bird automatically and it should complete the sync.
Although it’s sometimes suggested that you should turn iCloud off altogether, and turn it back on, only try that as a last resort as it has significant side-effects, which can cause problems with other iCloud services such as your Wallet and Apple Pay.