Relying on cloud disk synchronization instead of USB flash drive has really facilitated our mobile office experience. The iCloud Drive that comes with Apple devices is a powerful tool for file synchronization, in addition to being used like a daily personal network disk, it also integrates the desktop and documents of Mac devices, which is not inconvenient. However, iCloud sync files sometimes do have some "metaphysics", in addition to suddenly stuck, files can not be synchronized, iCloud Drive sometimes makes the entire Mac computer slow down or even the fan speed "take off".
A related post on Apple's official support forum received 190 "I have a similar problem" feedback, indicating that the problem definitely didn't just happen to one or two people. The text will briefly introduce the performance and causes of iCloud Drive sync stuck, and list possible solutions, hoping to help everyone.
▍How do I make sure that iCloud Drive sync is stuck?
Image from the internet
As mentioned above, when the iCloud Drive sync on the Mac is stuck, the most likely phenomenon to notice is to display a circle next to the Visitator's iCloud Drive that will never be filled, and clicking on this circle, there is a progress bar that will never go unsatisfied, and even macOS will directly pop up the window to prompt "Your so-and-so file cannot be synchronized".
Image from the internet
In real-world use, files you create on one device can't be downloaded to your Mac or another device from iCloud Drive, and files created on your Mac can't sync to the cloud at all.
iCloud Drive stuck out of sync is already bad, and what's worse is that iCloud Drive sync stuck may further slow down macOS performance. This will be reflected in the fact that you can see a large number of icloudd or bird processes in Activity Monitor, and these processes are using a lot of CPU, so that your Mac not only has no resources to handle other things but also becomes hot and noisy.
In addition, there is a more reliable way to check if there is a problem with your iCloud Drive synchronization, that is, enter in the terminal: brctl log -w check the log output.
This command can display various information during the iCloud synchronization process directly to the screen, which is convenient for us to diagnose, although the logging that spits out is very "detailed", but we only need to pay attention to whether there is any error message similar to the following figure or there is a continuously scrolling retrieval queue to confirm that my iCloud disk synchronization is stuck.
If you're not quite used to the terminal, you can use circus, a gadget, to visualize how iCloud Chinese sync. This tool can help you view the logs mentioned above, view the status of your current iCloud files, download files stored in your current iCloud Drive, or clear iCloud files stored locally. Detailed usage, you can view the documentation included in the Circus installation package, which is very exhaustive and even lists its principles.
▍What are the reasons why iCloud Drive sync is stuck?
Because the implementation mechanism of iCloud Drive itself is very complex, so the reasons for getting stuck are also different, from many forum posts related to it on the network, you can simply summarize several reasons that may cause iCloud Drive to be stuck synchronously:
Network issues
I've stuffed iCloud Drive with too many files that need to be synced at once
There are too many levels of folder nesting
Apple ID transfer zone
First of all, iCloud Disk synchronization is very dependent on the network, if your Internet quality is very poor or the quality of wireless network connection is very poor, iCloud Disk synchronization will have a high probability of getting stuck. If you're sure there should be no problem with your network, you can go to Apple's official System Status page to see the current status of your iCloud service.
Apple's official System Status page lets you view the current status of your iCloud service
For example, Chinese mainland iTunes Store and Apple Books are currently out of service and can see a red triangle. If iCloud has a service status issue, then iCloud-related service items will also appear with a red triangle on the side. Click on the specific service item to see the current service interruption start time, end time, and scope of impact.
Secondly, if you stuff too many files into iCloud Drive at one time, the iCloud Drive process needs to perform a lot of calculations and retrievals before syncing, which will take longer and occupy more resources, and if one of the files has a problem at this time, it is likely to jam the progress of the entire iCloud Disk synchronization. If your Mac, which has a large number of files on your desktop or in the Documents folder, suddenly turns on the Desktop and Documents sync function for iCloud Drive, it is very likely that this will happen.
iCloud starts refusing to sync folders with a large number of files or a large number of nested folders, image source V2ex
In addition, too many folder nesting levels may also be another reason, and similar to the reason for stuffing iCloud Drive with too many files that need to be synchronized at one time, too many folder nesting levels may also increase the amount of calculation and error risk of iCloud Drive when synchronizing. In the latest information, iCloud Drive seems to have refused to sync folders with too many nested hierarchies.
Finally, the iCloud Drive stuck due to the Apple ID transfer zone was a situation encountered by an editor Lincoln friend. We can only simply guess that in the process of transferring the zone, a large number of files need to be migrated, and if you synchronize new files at this time, it may lead to conflicts, which will lead to synchronization problems.
▍ You can try to solve it this way
iCloud Disk synchronization problems naturally need to be solved, one is that we also need to use iCloud Disk to synchronize data, and the other is that if you leave it alone, it may lead to more serious consequences, such as: the local Finder operation is slow or even completely stuck, the internal hard disk is occupied by the iCloud Disk related processes to read and write tasks occupy a lot of resources, Time Machine can not be backed up or even can not boot.
Considering that everyone has a different reason for iCloud stuck, the solution focus is also different, and the technical background of each one is also different. So when writing this section, we thought, "Minimize the impact of operations on systems and data." So the solutions below are arranged from low to high in terms of hazard, and it is likely that the previous 1-2 solutions have already solved your problem.
The first possible solution is to do nothing. Although it sounds like a "minority", if you've just noticed some problems with iCloud sync and you're not in a hurry to sync files, we recommend doing nothing. Because most of the time, iCloud Drive stuck may be a network problem, or this part of the file needs to spend more time to index. Usually, after a change of network environment, or after a period of time, iCloud Drive can return to the normal synchronization state. If you need to synchronize files during a stuck time period, you may need to look for some other solution, such as local LAN-based airdrop, or KDE Connect.
The second possible solution is the "heavy x dafa", which includes resetting the process, restarting the network, restarting the computer, logging back in to your Apple ID, and reinstalling the system. These methods, while old-fashioned on the Internet, can't help but solve problems in 99% of cases.
The reset process is to manually kill the two processes bird and cloudd processes that are closest to iCloud Disk, bird and cloudd, through the two commands of villall bird and villall cloudd. After these two processes are terminated, macOS will automatically pull the two processes up again, then we can re-observe the synchronization of iCloud Drive; restarting the network and restarting the computer is also very simple, and will not be repeated here. If you need to sign back in to your Apple ID, my recommendation is to use iCloud Device Management on your other Apple devices to take the Mac out of the Apple ID account that synced the problem, and then sign back in after the bird and cloudd processes are back to normal. Finally, if none of the above solutions solve your problem, then you can try reinstalling the system with a good backup of the system data and check if iCloud is back to normal.
Proactively kicking your device out of iCloud may be more helpful in solving the "metaphysics" problem
The third solution is to boot the system to re-establish the CloudDocs folder, a solution from StackExchange. The CloudDocs folder, located in the application support module of the user's personal library, is a support file for iCloud File Sync. By deleting or moving these files, we can boot the system to re-establish a new set of files for iCloud File Sync, which may solve the problem of getting stuck. To rebuild this folder, you can open the terminal and enter the following command:
killall bird # ends bird, the core process of iCloud file synchronization
killall cloudd # Ends cloudd, the core process of iCloud file synchronization
cd ~/Library/Application\ Support # The folder to be processed by the terminal is converted to the user repository
mv CloudDocs CloudDocsOld # renames the CloudDocs folder in the original Application Support folder to CloudDocsOld
After typing the above four lines, we also need to wait a few hours to see if the files can start syncing normally.
Last but not least: Contact Apple Support and request to reset your iCloud Drive account. If none of the above methods solve your iCloud sync problem, and you have the more serious consequences mentioned above, then consider whether you need to empty your iCloud Drive account as a whole. There's really no way for a regular (or even advanced) operator to reset your iCloud Drive account, but Engineering can. Find a weekend with more free time, initiate an iCloud support request through apple's official website, and after the operator has done the basic troubleshooting work (most likely the second step), you can request "let the engineering department reset your iCloud", and the more professional statement should be "let the engineering department reset your iCloud container". This will definitely get your iCloud Drive account back to normal, but the data will naturally be emptied — not as a last resort, or don't use such a nuclear bomb-level solution.
▍ Write at the end
The metaphysics of iCloud is there for all to see. When it's running smoothly, it's a good helper for me to work efficiently; but when something goes wrong, it seems that the time cost to fix the problem is really a bit high. Today, when the network environment does not seem to have reached its ideal state, it seems that the final thing can only be more backup, more patience, less hostility - this is true for iCloud, and it is true for other cloud services.
Manage iCloud files, and you can also use Bailiff, a gadget that helps you control whether a file should be saved in the cloud or on-premises in the menu bar.
Of course, in addition to the problem of iCloud itself, some of the problems in use are also worth noting, for example, various cloud disk services are not suitable for synchronizing code and git libraries. When synchronizing the code base, not only is the synchronization inefficient, but the synchronization often occurs in the case of errors and missing files, so you should use the git tool to synchronize the code.
That's all for this article, and hopefully it will help you.
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Author: Kostya
Editor-in-charge: Guangling Stop
The caption is from Unsplash: @kensuarez