iCloud will not download folders, only individual files

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Level 1

12 points

iCloud will not download folders, only individual files

I have two displays that I hook my Macbook up to through a hub. On occasion, one display does not register a signal. I've found that usually if I just restart, it will work. This happened, so I restarted, both displays then worked but I noticed my desktop was completely empty after restart. I had about 3-4 folders and a couple documents I was working with on my desktop. I check in Finder and a huge chunk of my folders and files are showing the iCloud icon with the arrow, hence only in iCloud and now mysteriously not on my computer anymore. I did not toggle anything, no pop ups, no odd menu diving, no nothing. It just did this on its own.

I can't download any folder. The status bar displays, it sits for a while sometimes looking like progress is being made but then will just apparently time out. I can download individual files, drag them from folders in iCloud, etc. with no problem. But I can't download a whole folder. As it's not just what was on my desktop that mysteriously went up into the Cloud, this is a lot of work to move individual files out.

I did a chat support session which did nothing. Force quite finder, look for hidden folders, uncheck and recheck various things in iCloud system settings, sign in and out of my account, go into safe mode, etc. It ended with them saying I need to reinstall the OS, which I then said I'd rather take it into the Genius bar before we go there.

Since then, I've reset my router, doesn't do anything new. I've toggled wifi on and off, no change. I tried a friend's network, no change. Tried a handful of other things I saw on various searches, no help. I left my computer overnight trying to download a folder, in the morning nothing.

I have an appointment tomorrow at the Genius bar. I'm posting here to see if anyone has a solution in the meantime or if they are unable to problem solve it, to continue on looking for an answer.\

In short, I will not be using iCloud going forward after I get this sorted (hopefully). This was a HUGE problem and made me unable to continue any work in any efficient way for several days. I cannot have this happen again. I'll look at Google Drive or other third parties as backups going forward.

For reference, I'm using a 2021 M1 Max Macbook Pro running Sonoma 14.6.1.

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 14.6

Posted on Oct 6, 2024 8:38 AM

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Answer 1

Oct 6, 2024 9:02 AM in response to bedhead777

I'd upgrade to Sequoia-- you get much more control over iCloud Drive folders. You can specify which things to keep on your Mac, and which ones to remove from your Mac:

There's a new icon to indicate that "this file won't go away."

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Answer 2

bedhead777 Author

Level 1

12 points

Oct 6, 2024 11:20 AM in response to Richard.Taylor

I'll consider this. Thank you. Though I must say I'm still pretty burnt on using iCloud anymore. When it uploaded so many various folders it also restructured things. So I have to now resort things as I download. This is also super annoying for certain applications where I had designated pathways to find various files which now, obviously, are all broken pathways.

I'll acknowledge there is a silver lining in that I am now having to clean up some older folders I haven't touched in a while and finding some stuff I can set aside to off load on an external drive. But still, very frustrating.

I do not want to go through this again and the fact that I found references to similar sounding problems going back to at least Monterey, I can't say I'm confident Apple has done anything of significance to insuring this won't happen again with subsequent updates.

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