Cannot copy folder from iCloud Drive (error code -36)

[Coltaine]

If I try to copy a folder from iCloud Drive to any location on my local computer, say Downloads or Documents, it gives me an error code -36 and tells me that the process was stopped, because a file in " " could not we read or written. It gives me just the two quotation marks, nothing in between. I can go inside the folder and copy the files in there just fine. It only occurs, when I try to copy the complete folder. This happens with all the folders in my iCloud Drive. The files sync just fine and work just fine.
I did some reading up and it was suggested that this is caused be hidden .DS_store files. I already tried the dot_clean command in Terminal, but to no avail.
Any thoughts or suggestions?
I am on a Mac Studio M1 Max with the current version of macOS Ventura.

Thank you so much!

Interesting observation: this is not the case on my MacBook Pro, folder can be copied from iCloud Drive to any local location without any problems...weird.

 

[raythompsontn]

Is it possible that you have a hidden file, with only a space for a name, in the folder?

 

[Coltaine]

Is it possible that you have a hidden file, with only a space for a name, in the folder?

Thanks for the suggestion, but not really, I checked that an found nothing. It affects a complete 45 GB folder with all subfolders in the iCloud Drive, but only on my Mac Studio M1 Max on macOS Ventura current version. On my M1 MacBook Pro, which runs the same operating system, the folder (which is synched between the two devices) can be copied to a local destination completely normally.

I did some more experimenting and found the following curious behavior:

1. On my MacBook Pro I made a local copy of the complete 45 GB folder, which worked just fine. I renamed the folder and re-uploaed it into iCloud Drive. The new folder (with exactly the same content as the old folder) and all its subfolders show the same behavior as the old folder: they can be copied locally on my MacBook Pro, but it give the -36 error code on my Mac Studio - when using the Finder!

2. On my Mac Studio I tried using the Terminal with the cp -R command - lo and behold, it worked. I could copy the folder and all subfolders from iCloud Drive to a local destination on my Mac Studio.

I don't know, what information can be gleaned from this. I still don't understand, what is going on. But in case, someone has the same problem, maybe try using the Terminal to copy the files.
Still leaves me kind of uneasy to use iCloud Drive for syncing important files (and one of the reasons, I keep five-fold backups of all my files).

 

[Coltaine]

For the sake of completeness, in case anyone ever finds this thread: in the end I simply recycled the iCloud Drive switch in settings: turn it off, turn it on again, wait until everything has resynced. Took a while, but now it is working just fine.

 

[notanumber]

Hi, Im having the same issue, but Im on Monterey. Will try to switch off and on drive and see if solves.

 

[Coltaine]

How did it go?

 

[notanumber]

Disabling and re-enabling save Desktop & Documents to iCloud resolved!

 

[oliveira326]

Disabling and re-enabling save Desktop & Documents to iCloud resolved!

I’m having this issue as well and have been on the phone with tech support since 7:30 tonight without a resolution. I’ve turned off and on my iCloud and nothing has worked. Very weird and super frustrating.

 

[Coltaine]

I really turned of the complete iCloud Drive on the respective device (of course, after backing up my data properly) and only re-enabled it, once it had completely cleared. My feeling is that some files must have been out of sync, even though it seemed to sync properly. Some of the cloud icons were also stuck in perpetual "no local copy" state (little cloud with a down arrow next to the filename). This has also resolved. On my MacBook Pro it needed several tries to fix the cloud icons.
I've not had any major issues since. Except, once I found an encrypted .zip file in iCloud Drive, which seemed to be compromised. Since I had not touched it in years, my only explanation is that it must have been destroyed by some sync process. I could extract it from an old Time Machine Backup and now it is good again. But leaves me a bit uneasy with the reliability of iCloud Drive. No way to check data integrity. On the other hand, before it was sold to Dropbox, I used Boxcryptor for on-device data encryption before pushing it into the cloud. This could also have compromised files. Or the extraction process, when I moved away from it. Difficult to say, but emphasizes the importance of keeping multiple backups of all data.

 

[luke14]

For the sake of completeness, in case anyone ever finds this thread: in the end I simply recycled the iCloud Drive switch in settings: turn it off, turn it on again, wait until everything has resynced. Took a while, but now it is working just fine.

Can confirm that this worked. I tried every terminal command and solution in the book that I could find on google, including third-party software. Silly me never thought to just reset iCloud drive.

I believe this is caused by one or all of four things... 1) I utilize Windows 11 with Parallels VM. 2) I transfer various document files between MacOS Ventura, Windows 11 (separate PC), and directly into a printer using an ExFat flash drive. 3) I switch between keeping folders local and pushing them to iCloud. 4) I let MacOs "Optimize Mac Storage." I should probably set up a more permanent solution. I have more than enough drive space, so I suppose there's really no need to remove the downloads.

However, keep in mind what the original poster said. You need to *completely* un-sync iCloud Drive. You cannot just un-sync the desktop & documents folder. When it asks you "Remove from Mac" or "Keep a Copy", choose to remove completely. You should see all of your iCloud-synced folders to rapidly start wiping. Don't worry, anything that has yet to be uploaded or updated to iCloud will be saved locally into a new folder called iCloud Drive(archive). Once it's all been reset, go back and turn iCloud drive back on. It may start to download everything immediately. If not, go to the folders, right-click download now. It should start to rebuild everything. Keep in mind, re-syncing will take a very long time. But worked like a charm.

There is one manual solution as well. You can't copy/paste folders or subfolders. But you *can* still copy/paste individual files, (including using cmd+a). But that of course requires manually rebuilding your folders. Imperfect, but works.