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iCloud no longer syncing

Z

zaxcom

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 23, 2012
10
1
Anyone else noticing that all iCloud services (Drive, Photos, etc) have stopped syncing with Catalina? I can no longer see any files on iCloud Drive and pictures I take on my iPhone no longer populate to Photos on my Mac.

I have tried logging in and out of iCloud, restarted the Mac a few times but nothing will sync.

Thoughts?

thx
 
I just tried this for photos - haven't tried other stuff - I went into photos on my MAC. From there I did file - import - and just picked something. My photo that I just took on my iPhone then showed up.
Then I took another photo on my iPhone and it showed up on my MAC without doing anything special so it looks as if the "import" "fixed" the problem - for now
 
yep, i gave up and went back to Mojave. I have to have iCloud working and discovered that Mail was not working either. Keep quitting with an error message that my drive was full even though i have 300GB available.
 
Did anybody manage to solve this somehow? It's been completely crippling my workflow since I upgraded on Friday. Files on iCloud Drive don't sync, Music doesn't upload local files, and mostly frustrating of all, Notes doesn't sync. Several times now I've edited the same note on macOS and iPhone before I realised it hadn't synced, and I ended up with two very different versions of the same file, despite there being hours between editing on one device and then the other.

After iOS 13, tvOS 13 and now Catalina, for the first time since I started using hardware in 2011, I'm considering alternatives.
 
Last edited:
unfunfionn said:
Did anybody manage to solve this somehow? It's been completely crippling my workflow since I upgraded on Friday. Files on iCloud Drive don't sync, Music doesn't upload local files, and mostly frustrating of all, Notes doesn't sync. Several times now I've edited the same note on macOS and iPhone before I realised it hadn't synced, and I ended up with two very different versions of the same file, despite there being hours between editing on one device and then the other.

After iOS 13, tvOS 13 and now Catalina, for the first time since I started using hardware in 2011, I'm considering alternatives.
Click to expand...

My iCloud Drive stalled frequently when I first finished a clean installation. For some reason, every time I try to monitor what's going on, it'd start syncing again. To start monitoring, type this into Terminal –

Code: 
brctl monitor -i
 
I have tried a few times to reinstall Catalina doing clean installs and I still am unable to get iCloud to work with any reliability. Plus I am running into other issues with Mail and other apps. This OS is just not ready for prime time.
 
haginile said:
My iCloud Drive stalled frequently when I first finished a clean installation. For some reason, every time I try to monitor what's going on, it'd start syncing again. To start monitoring, type this into Terminal –

Code: 
brctl monitor -i
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip. Tried it but no luck. My private MBP hasn't synced in over 24 hours. Sigh.

The Photos app seems really really busy though. It's downloading over 9,000 originals and a fairly heavy related process keeps appearing in Activity Monitor. I'm wondering if that's blocking other iCloud services. That seems idiotic but it's an appropriate word for this whole mess.
 
unfunfionn said:
Thanks for the tip. Tried it but no luck. My private MBP hasn't synced in over 24 hours. Sigh.

The Photos app seems really really busy though. It's downloading over 9,000 originals and a fairly heavy related process keeps appearing in Activity Monitor. I'm wondering if that's blocking other iCloud services. That seems idiotic but it's an appropriate word for this whole mess.
Click to expand...

It could be iCloud issue in general. It has been painfully slow for the past couple of months. I imported a dozen photos from my DSLR into iPhotos on my Mac, and it took more than an hour to sync it to iCloud.

I'm still running Mojave, so it's not Catalina-related. Notes used to sync immediately, now it may take an hour for changes to propagate to all devices.

I edited a photo on my iPad and it didn't sync with my iPhone until later that day, even when I put both on the charger.
 
Eugr said:
It could be iCloud issue in general. It has been painfully slow for the past couple of months. I imported a dozen photos from my DSLR into iPhotos on my Mac, and it took more than an hour to sync it to iCloud.

I'm still running Mojave, so it's not Catalina-related. Notes used to sync immediately, now it may take an hour for changes to propagate to all devices.

I edited a photo on my iPad and it didn't sync with my iPhone until later that day, even when I put both on the charger.
Click to expand...

That’s somehow reassuring and worrying at the same time. There are bugs or issues with recent Apple software (as in last couple of years) that remind me of when I was an Android user. You just kind of accepted they might never get fixed. I also learned after a few attempts that it’s best not to bother with Apple support anymore.
 
Both on my phone and my Mac, downloading the original photos has been a disaster. It took over 2 weeks to download my photos (26K of them) on the phone, despite a very fast and stable internet connectin.

On a fresh install of Catalina I'm seeing the same thing. It's 4 days now and only 20% of the photos have been downloaded.

Apple Support is useless, and likes to blame it on my WiFi connection. I have consistently 300mbps speeds. So it's definitely not that.

I don't know what else to do. They're just in denial that their services don't work as they should.

On the iOS forum there are several threads about the photos not loading.
 
Photos I take on my iPhone do show up on my iMac and iPad Pro, but when I rearrange folders in Photos on my iMac, they no longer sync with my other devices. I normally keep folders with photos I'm working on at the top of the list and then move them down when I'm done with them, but the folders aren't moving on my iPhone and iPad Pro.
 
I am having syncing issues caused by iCloud but on top of this Notes generated with my iMac or voice memos do not sync over to my other devices through iCloud the way they did before Catalinia. It is not a delay but a roadblock. These recent updates to iOS iPad OS and Catalina has not fixed - the issue here is how do we get Apple to take notice and acknowledge there is an issue?
 
I've been doing some playing around this morning. This appears to be a one-way issue. Files from iOS sync perfectly and appear on my Mac within seconds. However, files from my Mac don't sync at all. Not slow or occasional, simply not at all. But there are exceptions...

- If I create a new note on macOS, it appears on iOS instantly. If I delete that note on iOS, it stays on macOS for up to 5 minutes. If I create a new note on iOS, however, it doesn't appear on macOS at all. This applies to edits as well.

The problem is, I've done all of the stuff that would usually fix it. I've done a clean install and I've disabled iCloud several times. Nothing changes. Now I'm worried about taking iCloud offline again and losing any local changes I may have forgotten to backup.

This is such a mess.

Contacting Apple Support is even more hopeless than it used to be. I tried the email support option on their support page. It lets you fill our your name, email and Apple ID. Then it submits the form, but there is no field to mention anything about your issue. WTF?
 
Last edited:
unfunfionn said:
I've been doing some playing around this morning. This appears to be a one-way issue. Files from iOS sync perfectly and appear on my Mac within seconds. However, files from my Mac don't sync at all. Not slow or occasional, simply not at all. But there are exceptions...

- If I create a new note on macOS, it appears on iOS instantly. If I delete that note on iOS, it stays on macOS for up to 5 minutes. If I create a new note on iOS, however, it doesn't appear on macOS at all. This applies to edits as well.

The problem is, I've done all of the stuff that would usually fix it. I've done a clean install and I've disabled iCloud several times. Nothing changes. Now I'm worried about taking iCloud offline again and losing any local changes I may have forgotten to backup.

This is such a mess.

Contacting Apple Support is even more hopeless than it used to be. I tried the email support option on their support page. It lets you fill our your name, email and Apple ID. Then it submits the form, but there is no field to mention anything about your issue. WTF?
Click to expand...
Did you ever figure this out? I’m experiencing the same thing on a new MBA. Thanks!
 
My photo Library has not succeeded in a sync to iCloud in a week. Catalina has to be the culprit. Apple support asked how my upload speed was. Ummm 920MBPs. I cannot figure out how to get this 16” new machine up to date on photos as I need them for work and business receipts used for reports. What a complete pain in the ass, i don’t ever recall such a hard fail with photos. My library is only 22k photos, not overall that big.
 
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