uploads to iCloud Drive ridiculously slow on M4 MacBook

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Level 1

4 points

uploads to iCloud Drive ridiculously slow on M4 MacBook

There are already numerous closed threads that address similar issues, but none have any answers to what my problem is.

I have a symmetrical 1Gb fiber internet connection. My WiFi connection is typically better than 1GB since my MacBook in my office is about 6 feet from my WiFi 6 router. (I have also tried this with an ethernet connection to the router using a 2.5Gb USB-C to ethernet adapter.)

Downloads from iCloud drive work as expected, 50-80MB/s depending upon network load.

On the other hand, uploads to iCloud drive always are between 500kb/s and 1Mb/s.

[I have verified these speeds using both Activity Monitor and the UI of the router.]

What is going on here? Uploads to Dropbox and Google Drive hover around 80MB/s.

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 26.0

Posted on Oct 16, 2025 6:48 AM

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Answer 1

Oct 16, 2025 7:26 AM in response to W4EAE

I feel bad about just making stuff up, but I'm going to make a guess-- iCloud just isn't designed to act the way that Dropbox does. The entire purpose of iCloud is synchronization, not storage. Most iCloud work is done in the background while you work on things, and the intent is to not slow down your normal work. When I update a single file, it seems to update pretty quickly at iCloud.com and on my phone. But I don't expect massive "uploads" to be much of a priority, and the Mac may be waiting for dependable work downtime to do massive transfers.

A test might be to see how transfers go for you at night when the Mac is left on and unused…

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Answer 2

W4EAE Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 16, 2025 8:23 AM in response to Richard.Taylor

You could be right, and I know that a lot of people don't have anything coming close to my upload speeds, but running uploads at 30-50MB/s would not adversely affect anything else that I might be doing on my machine.

I guess what I actually want is the ability to tell it, "I want to upload this as quickly as possible right now."

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Answer 3

Oct 16, 2025 8:32 AM in response to W4EAE

W4EAE wrote: …I guess what I actually want is the ability to tell it, "I want to upload this as quickly as possible right now."

Then you may need a different service. Again, iCloud is synchronization service. Wanting it to be something different may not work for you. Then again, it has changed some from the beginning, so it may change some more, or I may be wrong.

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