How do I force my MacBook to download all iCloud synced files?

Question

Level 1

12 points

How do I force my MacBook to download all iCloud synced files?

hi...I have a relatively new MacBook Air that I use as a travel machine. My main machine is an iMac desktop at home. On my new MacBook Air, after a long syncing process, I can see all of my files that exist on the iMac, but most of them have a cloud with a downarrow icon after them. Yet, iCloud, in Finder, when I click on the info icon after iCloud, says that syncing is complete. Yes, it seems to have gathered the directory structure and filenames, but it has not downloaded the files. And seems content to leave them undownloaded. In other words, it says it's done syncing, but it hasn't downloaded most of the files. How to I force my MacBook Air to force iCloud to download ALL the files?? I want ALL of my files on my MacBook Air. I do not want to have to download them, because often, when I'm traveling, I don't have internet access, but want to be able to access my files. When I have internet, it seems like I can click on a cloud-downarrow icon after a filename and download the file, but I have thousands and thousands of files. Do I need to do that manually for each file??? This manual download only seems to work on individual files. If I click the cloud-downarrow icon on a parent folder, it doesn't download the folder contents. There's gotta be a way to do this in one stroke? Or maybe I'm an oddball that actually wants my files ON my computer, not in the cloud. thx, TT

MacBook Air

Posted on Aug 2, 2023 12:23 PM

Reply

Answer 1

tturiano Author

Level 1

12 points

Aug 2, 2023 12:33 PM in response to tturiano

The other thing that has been really weird about this new laptop is that after I spend a week getting all of my files downloaded onto this machine, the very next day, almost every file will have a cloud-downarrow icon after it again, suggesting that somehow overnight, the actual files were removed while the directory structure and filenames are still there. Is there a setting I'm missing somewhere that makes my computer do this? I would like all of my files to stay put on this machine and I would like them to automatically download (when the MacBook is connected to the internet) from iCloud whenever a change is made on my desktop iMac. Is there a way to make that happen?

Reply

Answer 2

Aug 15, 2023 4:06 AM in response to tturiano

I have the same problem with my iPhone. As far as I can tell there's no way to download all the files from iCloud to a device to make sure they are available when you're offline. You have to directory by directory, or file by file if they are in the top level of iCloud. If there are sub-directories then it's not consistent that files in them will download so you need to check them. Apple keeps hassling me to buy iCloud storage, but if you've got more than a a few GB of files it would take too long to sync them.

If the synch is stalling on your device (often at 99% complete) then kill the "Bird" app either in Activity Monitor or from the terminal.

Reply

Answer 3

Jun 29, 2024 12:06 PM in response to WyattLA

Sorry, I haven't got a fix. It's still a problem for me and I usually have to manually download files to my iPad and iPhone before I leave the house. It's not just iCloud files - Notes and Reminders sometimes don't synch and I have to create new entries on various devices to try to force a synch. You could try raising a bug report, but I don't think Apple takes any notice of them. Every time I get a major software roll I test this and then raise a bug report.

Reply

Answer 4

tturiano Author

Level 1

12 points

Jun 29, 2024 6:53 PM in response to WyattLA

Hi Wyatt…the sync to my MacBook Air works now. It started working, albeit not consistently, when I plugged my Air into an Ethernet connection rather than WiFi. As zuruarczurx said, you have to be very attentive and careful opening any files on your laptop to ensure that you are working on the latest version. For me, the sync is by no means a given. I always check the version by taking note of the last change I made on my desktop version of the file. If that change is not there when I open the file on my Air, then I of course know that the sync failed. Sometimes if I click the cloud icon, it’ll download right away and then Im good to go. Other times, nothing happens. The click is a dud. Then I just make sure I have an Ethernet connection and keep clicking on every cloud icon in the file path, and eventually it downloads. Often it’s a half hour or hour of fiddling before Im up and running. Maybe it’s not an Apple software flaw. Maybe just an internet flaw. Donno.

Reply

Answer 5

tturiano Author

Level 1

12 points

Aug 22, 2023 10:19 AM in response to Zurarczurx

I pay for 2 terabytes of iCould storage, but my files don't sync. So, I have stopped using my new MacBook Air. Not sure what else to do.

Reply

Answer 6

WyattLA

Level 1

0 points

Jun 29, 2024 11:53 AM in response to tturiano

Did you ever solve this? I have the same problem of needing to access my files offline. I manually download, only to have them pushed back up to the cloud right after I've performed the download.

Reply

How do I force my MacBook to download all iCloud synced files?

Similar questions