iCloud iCloud never completing sync?

[dbrewood]

Is it usual for the iCloud sync indicator to hardly ever move? It tends to stick like this most of the time and choosing the 'download now' option on the folders with the download indicator makes no difference.

Should I be concerned?

I'm wondering if it is a network issue at all? I recently started using AdGuard DNS and I'm wondering if it is blocking anything? To see if that was / is the cause I've switched DNS in the EtherNet and Wi-Fi network settings (on the Mac) to use Cloudflare instead.

Or should I just point the DNS on the Mac to the network Router? What so do you guys set your DNS to on your Mac?

Any help or suggestions or even thoughts are appreciated.

 

[snakes-]

i use quad 9 unfiltered dns for mac/phone. not with icloud but with websites the filter like adguard make sometimes trouble. Even too much icloud tasks can be a problem, start with few tasks and add the others over time.

 

[appltech]

Make sure that there's no background activities, Time Machine included

 

[splifingate]

My DNS points to my PiHole, then the Cloudfare 1.1.1.1

With my fiber connection, I just dropped a 100GB dmg onto the Desktop. After five minutes, it looks like about 50% of the dmg has been sync'ed to iCloud via my fiber connection. (edit: it took 11 minutes to sync a 102GB dmg to iCloud Desktop)

Sending via a dedicated connection to a remote host, that dmg would already be on the server

I believe that iCloud sync is more a background process, and does its best to not impact performance or bandwidth.

What's you upload bandwidth?

 

[dbrewood]

Thanks guys.

There are no heavy use background activities taking place.

I've restricted AdGuard DNS to the browser only, DNS is pointing to the Orbi Router. The Orbi router is set to use CloudFlare 1.1.1.1 |& 1.0.0.1.

Internet is Virgin Business - 390Mbps down / 22Mbps up

It's still not moved....

 

[dbrewood]

It looks like I've solved the issue it's a problem with the AdGuard App. I've raised a support ticket to see what they say.

 

[dbrewood]

Well nope it wasn't that. It seems that it was the rebooting of the Mac that fixed the issue but only for half an hour or so.... Sigh...

 

[dbrewood]

Fixed, I followed this article and so far it is working...;

 

[dbrewood]

It didn't last long alas, if it sticks I can kill the cloudd process and it works for a while then sticks again.

 

[dbrewood]

Okay further things I've tried / checked:

• Turned off / back on iCloud Drive (sync this Mac)
• Turned off / back on (Desktop & Documents Folders)
• Turned off Optimise Mac storage (769Gb available)
• Switched DNS to use the Orbi Router (that used Cloudflare for DNS with fall back to Virgin business servers)
• Signed out of iCloud and signed back in again
• Omitted all of the iCloud folders from Bitdefender scanning
• Disabled Bitdefender
• Rebooted the Mac numerous times.
• Checked iCloud storage space (101Gb of 200Gb used)

No matter what I do iCloud sync still stalls:

The only way to get it going again is to kill the 'cloudd' process which is running under my username.

And once again it stalls again shortly after. Does anyone have any ideas as to where I can go next?

The only things I can think to do are:

• Create a test user account on the Mac and see if that is affected?
• Raise a support ticket with Apple

Any help is appreciated.

 

[splifingate]

Okay further things I've tried / checked:

• Turned off / back on iCloud Drive (sync this Mac)
• Turned off / back on (Desktop & Documents Folders)
• Turned off Optimise Mac storage (769Gb available)
• Switched DNS to use the Orbi Router (that used Cloudflare for DNS with fall back to Virgin business servers)
• Signed out of iCloud and signed back in again
• Omitted all of the iCloud folders from Bitdefender scanning
• Disabled Bitdefender
• Rebooted the Mac numerous times.
• Checked iCloud storage space (101Gb of 200Gb used)

No matter what I do iCloud sync still stalls:

View attachment 2187753

The only way to get it going again is to kill the 'cloudd' process which is running under my username.

View attachment 2187754

And once again it stalls again shortly after. Does anyone have any ideas as to where I can go next?

The only things I can think to do are:

• Create a test user account on the Mac and see if that is affected?
• Raise a support ticket with Apple

Any help is appreciated.

Have you tried re-instating the DNS IPs for your interweb provider?

 

[dbrewood]

Yes, doesn't help. My old Mac Mini is not affected so something is broken on the new mini with the 'cloudd' process. I've sent reports on to Apple and I'm waiting on their feedback.

 

[splifingate]

Specific to a single comp is good news for the resolution of your prob!

Thanks for the update.

 

[dbrewood]

It is, still a pain though.

I've got a workaround in place. One of the guys on macscripters forum kindly provided some code which will kill the process. I've got that run from within a shortcut and I've set the Shortery app to run the shortcut every 30 minutes. So yeah it's manageable but I still have a horrid feeling I'll be wiping the drive and rebuilding the Mini from scratch.

 

[splifingate]

I still have a horrid feeling I'll be wiping the drive and rebuilding the Mini from scratch.

Yeah, I can see that in your futrue.

Not an inherently 'bad' thing; but, well, best expenditure of time is actually using the comp, rather than diagnosing the comp

 

[dbrewood]

Indeed, annoying though as I'd had my old Mac Mini for three years and no problems at all, but the M2 Mini is only a few months old.

 

[dbrewood]

I've resolved my 'DNS' issues. It seems that the Bitdefender AV had gone rogue somehow and that was causing the issue. I disabled it last night after putting some deep thought into what could be affecting the macOS core. Everything started working and that includes iCloud and the App Store on the Mac.
I uninstalled it this morning and reinstalled and everything continues to work! I'm looking forward to telling the Apple Engineers later!

 

[dbrewood]

I'm very sad to say the blasted issue returned again today, this was after I'd switched to MalwareBytes, so it was not a Bitdefender issue after all. Grrr

 

[dbrewood]

I sent this update to Apple earlier:

A strange update on the iCloud sync issue:

Yesterday I decided I wanted to uninstall the beta copy of Thunderbird which I was running in parallel with the release version.

To cut a long story short removing the beta profile / application messed up the release version and I had to reconfigure it completely.

The reconfiguration included having to re-subscribe / re-authenticate my iCloud address book and the calendars via CalDav etc.

Shorty after this I looked to check the iCloud sync status and it was updating.

Over 24 later it's all still working, even across reboots of the Mac.

I've no ideas if re-authenticating the Thunderbird subscriptions had cleared a faulty Keychain entry which was blocking things somehow or whether the Apple Engineers fixed something in the background, but yeah it's working!

Needless to say I'll come back to you if anything changes. It'll be interesting to see if the Engineers do find anything that may relate.

and it's all still working now!

 

[dbrewood]

It was looking so very good, but..... it broke / stalled again this afternoon alas.... Back to the drawing board!