Lots of empty iCloud folders on Spotlight (macOS 10.15.2)

[Populus]

Hello, last night I installed macOS 10.15.2, and something weird happened:

Basically, whenever I type ”do”, “doc” or “documents” on my Spotlight, more than 20 different folders with the same name appear. Only one of those is the true macOS Documents, the others are, as you can see, empty folders for iOS apps that I use on my iPad/iPhone, such as the game Odyssey, Acrobat for iOS, Lemmings game, Weather app... and those don’t appear on the macOS iCloud folder. But they do appear on Spotlight!

Is this happening to you? Is there a way to not having this issue (not listing into spotlight the iOS folders)

Thank you.

 

[revmacian]

Hello, last night I installed macOS 10.15.2, and something weird happened:

View attachment 884336

Basically, whenever I type ”do”, “doc” or “documents” on my Spotlight, more than 20 different folders with the same name appear. Only one of those is the true macOS Documents, the others are, as you can see, empty folders for iOS apps that I use on my iPad/iPhone, such as the game Odyssey, Acrobat for iOS, Lemmings game, Weather app... and those don’t appear on the macOS iCloud folder. But they do appear on Spotlight!

Is this happening to you? Is there a way to not having this issue (not listing into spotlight the iOS folders)

Thank you.

Yes, this seems to be normal. iCloud Drive grabs folders from more than one location in order to populate itself in Finder. However, if you list the Mobile Documents directory in the Terminal you'll see the same items you're seeing in Spotlight. I think it has to do with the way iCloud Drive works on the backend (server-side). If you try to delete some of those unused folders they will repopulate. But, don't worry.. they're not harming anything.

If you want to see them again, open the Terminal.app and copy & paste the following command:

ls ~/Library/Mobile\ Documents/

(If you type this command in be sure to type it in as seen above, including the space in front of "Documents")

The funny thing that if you go to the Mobile Documents in Finder you'll be taken to the iCloud Drive location where many of those folders aren't visible.

 

[Populus]

Thank you @revmacian but I think something has happened after the massive log-out (from iCloud on all my devices) I made last night. There’s something different now.

Take for example the app Documents by Readdle, an iCloud folder for iOS app Documents By Readdle. On macOS Spotlight it used to appear as Documents by Readdle (And other apps showed up in Spotlight under the name of the app), and now, as you can see in the screenshot, all the folders show up as “Documents”. When you enter into them, then, the folder gets renamed to the app name.

For instance, as you can see in the centre of my screen, the Odyssey iOS game empty folder, shows up in Spotlight as “documents”, and when you double click on it to open that folder, it appears as “Odyssey” folder.

That’s what it is bugging me now, that all and every iOS data folder is now appearing under the name of “documents” and I can’t tell what is each folder. Because I have like 20 folders under that name on spotlight. Seems like a bug, as you said, on the server side.

EDIT: And many -if not all- of this iCloud for this iOS app folders have as the creation data today. Just when I’ve logged out from all my devices. This has made some kind of change on the old iOS “documents and data” on the server side

 

[revmacian]

Thank you @revmacian but I think something has happened after the massive log-out (from iCloud on all my devices) I made last night. There’s something different now.

Take for example the app Documents by Readdle, an iCloud folder for iOS app Documents By Readdle. On macOS Spotlight it used to appear as Documents by Readdle (And other apps showed up in Spotlight under the name of the app), and now, as you can see in the screenshot, all the folders show up as “Documents”. When you enter into them, then, the folder gets renamed to the app name.

For instance, as you can see in the centre of my screen, the Odyssey iOS game empty folder, shows up in Spotlight as “documents”, and when you double click on it to open that folder, it appears as “Odyssey” folder.

That’s what it is bugging me now, that all and every iOS data folder is now appearing under the name of “documents” and I can’t tell what is each folder. Because I have like 20 folders under that name on spotlight. Seems like a bug, as you said, on the server side.

Yeah, I'm seeing the same thing here.. many hits in Spotlight listed as "Document" with no way of knowing which is which. I'm calling it a bug, but it could also be due to incomplete understanding about what is actually happening with Spotlight. This could also be due to the way Catalina has split the volumes (Macintosh HD and Macintosh HD - Data) in macOS 10.15.2. I'll admit to not running into this issue very often, I use the Apple menu > Recent Items more often than I use Spotlight. I wish I could help with this problem but I don't really understand iCloud as much as I should.


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I filed a bug report with Apple just in case.

 

[Populus]

Wow, this forum is awesome thanks to people like you. Thank you for being concerned by my issue And filling a report. I’ll do that in a moment.

At least now I know it is not an isolated thing. And it is happening to more people.

I think something has changed, either with iOS 13, Catalina, or server side. I’ll see if I can find a connection between the iCloud data stored by my iPad/iPhone apps, and this documents folders. If I see something new I’ll post it here to keep you updated.

By the way, I just booted on a Mojave partition, and it happens the same but with less (and different) apps. It’s strange...

 

[revmacian]

Wow, this forum is awesome thanks to people like you. Thank you for being concerned by my issue And filling a report. I’ll do that in a moment.

At least now I know it is not an isolated thing. And it is happening to more people.

I think something has changed, either with iOS 13, Catalina, or server side. I’ll see if I can find a connection between the iCloud data stored by my iPad/iPhone apps, and this documents folders. If I see something new I’ll post it here to keep you updated.

By the way, I just booted on a Mojave partition, and it happens the same but with less (and different) apps. It’s strange...

You're very welcome, I'm happy to help. And yes, please do file a bug report with Apple.. power in numbers and all You can find a Link to Apple Feedback in my sig.

Yes, Catalina brought big changes. And most people don't realize that iCloud servers are also running an operating system, so if there's a bug in that system we may never find it on our devices even though it affects our devices due to sync'ing.

I'm adding this thread to my watchlist so I can keep up with anything you may find in the future. Thank you for starting this thread.