Problems syncing files with iCloud Drive? Don’t just turn it off and back on again. Use Cirrus instead to upload a test file, and check whether syncing that works. Full details.
iCloud Drive
iCloud services have changed greatly since their introduction in October 2011. Here’s a thorough run-down on iCloud today, from dataless files to FileProvider.
Eight BSD flags are available in APFS to lock files, hide them, and restrict them in other ways. None of them synced correctly in iCloud Drive, and four caused other problems.
How to use the Finder’s Lock feature, and as the Immutable flag in Terminal. What its effects are, and how well it’s retained. How iCloud Drive can’t cope with it, and how you can use it in your own lightweight versioning system.
Soon after introducing iCloud and iCloud Drive, Apple changed the way most metadata was handled to ensure it was synced up to the cloud. Recently this has been reversed, and little metadata is now synced. Was this an accident or intentional? What is the workaround?
A summary of iCloud Drive syncing of attributes, data, extended attributes, document versions (complex), Spotlight index content, and QuickLook previews.
What happens when you move a file with metadata attached in extended attributes to iCloud Drive? Which of those are preserved when you access that file from another Mac?
For over a decade, cloud services did their own thing. Apple then encouraged them to use a new File Provider framework, and led the way with iCloud Drive.
It now consists of many discrete services. How to test CloudKit’s shared databases, iCloud Drive’s cloud storage, and whether your Mac can install from iCloud.
It makes a big difference whether an app, file or folder is in the System or Data volume, or maybe somewhere else. Here’s how to tell accurately, rather than according to one of the Finder’s illusions.
The Eclectic Light Company 