IOS – Folders disappeared from iCloud Drive following path name change

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So that GNU Make could access my iCloud Drive folder, I removed the space in 'Mobile Documents'.

So I changed my iCloud Drive path from:

~/Library/Mobile Documents/

to

~/Library/MobileDocuments/

As far as I can tell, my Mac has automatically re-created ~/Library/Mobile Documents/ (ie, it has re-created my iCloud Drive folder).

On my Mac, the only folders that are now showing in ~/Library/Mobile Documents/ are Preview, Numbers and Pages (ie osx and iOS apps).

On my iPhone, I can access my iCloud Drive folder in all apps, but the only apps in which files are syncing via iCloud are Preview, Numbers and Pages. In apps such as Textastic, which I only have installed on my iPhone, the files are no longer syncing via iCloud.

All my apps and their files that were previously in ~/Library/Mobile Documents/ are present in ~/Library/MobileDocuments/. Therefore, I tried transfering apps and their files present in ~/Library/MobileDocuments/ to ~/Library/Mobile Documents/, but my Mac said the files are all present in ~/Library/Mobile Documents/, even though they are not showing.

Can anyone tell how I can revert my changes? Therefore, how can I have all apps and their files returned to iCloud Drive and syncing using iCloud?

Best Answer

Depending on the number of files you have, iCloud Drive can take a while to get itself situated.

I would move the files somewhere safe that is not part of iCloud and is easy to get to. Leaving them where they are should also work. Then, turn off iCloud Drive and follow all the prompts. It’ll want to “finish updating,” which you can skip. It’ll leave a folder in your home folder that’s an archive of some files it thought may not be uploaded yet.

Once everything is off, re-enable it. Wait until everything comes back. This can take a long time (hours) and it may look like nothing is happening. It will finish.

Once everything is back, make sure your data is all there and delete the old stuff.