I work on two Macs and keep a working file on the Desktop, which is synced through the cloud service. Changes do propagate, but sometimes with a long delay — long enough that I have edited the stale version on the second machine more than once.
There does not appear to be a refresh or sync now command anywhere in the interface.
Is there a supported way to force it, or a reliable trick?
Stepping back: for the workflow you describe — a file you actively edit on two machines in quick succession — a document sync service is the wrong tool, and the delays are not really the problem.
The real risk is that both machines edit the same file and you get a conflict, which cloud document sync resolves by keeping both versions and letting you sort it out. For code in particular that is a bad experience.
Use version control. A repository, even a local one pushed to a private remote, gives you explicit commits, explicit pulls, real conflict resolution and history. For a file you edit in a code editor across two machines this is the correct tool and it removes the entire category of problem.
It also happens to be much faster, because you decide when the transfer happens.
The daemon restart is the one that has worked consistently for me when nothing else did. Everything else in that list is a nudge; that one is a reset.
Worth knowing the general shape rather than a specific command, since process names do change between releases: you are looking for the background process that handles cloud document sync, and killing it causes the system to relaunch it, which starts a fresh sync cycle.
One caution: do not do this while a large upload is in progress. It will resume, and interrupting a big transfer repeatedly is how people end up with sync that never completes.
One thing to check if sync is chronically slow rather than occasionally delayed: whether the machine is on a metered or low data mode connection, and whether the optimise storage option is on.
Both change the behaviour substantially — the first deliberately defers transfers, and the second means files may not be present locally at all until opened. People troubleshoot for hours before finding one of those switched on.
@mac_dev_mina · 2w ago
There is no supported "sync now" button, which is a deliberate design decision and an occasionally infuriating one. The system decides when to upload and download based on activity, power state, network and its own heuristics.
The workarounds people rely on, roughly in order of how well they work:
Touch the folder. Creating a file or folder inside the synced location often kicks the daemon into action. Create it, wait a moment, delete it. Crude and it frequently works.
Open the file. Accessing a file signals that it is wanted, which prompts a download of the current version.
Check the sync status in the file browser. The sidebar shows progress while it is working, which at least tells you whether it is stalled or merely slow.
Restart the sync daemon. There is a background process responsible for this, and restarting it from a terminal reliably forces a fresh pass. It is a documented process name rather than a hidden hack, and the system restarts it automatically.
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