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I want to format my mac so I needed to transfer a lot of files out of my computer. Hence, I placed 105 GB in my iCloud Drive(perhaps this makes me an optimist). Judging by the progress bar the transfer should be completed now and it went well until the end(of the progress bar, ridiculous that apple doesn’t give more information to experienced users regarding what the system is doing, we have to deal with a progress bar..). Now it shows 105GB out of 105GB uploaded but also “Uploading 89.825 files”. This files counter is going down, but too slow. It was 94.500 files 3 days ago. Sometimes it also gets stuck and I have to stop the bird process and restart my computer for it to work again. When it is working it seems to process 100-300 files every 15 minutes. By this rate it’s gonna take it 6 days to finish doing whatever it is doing, however, like I already explained this process keeps stopping.

Two questions arise:

Since it already shows 105 GB out of 105 GB, what is it doing with the files now? Why the countdown? Is it perhaps doing some sort of indexation?

Is there a way to make this process go faster? E.g. detecting local processes using the files I’m trying to upload that might be hindering the upload process, or cancelling the process and compressing folders with lots of subdirectories?

By the way I don’t want alternative solutions to my backup. I want it in iCloud.

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    Bird & everything to do with iCloud sync are 'bottom-of-the-pile' low priority processes. I'd have just used Time Machine, or Carbon Copy Cloner, or for simple file copy, just Finder. iCloud is primarily a sync solution, not a backup solution. I wouldn't trust it for backup.
    – Tetsujin
    Sep 9, 2020 at 11:20
  • Even using renice to set te priority of the bird process to -20 doesn’t make any effect. So, in that sense, I think it is more than priority. Do you know of any other related process I can try increasing its priority to see it helps @Tetsujin ?
    – Yuri Borges
    Sep 9, 2020 at 11:37
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    Cloud sync solutions (from experience) all struggle with high file count backups. You should either use a compression program to merge them into a small number of large files, or use a proper backup program that puts the result in your iCloud. It is possible that the problem isn't at your end, it could be in the cloud where they have to index, CRC the received data and send the result back to you to validate it was received correctly. Either they are stalling (and rebooting gives them time to "catch up") or their process is just slow.
    – Mokubai ♦
    Sep 9, 2020 at 11:41
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    There are mutterings online that renice doesn't have any effect since Sierra, but tbh it's so long since I ever tried using it that I couldn't say either way.
    – Tetsujin
    Sep 9, 2020 at 11:45
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    @YuriBorges in which case the "solution" of creating say 4 or 5 archives of files may be the best option. Lots of small files are going to create a lot more work both for your computer and theirs. They have to share CPU and disk amongst a lot of users so it's up to you to make it easier for everyone.
    – Mokubai ♦
    Sep 9, 2020 at 11:51

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