Cannot access iCloud Drive documents.

[Sawday]

Should I be able to see and open Numbers documents that are located in iCloud Drive using the Numbers app on my iMac? Because I can't - I can only open them using the web Numbers. Even Finder doesn't see them in the iCloud Drive folder, but they can be seen if I login to icloud.com. Doesn't seem right to me but perhaps someone can put me right. I should add that the docs in question were put there months ago while i was trying to get to grips with iCloud Drive before I gave up in despair. My revisiting it has not improved my perception or my mood!

 

[ferrarr]

Are the documents actually downloaded to your Mac? Do you have your iCloud Drive icon in the Finder sidebar?

 

[Rod]

Are you using the Desktop and Documents storage option in iCloud preferences by chance? If not how did you save these documents initially. ie. When you clicked Save As you would normally get a location option.
I have some Pages documents which I dragged to my iCloud Folder on the sidebar of Finder Window so I can access them on my iPhone version of pages. BUT when I originally saved the document I saved it to my Documents folder. So I have two copies but here's the catch.
If I edit the doc in the iCloud Drive folder on my MBP or on my iPhone the two remain in sync but the one I saved in Documents does not.
The documents in the iCloud Drive folder are accessible offline so keeping another copy which does not update is redundant.
You can think of iCloud Drive as a folder stored locally on your device but available on other devices as well.

 

[chscag]

Microsoft Word and OneDrive work in exacly the same manner as does iCloud and Pages. The difference is if you subscribe to Office 365 MS allocates additional space for free whereas with Apple it's pay as you go...

 

[Sawday]

"Are the documents actually downloaded to your Mac? Do you have your iCloud Drive icon in the Finder sidebar? "

Yes the iCloud Drive icon is in the Finder sidebar. Clicking on that just shows a folder that has a few images in but not the Numbers files. When I sign into iCloud.com and click on the iCloud drive icon there I see both the (same) image folder and three Numbers files. Clicking on the Numbers files loads the cloud version of Numbers. My Numbers app on my Mac cannot see these iCloud files.

 

[Sawday]

Are you using the Desktop and Documents storage option in iCloud preferences by chance? If not how did you save these documents initially.

Cannot recall. I was trying out iCloud Drive some months ago but it wasn't practical due to being so slow to load/retrieve docs.

The documents in the iCloud Drive folder are accessible offline so keeping another copy which does not update is redundant.
You can think of iCloud Drive as a folder stored locally on your device but available on other devices as well.

Except that they are not accessible since they cannot be seen in my Finder Sidebar, nor from the local Numbers App.

 

[Rod]

It would seem then that the files in iCloud Drive are not syncing with the iCloud Drive folder on your Mac.
Go to System Preferences in the Apple Menu, open iCloud preferences and click on the box marked Options to the right of iCloud Drive.
You should then see the window below. Note that I have Numbers, Pages, Mail and Messages ticked
If you are using the Desktop and Documents storage option I referred to in iCloud preferences you will see that ticked at the top of this window.
NOTE: You must be signed in to iCloud in the first window. If it doesn't say "Sign Out" at the bottom you're not signed in.