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Numbers Collaboration - offline all the time

Running into a persistent problem with Numbers on macOS Sonoma. I have several Numbers spreadsheets saved in a shared iCloud Drive folder that's accessible by three users. For whatever reason, on my account (the primary account for family share) when editing spreadsheets in the Numbers app on my 13" MacBook Pro M2, Mac mini M2 Pro or iPad mini 6, Numbers will tell me that my changes are not being uploaded because Numbers is 'offline'. This problem has persisted across multiple macOS/iPadOS updates and multiple Numbers updates on all three devices. I can access the files without difficulty in the iCloud Web version of Numbers without difficulty, but essentially can't use the thick clients. Any edited files will show up in the Numbers 'sync status' screen as 'Syncing with iCloud' with a spinning ring basically forever. Strangely, when I load the files on the computer after making changes in the web app, the changes show up on the computer, indicating that iCloud is at least partially working. All three devices are on the current versions of macOS/iPadOS/Numbers.


What I've tried so far, without success:

  • Disabled Advanced Data Protection
  • Disabled iCloud relay
  • Logged out of iCloud and logged back in on one device
  • Logged out of iCloud on all devices, then logged back in on one device
  • Logged out of iCloud on the Mac mini, deleted the user account from the Mac mini, then re-created the user account on the Mac mini and re-connected to iCloud


Looking for any suggestions folks may have before I open a ticket with Apple Support. Ideas like 'delete your Apple account and create a new one' are non-starters, as it is the main account for a family share with five other users on it and I'm not dealing with that mess.

Posted on Aug 19, 2024 6:36 PM

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2 replies

Aug 19, 2024 7:00 PM in response to wrbluepearl

Some additional information - this affects all of the accounts with whom this iCloud Shared Folder is shared. In each case, if any of the three users opens one of the Numbers files saved in the iCloud Shared Folder, it shows the 'struck out' collaboration cloud icon and complains that collaboration is 'offline'. So the problem appears to be with the shared folder, not with the individual user account as originally thought.

Oct 3, 2024 3:21 AM in response to wrbluepearl

HI, I seem to be having the same issue toady, was OK yesterday and I hadn't run the latest update to take my Mac to macOS Ventura V13.7 until after I got the error messages saying I can not collaborate and need to to to iCloud to do this!

I have a shared iCloud Drive with one person. I can not see any changes in my iPhone that I make on my Mac in numbers or pages

I believe this is not an error from what I'm reading today but caused by my Mac being too old (7 years old)

If you open a ticket with Apple I'd be very interested in what they day!?

Numbers Collaboration - offline all the time

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