macOS didn't receive CloudKit/CoreData updates because I was connected to an external monitor
I spent days trying to figure out why my macbook was not receiving pings from CloudKit when the remote store was changed, while my iOS build was receiving it just fine. Instant syncs were happening on iOS when I made changes on my mac, but when I made changes on iOS, my mac only got the syncs when the I manually exported something, triggering an import.
I made sure they were both using the same CK container, the same schema, that mac was registered to receive notifications, everything.
Finally, I unplugged my computer from its workstation to go work in the kitchen today, and boom, it works perfectly.
Turns out there's a setting which turns off notifications when it's in monitor mirroring mode. Turning off notifications includes silent Cloudkit notifications that update the store.
I hope this helps someone out in the future!
Posted Sep 28, 2025, 1:33 PM UTC