Can't enable iCloud Drive on iPhone 7+

I have the latest IOS 11.2.1 on my iPhone 7+ and am trying to use the Files app. Under Locations, when I select iCloud Drive it directs me to turn on iCloud Drive and gives me a hot key to take me to the Settings page. On the Settings page the slider to turn on the iCloud Drive is greyed out. I did some research and have made sure Restrictions is turned off. Matter of fact I enabled Restrictions, rebooted, disabled Restrictions and rebooted again just to cycle it on and off. Still no help.

I'm out of ideas.

Are you signed into iCloud with your Apple ID and password?

Also, as a matter of information.... these forums are closing down for good on December 31st of this year. You can read all about it in our Sticky post in Forum Announcements.

Yes, I am signed in.

Shame about the forum. Didn't know that. Going to read about it now.

OK, check to make sure you haven't exceeded your allotted amount of storage for iCloud - which is 5GB unless you purchased more space from Apple.

I have 190 Gig of free space on the iCloud

We've covered all the reasons it could be turned off. The only other suggestion I have is to sign out of iCloud and then sign back in. Maybe that will wake up the iCloud drive.

chscag said:

We've covered all the reasons it could be turned off. The only other suggestion I have is to sign out of iCloud and then sign back in. Maybe that will wake up the iCloud drive.

Click to expand...

Just tried that to no avail. PITA to have to setup Apple Pay again on the phone and the iWatch. BTW, I checked my wife's iPhone (identical to mine) and it has the iCloud Drive turned on and not greyed out. Mine is still greyed out.

One final question before the site goes away.

Would you guys recommend doing a "Restore iPhone" in iTunes and then "Restore Backup"? My latest backup was on November 3rd. Should I use that one or backup before doing the Restore? Does iTunes only keep one backup or are older ones still there?

BTW, a big thank you to all you Gurus who've helped me over the years. See you on the new site.

I was going to suggest a restore but before you do, make a backup to iTunes. And just for info sake... we highly recommend the app "iMazing 2" which does much more than iTunes and will also keep multiple backups. You can buy a copy from the macworld magazine store at a discount. $29

And by all means, join us on the new site.

Purchased, backed up iPhone, and then did an "Reinstall IOS" operation. This did NOT fix my problem. Still has iCloud Drive slider greyed out. Double checked that Restrictions is turned off. Still at square one. Might have to make the long drive to the Apple store. Don't know what else to do.

Think the Apple store can help? Never been there before.

I can't imagine what is keeping you from accessing the iCloud drive on your iPhone? I've never seen that before. If you feel like driving to your closest Apple Store, go ahead and do it but make sure you have an appointment first otherwise you'll do the drive for nothing. You can make an appointment on line.

I'm wondering if you do another reinstall but this time set the phone up as new, if that would help? If that doesn't work, you can always use your backup to restore your apps and data. Setting the phone up as new would eliminate anything that might be affecting the iCloud drive.

Sometimes a rogue ios app can do wierd things with your phone. I had a caller ID - call blocker app installed a while ago that ate my battery in one day. And the phone was new at the time. The Apple tech (by phone) helped me isolate it and remove it.

This is just a suggestion out of left field but try turning iCloud Backup on and see if that changes anything after a restart. If it works turn backup off and see if iCloud Drive remains on.

Just tried your suggestion Rod but it didn't work.

May have to try to set it up as new. I'm on vacation next week so I may just wait and visit the Apple folks first.

Thanks guys.

I know this is close to the closing date, but wanted to still post my solution since it seemed to stump everyone.

I have my phone setup to also receive company emails. In order to do so, it required a special Device Management Profile called Workspace Services. With that profile came several Restrictions. Three Restrictions pertained to using iCloud, basically meaning you can't have the iCloud Drive enabled with this Device Profile.

This really sucks. Now I have a choice of either getting my company emails on my phone or to have the iCloud Drive enabled. I am going to try deleting this, enabling iCloud Drive, then reinstalling the Device Profile to see if it stays on.

Here's a screenshot of the Restrictions.

Thanks for letting us know. Yeah, that's really not a good situation. I would think getting your company email is more important and if what you propose to do doesn't work, you have a choice to make.

And don't forget to join us at our new forums when they're up and running. www.mac-forums.org

Thanks. It didn't work. As soon as I reloaded the Device Profile it knocked me out of the iCloud Drive. Guess I'll just continue to use Drop Box.

I'm on the Facebook page, patiently waiting for the new site. I'm also game to pay a yearly subscription if needed.

Wow, thanks for that reply. I personally would never have thought of that. Bit of a letdown though for you. Maybe you could insist on your company buying you a dedicated device just for their emails since it effectively disables a native function on your phone Or perhapes the developers of the software have a workaround.
Let us know how you get on.

I'm with Rod. You might work with your company to have them get you a second phone. If they think it's important for you to get their emails on a phone, they should supply it. No reason for your personal device to be hampered.

My son works for a large bank/corporation and has to receive email on his iPhone from work but has no such restriction. His company has issued him a personal computer (Windows notebook) but they do not supply mobile devices. However, the only restriction they have is that employees can not use an Android mobile device because of the lack of security. Apple mobile devices are the only ones they will approve.

I work at a very large airline. I really doubt they are going to issue a phone or even change the way their email works. I am going to bring it up with management, though, and see what happens. There's really no reason to restrict the cloud that I can see.