iCloud Drive not downloading files after reset I'm on a 2016 MacBook Pro with macOS High Sierra 10.13.5. Yesterday, due to the huge amount of 'Purgeable' storage present on disk, the system started to 'purge' it, freeing about 200GB of space. In doing so it also apparently removed many local copies of the iCloud Drive files (I have Documents and Desktop sync'd), as the little cloud appeared next to many of them.

At the same time the Finder started to try and upload 22GB of files (crazy because they were all up there in iCloud Drive).
I sought help from Apple and they make me deactivate iCloud Drive (which created a folder with all my files -except for the iWork and similar files, in the Home folder).

Upon reactivation iCloud Drive is not making any progress with the download... files are not reappearing.. folders neither..
The 'expert' said that if I paste the iCloud Drive (Archive) folder inside it will only create duplicates.

What can I do? How can I solve this?
My last resort is to back restoring the system from Time Machine but I would like to know why iCloud Drive is not downloading the files.

Thank you very much
I see you've resolved your situation, but I wanted to write up a formal answer.

When you enable iCloud Drive, it has to go through a (very slow) process for each container of files before they show up. Each App Folder is one such container, and then all standalone files including Desktop and Documents goes in a generic container.

If you have lots of files (10+ GB can cause this to start happening) it can take hours (or days) before the files show up, even though they haven't even started downloading. In this time sync will not finish. If you have just enabled iCloud drive (either on a new computer or because you had turned it off) and you have a lot of files, trying to leave it plugged in etc. may help it go faster. Do not try to turn it off and then on, because it'll just start over.

I'm not sure why this happens, but it's the way it works right now. So if you don't see files after turning it on, let it sit for at least a day or two of having proper power and internet connection before trying other things.