Unable to determine if iCloud is enabled on my device - icloud

Question

This is my code:
- (IBAction)aBackupSetup:(UIButton *)sender {
// check to see if this device is iCloud enabled; display message if not
NSURL *ubiq = [[NSFileManager defaultManager] URLForUbiquityContainerIdentifier:nil];
if (ubiq) {
NSLog(#"AppDelegate: iCloud access!");
} else {
NSLog(#"AppDelegate: No iCloud access (either you are using simulator or, if you are on your phone, you should check settings");
}
I'm trying to determine if iCloud is enabled on the device (iPad). When I run this code by tapping on a UIButton in my app, it logs "No iCloud access...". I have seen this code all over SO and the internet - why is it not working on my device? (iCloud IS enabled on the iPad).

Answer 1

Reasons why you'd always get a nil result here:
iCloud is not actually enabled (though you say it was, so that's not it this time)
iCloud is enabled on the device but "Documents & Data" is not. "iCloud" covers a lot of services, so just being enabled in general isn't enough. Without Documents & Data, apps can't save data in iCloud.
Your provisioning profile either doesn't include iCloud or is broken in such a way that it prevents iCloud from working. Provisioning profile requirements include:
You must enable iCloud for the app ID in the "Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles" section of the iOS dev center.
The app ID can't include a wildcard (*), it has to be a complete ID.
Your app ID in Xcode must match the one from the previous step exactly.
You must generate a provisioning profile after doing the above so that you have a profile that reflects the iCloud entitlement. If you had an old provisioning profile for this app that didn't include iCloud, you must delete it and replace it with a new one.
If you get any of these steps wrong, checking the URL will simply return nil. There's no error condition, but since iCloud access is not enabled there's no URL either.
For iOS 6 and up you're better off checking for iCloud availability using
id ubiquityToken = [[NSFileManager defaultManager] ubiquityIdentityToken];
That's a lot faster. Looking up the URL can involve network connections, but this method returns immediately. You'll still need the URL to read/write data in iCloud, but if you just want to check availability, use this method.