Turning off Desktop & Documents from iCloud Drive

Desktop & Documents folders have a special use on the Mac. Of course, they are really just folders that are normally stored in our User’s folder.

But unlike with other folders, the files in the Desktop folder show up on the computer’s Desktop. We tend to put lots of our frequently used files there, so it’s useful to store that folder in iCloud Drive to make it available to other connected devices. And the Documents folder is where some apps expect to store their files, and those apps expect to find that folder in our Users folder. So moving these folders to iCloud requires more than just dragging them around.

When we turn on Desktop & Documents in iCloud Drive, those folders are copied to iCloud Drive on the Mac, and they are thus copied to iCloud.com.  But their connections also remain in the User’s folder where apps like the Desktop app can find them—but they’re kept invisible so we don’t get confused.

But just like other files and folders in iCloud Drive, Desktop & Documents folders remain on our computers as they are copied to iCloud Drive at iCloud.com.

If we turn off Desktop and Documents after we've had it on, 

what happens is that the folders remain in the iCloud Drive folder, still useful to other connected devices, but they no longer operate like Desktop and Documents folders on our Mac-- the Desktop folder contents no longer appear on the Desktop Screen, for instance.

Remember that iCloud must be prepared for us to be sharing our stuff with our other connected devices. When we turn off D&D in iCloud, new Desktop and Documents folders appear in our User's folder, and those work like we expect from D&D folders, but they're empty! They are empty, because the Mac couldn’t be sure which files we wanted to appear there, and which files we might want to keep sharing with our other devices. So we need to drag the contents of the iCloud Desktop folder to the User's Desktop folder, and they will disappear from iCloud and begin showing up on our computer's Desktop:

Since Dragging from one folder to another on a Mac does a Move rather than a Copy, those files will no longer be available to other connected devices through iCloud. Changes to your Desktop will not be mirrored on your local iCloud Drive Desktop folder or to iCloud.com. 

By the way, If you turn Desktop and Documents back on, again, then you will get another pair of folders in your iCloud Drive. It could get pretty confused.