dkaygee

Q: Turned on iCloud, documents were deleted

I enabled Desktop & Documents Folders in iCloud on MacOS Sierra thinking that my items would be copied to iCloud. Instead they were deleted and put into folders on iCloud. Is there a way to use iCloud as a backup instead of a replacement? Seems kind of crazy to delete my stuff. After all, I use these items on my desktop and my documents ALL THE TIME.

Mac Book Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.4)

Posted on Sep 21, 2016 12:53 PM

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Q: Turned on iCloud, documents were deleted

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  • by zinacef,

    zinacef zinacef Sep 21, 2016 2:12 PM in response to dkaygee
    Level 5 (5,050 points)
    Applications
    Sep 21, 2016 2:12 PM in response to dkaygee

    If you say they were placed into folder on iCloud, then it wasn't deleted, correct?

  • by léonie,Solvedanswer

    léonie léonie Sep 21, 2016 2:17 PM in response to dkaygee
    Level 10 (108,115 points)
    iCloud
    Sep 21, 2016 2:17 PM in response to dkaygee

    If you enable the  Desktop & Documents Folders in iCloud, the documents will stay locally on your Mac, but sync to iCloud.

    Only, if you enable the "Optimize Storage" option, older files will be removed and downloaded only, if you want to use them.

    Did you enable "Optimize Storage" in System Preferences > iCloud > iCloud Drive > Options?

     

    You will see the Documents and Desktop folder in the sidebar of the Finder window, in the iCloud section, if you enable them to show there in the Finder preferences:

     

    Screen Shot 2016-09-21 at 23.00.38GMT.jpg

  • by dkaygee,

    dkaygee dkaygee Sep 21, 2016 2:28 PM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (10 points)
    iCloud
    Sep 21, 2016 2:28 PM in response to léonie

    It was my understanding that 'Optimize Storage' would not move files to iCloud that were used frequently. Yes, I accepted this option during the MacOS Sierra install. This isn't really what I want, but now I know.

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Sep 21, 2016 2:48 PM in response to dkaygee
    Level 10 (108,115 points)
    iCloud
    Sep 21, 2016 2:48 PM in response to dkaygee

    iCloud Drive is a syncing service.  It will ensure, that all your devices can access all your files from the Desktop and Documents folder on iCloud Drive.

    The files will all be mirrored locally and stored in iCloud.

     

    I did not want all documents in iCloud either.  Before I enabled the option to upload the Documents folder to iCloud, I moved most of my documents out of this folder to keep them only local and kept only the files that I want to sync between my macs in the Documents folder and on my Desktop.