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Q: Desktop sync with two Macs leads to duplicate files/folders

Hello all,

 

I´m using MacOS Sierra with desktop (and documents) sync. Connected to my account are two Macs (an Air and a MB Pro). No I find in my iCloud drive a folder documents (this is good and the documents folder of the MB Air) and in this folder a folder "Dokumente - MacBook Pro mg" which is the documents folder of my MB Pro (this is not so good). This is not what I expected, I expected to have one documents folder which is identical on both machines. Does anyone know what I have to adjust to get things clear?

 

Greetings from Germany

 

Mike

MacBookPro

Posted on Sep 27, 2016 1:29 PM

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Q: Desktop sync with two Macs leads to duplicate files/folders

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  • by Bill Cheeseman,Helpful

    Bill Cheeseman Bill Cheeseman Sep 28, 2016 5:12 AM in response to mgamer
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Sep 28, 2016 5:12 AM in response to mgamer

    I posted an article explaining all of this at http://www.quecheesoftware.com/iCloud.html . It is a downloadable PDF file.

     

    Basically, files you add to the Documents folder after you turn on syncing will sync as you expect. But the files that were in your Documents folders on multiple Macs when you first turn on syncing will be placed in device-specific subfolders of your new iCloud Drive Documents folder. Apple apparently felt that it could not predict how every user would want their old files organized in the iCloud Drive Documents folder, so Apple left it to each user to reorganize the folder afterwards.

     

    I have now moved all of my own files out into the top level of my iCloud Drive Documents folder, and trashed the duplicates from the other device-specific folder. Now everything syncs between both computers as expected. I left the two device-specific subfolders in place, both empty at this time, in case in the future I might want to keep some files associated with only one of the devices -- for example, alias files won't work right on the other Mac. They will still sync to the other subfolder, but at least I will know to use them only on their own device.

     

    Apple certainly could have documented this better.

  • by mgamer,

    mgamer mgamer Sep 28, 2016 5:14 AM in response to Bill Cheeseman
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 28, 2016 5:14 AM in response to Bill Cheeseman

    Thank you for the fast reply,

    what your wrote sounds logical for me, so I´m going to proceed in this way and "unite" all the files in one folder.

     

    Greetings from Germany

     

    Mike

  • by dwb,

    dwb dwb Sep 28, 2016 5:54 AM in response to mgamer
    Level 7 (24,253 points)
    Notebooks
    Sep 28, 2016 5:54 AM in response to mgamer

    Bill Cheeseman's answer is concise and correct - and I think Apple chose the correct course in the way it handled syncing the Document folders. I had no idea what to expect and based on my initial experience with DropBox I was afraid I might find lots of conflicted-filename entries so I started with a final back in TimeMachine and disconnected the drive before proceeding.

     

    As you saw, the result was an initial duplication of data with many of my notebook's files appearing a second time because they were in the Documents - MBA-dwb folder. On the one hand that meant duplication - on the other hand it meant I could decide which file to keep (or maybe keep both). Overall I like the approach.

     

    On the other hand what I don't like is having 3 Desktop Folders on each of the 4 computers I use.