iCloud Drive vs. time machine

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Level 1

16 points

iCloud Drive vs. time machine

Assume I am using iCloud Drive. Assume I have an external hard drive acting as my time machine drive attached to Mac 1. If I create a document on Mac 1 and save it to documents, I understand that the local version will be backed up to time machine. Then, if I modify the document on Mac 2, also using iCloud Drive and saved to documents on Mac 2, how is the modified document ever backed up to the time machine drive attached to Mac 1? Ideally, I would like to be able to work on my files on multiple Macs using the cloud and have everything current and backed up to time machine.

iMac 21.5", macOS 10.15

Posted on Oct 25, 2019 9:53 AM

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Answer 1

Eric Root

Level 10

685,239 points

Oct 25, 2019 11:07 AM in response to Tim Lashlee

Go to Finder and select your user/home folder. With that Finder window as the front window, either select Finder/View/Show View options or go command - J. When the View options opens, check ’Show Library Folder’. That should make your user library folder visible in your user/home folder. Select Library/Mobile Documents. Do you see the iCloud Drive files there? That folder is backed up by Time Machine.

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Answer 2

Eric Root

Level 10

685,239 points

Oct 25, 2019 11:56 AM in response to Tim Lashlee

You are welcome. If iCloud Drive has properly synced the change, you should be able to open Work 1.2 on Mac 1and the file should get backup to Time Machine on both computers.

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Answer 3

Tim Lashlee Author

Level 1

16 points

Oct 25, 2019 11:26 AM in response to Eric Root

Thank you. That answers part of the question I have been having, but I don't know if it answers my primary question. Perhaps if I reframe the question:

Document created on Mac 1 and saved in Users - Documents - iCloud drive enabled on Mac 1.
Document accessed from the cloud on Mac 2. Document modified on Mac 2 - iCloud drive enabled on Mac 2.
When I go back to Mac 1 and open Users-Documents, will the document be the one I modified on Mac 2, or will it still be the original one I created on Mac 1?
Another way to ask this, is if I create a document called Work 1.1 on Mac 1 and save to Users-Documents. Then I open it on Mac 2, modify it, rename it Work 1.2 and save it to Users-Documents, will I be able to open Work 1.2 on Mac 1, and will Work 1.2 get backed up to time machine from Mac 1?
Thanks for your time.

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iCloud Drive vs. time machine

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