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iCloud Drive Desktop and Documents turned off spontaneously on iMac

On one of our iMacs, the Desktop and Documents option under iCloud Drive spontaneously turned off, resulting in an empty desktop when iMac booted, which terrified the user, who tends to keep everything on the desktop. Desktop contents were restored from iCloud ok when the Desktop and Documents option was re-selected. But how can this happen? The user has never used the System Preferences App and wouldn't know where it is. The user was doing a lot of sorting of desktop files (especially photos), but recalls no messages or warnings about it.

iMac 21.5″, macOS 10.14

Posted on Nov 20, 2020 4:34 PM

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Posted on Nov 20, 2020 10:44 PM

In Mac system preferences if an Apple ID created with secondary authentication account in which three answers for security questions , date of birth , rescue mail address and its password is set up , and this Apple ID is signed and you already had an Apple ID created with two factor authentication https://support.apple.com/en-in/HT204915

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204974

You sign out secondary authentication account id https://support.apple.com/en-in/HT208242

And then the two factor authentication account is signed in empty fields in the upcoming steps , iCloud Drive box has to be checked and in front of it option button will be shown , in that case desktops and documents will be shown as unchecked , you have to check the box and get it synced .

In normal working Mac desktop and documents box will not automatically get unchecked by its own .

In any case you use any anti virus , any softwares / unknown apps , vpn services uninstall all of them .


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Question marked as Best reply

Nov 20, 2020 10:44 PM in response to rjp123

In Mac system preferences if an Apple ID created with secondary authentication account in which three answers for security questions , date of birth , rescue mail address and its password is set up , and this Apple ID is signed and you already had an Apple ID created with two factor authentication https://support.apple.com/en-in/HT204915

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204974

You sign out secondary authentication account id https://support.apple.com/en-in/HT208242

And then the two factor authentication account is signed in empty fields in the upcoming steps , iCloud Drive box has to be checked and in front of it option button will be shown , in that case desktops and documents will be shown as unchecked , you have to check the box and get it synced .

In normal working Mac desktop and documents box will not automatically get unchecked by its own .

In any case you use any anti virus , any softwares / unknown apps , vpn services uninstall all of them .


Nov 20, 2020 8:52 PM in response to rjp123

Desktops and documents box can't be automatically turn off unless you uncheck the box of it or sign out the Apple ID from system preferences , and then sign in with different Apple ID account say set up with 2FA , in the steps an option comes to set up iCloud Drive and in the last have to click on options button and then have to check the box of desktops and documents .

Nov 21, 2020 2:06 AM in response to tygb

Thanks ... I should have been able to decipher 2FA with a bit of thought!


This may be possible. BTW, there is no anti virus or VPN service on this iMac.


Normally the iMac in question has a single user, not me. After turning Desktop and Documents back on in preferences, I did some maintenance - updating Apps - and it asked me to sign in to the Store as me, not the user. So I changed the Apple ID back to the user's ID, signed in for her, and most of the updates proceeded. But then it asked again for me to sign in - I think because I must have signed in on that iMac a couple of years ago to install a 3rd party App that I had paid for, and that allowed > 1 instal. So I cancelled my sign in, and that App is still not updated. If I were to proceed to sign in to the Store with my Apple ID instead of the user, can this cause the issue? I am unsure whether signing in to the Store in the App Store App with a different ID affects the sign in to iCloud. Hope this makes sense.

iCloud Drive Desktop and Documents turned off spontaneously on iMac

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