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Looking for explanation of cloud with down-pointing arrow.

I did something strange on my iPhone yesterday that resulted in needing to change my iCloud password. Anyway, when I used my Mac today and went into Finder, I discovered my "Documents" were no longer under Favorites. They were, however, under iCloud Drive in the sidebar. I spoke with someone at Apple Care and I dragged the Documents down from iDrive to Favorites where it always has been. I now have clouds with a down-pointing arrow to the right of some of the file names. I am reaching out to find out what this means.

iMac Pro

Posted on Jan 10, 2021 6:27 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jan 10, 2021 6:43 PM

It means those files are now only in iCloud. They are not physically on your device anymore. If you try to open those files, they will be downloaded and opened. This is how iCloud Drive is designed to work. In most cases, those files that are in this state are old files that you haven't opened for a long time.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jan 10, 2021 6:43 PM in response to Bobm711

It means those files are now only in iCloud. They are not physically on your device anymore. If you try to open those files, they will be downloaded and opened. This is how iCloud Drive is designed to work. In most cases, those files that are in this state are old files that you haven't opened for a long time.

Looking for explanation of cloud with down-pointing arrow.

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