How to I recover my files that were automatically moved to iCloud and deleted from my MacBook Pro?

Further questions: I have an iMac and a MacBookPro both running the latest Big Sur, version 11.2.3. I've had the box in iCloud for "Desktop and Documents folders" unchecked on my iMac, but it is checked on my MacBook Pro. The folders are out of sync with each other. If I turn on "Desktop and Documents folders" in my iMac. Do the folders in iCloud get updated? I assume they will be the same at some point. If there are updates to some of these files, will all versions be included in both computers? I assume that there is only one iCloud that both both computers (and my iPhone) share.

Question: When I turn on "Desktop & Documents Folders" on my iMac, will the Desktop and Documents Folders in both computers be synced to the same iCloud and will they be the same in both computers? Will they both be updated with the various update files and have duplicate files when the update is finished?

Also: looks like PDF files are not stored on iCloud. Is there a reason for that? I have many pdf files in my documents and desktop.

Also: Does Time Machine back up the files in iCloud? Or is iCloud secure enough to not need backups? Makes me a little nervous.

Thanks for looking into these several questions.

veehbj

BobTheFisherman,

Thanks for your reply. If we leave the files in iCloud Drive, does Time Machine back them up? If not, is it best to keep a copy in both places, local disk and iCloud?