How can I share a single Documents folder between two Macs via iCloud?

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Level 1

9 points

How can I share a single Documents folder between two Macs via iCloud?

I currently have two Macs that I want to have the exact same information in their Documents folders. I thought I could share them via iCloud and have them sync'd, similar to how I might do this via other cloud drive services. But it appears iCloud creates a separate Documents folder for each Mac. And I can't even see the other Mac's Documents folder from another Mac. How can I use iCloud to give me a single synchronized Documents folder on two (or more) Macs?

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 12.0

Posted on Nov 28, 2021 10:32 AM

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Answer 1

tygb

Level 9

64,748 points

Nov 29, 2021 9:18 PM in response to jljiraffe

As you mentioned - And I can't even see the other Mac's Documents folder from another Mac.

In finder > iCloud section > iCloud Drive create a folder , again right click over it use get info and open the small lock by entering admin password and check mark the shared folder and lock it , also you can change read and write permissions to no access for everyone ( when you view second Mac ) the folder can't be opened and documents / files inside can't be read unless you change permissions from first Mac .

See the articles Share files and folders in iCloud Drive on iCloud.com - Apple Support

Change permissions for files, folders or disks on Mac - Apple Support

You have to check mark shared folder and locked .

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Answer 2

muguy

Level 10

82,363 points

Nov 28, 2021 1:34 PM in response to jljiraffe

You can share documents, but it will create separate folders for each machine's desktop. but, you can access the documents on the other Mac. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206985

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Answer 3

jljiraffe Author

Level 1

9 points

Nov 30, 2021 7:30 PM in response to jljiraffe

The only way I could figure out how to sort of make this work was to:

Create a new folder in iCloud called Shared Documents.
Move all the contents of Documents into Shared Documents.
Share the Shared Documents folder by sending it to myself and then opening the link on my other Mac.
On both Macs, I made an alias to Shared Documents (called Documents alias) and placed this in my sidebar instead of the official Documents folder.

This mostly works, except for applications that try to write to the Documents folder.

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Answer 4

jljiraffe Author

Level 1

9 points

Nov 29, 2021 10:30 AM in response to muguy

This isn't sufficient. Surely there must be a way to have a single, shared, backed up Documents folder that can be used by multiple Macs simultaneously without having to give up on iCloud and use some other service.

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How can I share a single Documents folder between two Macs via iCloud?

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