Does Time Machine Back up Desktop & Documents if Located in iCloud ?

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Does Time Machine Back up Desktop & Documents if Located in iCloud ?

FoxFifth solved a problem for another Member ( not Me ) way back ~ May12 2015

Here's a quote ..."I am probably misunderstanding your question but your desktop is a folder on your hard drive. It is located at the following path: hard drive name > Users > username > Desktop. .."

------------- My Question --------Dec 2021----

My Hardware/Software : iMac (late 2013) stuck on Catalina 10.15.7 , Running a 2013 Airport Time Capsule (which i am not relying on any more but still do a monthly backup).

Because of the Age of my Apple HDD's i now am using a Samsung Portable SSD T5 dedicated Disk to Time Machine backUps of my iMac.

Q: I always thot if the System Folders Desktop & Documents are Located in Finder's iCloud , contents of those Folders were not included in the Time Machine BackUps.

If i follow FoxFifth's Path shown underlined in the top paragraph above.... the Desktop & Documents are not there. ( 2015 advice and yes thats an along time ago, in the OSx world ).

But if i drill down in a Samsung SSD T5 BackUp....DeskTop & Documents, those Folders are backed up. Whats the explanation ?

My DSL access to the i Cloud can sometimes be unreliable so i do a Routine Manual iCloud Backup Copy/Paste of Documents in iCloud , to my iMac HDD.

But If the Time Machine Backup to my SSD T5 already, reliably, by Design, does this, I will eliminate this extra backup step ?

Thanks

Time Capsule

Posted on Dec 22, 2021 10:06 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

muguy

Level 10

92,788 points

Dec 22, 2021 10:10 AM in response to _Buster_

Any file resident on your Mac is backed up. iCloud primarily serves to sync documents, not to act as offline storage (although some files may be offloaded from your device for space). So, if the document is on your computer, it is backed up. Any files that are offloaded into iCloud only (files indicated with the "download arrow in cloud" icon, will not be backed up as only a pointer to the cloud file is on your computer.

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Answer 2

_Buster_ Author

Level 1

13 points

Dec 22, 2021 10:43 AM in response to muguy

Yes i understand about iCloud is primarily synching service.

I have just created a Test TextEdit doc , initial & only Save location is my DeskTop System folder in the iCloud.

Then i do a Time Machine BackUp.

Then i go to my Time Machine Portable SSD_T5 BackUp just done and when i drill down > user etc that Test Text Edit is on my backUp Disk.

& Whenever i do a Screen Shot they show up on my DeskTop and all the Screen Shots are also located on my BackUp disc & readable not just a File Name .

So my Question Stands

( what am i missing ? )

PS: & also Why doesn't FoxFifth File Path show my Desk Top & Documents, per my original post ?

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Does Time Machine Back up Desktop & Documents if Located in iCloud ?

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