Stop auto storage on iCloud Drive

Your Mac does nit automatically store files on iCloud Drive, unless you enable „Desktop and Documents“ for icloud Drive. Are you using this option? if yes, I would drag all files and folders from iCloud Drive’s Desktop and documents folder to a local folder in your Home folder, before you disable the Desktop and Documents option.

Turn off iCloud Drive.

System Preferences > Apple ID > iCloud > iCloud Drive

Clouserman Said:

"Stop auto storage on iCloud Drive: How do I stop automatic storage on iCloud drive without losing any of the files on iCloud Drive. I want them only on my Mac"

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For thought...

Download All of iCloud:

Before all is lost, download all of iCloud, and then search through it in Finder on a Mac. You would download it to an external drive, and then open the drive in Finder. Search through it using the search bar on the top-right corner of the Finder window. Use my user tip: Getting a Quick and Direct "iCloud Drive-to-External Hard Drive" Download - User Tip

Unless Apple has changed this and you uncheck the boxes for Desktop and Documents all your folders on the desktop will disappear. Yes you can restore them by just checking those boxes again but if you don't want to use too much of your storage and have to purchase more or want to keep some files from uploading to iCloud someone suggested just putting .tmp at the end of the folders name which worked for me. I have a seperate hard drive for Time Machine just in case.

See the article Work with folders and files in iCloud Drive - Apple Support

Note : further you can turn off desktops and documents box Add your Desktop and Documents files to iCloud Drive - Apple Support

As per this article Show or hide filename extensions on Mac - Apple Support

When you rename a file or folder, don’t change its filename extension, or you may no longer be able to open the file with the app that was used to create it. To be warned before you change an extension, select “Show warning before changing an extension” in the Advanced pane of Finder preferences.

If you want to change a file’s format, use the app you used to create the file. For example, TextEdit can convert a document from plain text format (.txt) to a rich text format (.rtf), and Preview can convert many types of graphics files.

Make sure you had turned on iCloud Drive and desktops and documents box see the articles Add your Desktop and Documents files to iCloud Drive - Apple Support

Use iCloud Drive to store documents on your Mac and iOS devices - Apple Support

Get file, folder and disk information on Mac - Apple Support

iCloud Drive FAQ - Apple Support

See the section - What types of files can I store in iCloud Drive?

I should have been clear that I only added the .tmp to the folders not what was in them. Mainly due to limited storage with icloud plus banking info or anything else I don't want in icloud just because it's in folders on my desktop. It used to be that you could choose whether to use icloud or not but when setting up new desktop computer I must have said yes to this. Documents can take up a lot of storage especially pics of meter reads since PG&E doesn't always read my meter. I haven't lost anything in those folders by doing this. It isn't my intention to mislead anyone but Apple trying to get us to buy more storage is nonsense. If I want to store it using icloud I can do that, but I didn't like finding out that Apple was doing this automatically.

it is a pity, that the two options to sync the Desktop with iCloud Drive and the Documents folder are linked and cannot be enabled individually. I want my Desktop synced to all devices, but not each and every document. As I want to be able to decide which documents and data are getting stored in iCloud and which will remain local on each device, I simply stopped using the Documents folder at all. My Documents folder is nearly empty. All important documents and data that I want to be synced to my iPhone, my iPad, and my other Macs I am keeping in folders that I dragged directly to on iCloud Drive, outside "Documents".

The folders I do not want to clutter up my devices with less storage than my Macs I am keeping in local folders in my user folder - the folder named like my account, with the cute little house icon in the Finder sidebar.

I am not concerned about having to pay for additional cloud storage, but I do not want to have to fill my iPhone and iPad with documents I do not need there. It is easier to use the smaller devices, if I have only the essential items there. Everything in iCloud will appear on all devices, so I like to be in control of what is stored in iCloud. As I do not like to use the "Optimize Storage" feature, the storage on the smallest device determines, how much data I am syncing with iCloud.