I have a MacBook Air running macOS Monterey v 12.6. For some reason, the documents folder for the hard drive is missing and I cannot locate it. While I have been able to recover some files, many are missing. When using Finder, the only Documents folder listed is under iCloud and it is incomplete. Suggestions?
MacBook Air 13″, macOS 12.6
If your Documents folder is listed under iCloud Drive, you enabled Desktop & Documents in iCloud Drive.
Your Documents folder was synchronized with iCloud Drive. It should have everything in it that was on your Mac.
It will no longer show up in your Home folder (though it is still there, hidden).
If you want to look inside the hidden folder, open Terminal and copy/paste this command:
ls -la ~/Documents
See if there is anything in that listing that you think is missing from the GUI Documents folder.
If you attempted to turn off Desktop & Documents in iCloud Drive, you may have a folder inside your Home named "iCloud Drive (Archive)." Look inside of that.
If your Documents folder is listed under iCloud Drive, you enabled Desktop & Documents in iCloud Drive.
Your Documents folder was synchronized with iCloud Drive. It should have everything in it that was on your Mac.
It will no longer show up in your Home folder (though it is still there, hidden).
If you want to look inside the hidden folder, open Terminal and copy/paste this command:
ls -la ~/Documents
See if there is anything in that listing that you think is missing from the GUI Documents folder.
If you attempted to turn off Desktop & Documents in iCloud Drive, you may have a folder inside your Home named "iCloud Drive (Archive)." Look inside of that.
Thanks Barney,
I was able to find some of the documents in the "iCloud Drive (Archive) but not all. Can I reinstate the "Documents" folder on my home? I want to selectively archive files to iCloud, but not all. I think when I attempted to delete the "Documents" folder on iCloud, I killed it on my local hard drive as well. That was not my intention, but it points to Apple's drive to increase recurring revenue via iCloud. While there may be a toutorial regarding best practices for file storage using the macOS, I have not seen one.
I appreciate your guidance.
Dick
dickagin wrote:
Thanks Barney,
1 - Can I reinstate the "Documents" folder on my home? 2 - I want to selectively archive files to iCloud, but not all.
1 - Yes, If you go to the System/Apple ID/iCloud/iCloud Drive preference pane and turn off iCloud Drive you'll be presented with a window of options, one of which is to save what's on iCloud Drive to you Mac including Desktop and Documents folders contents.
2 - you can enable the iCloud Drive without the Desktop and Documents and manually save/store documents to it.
NOTE: the animated screenshot above is from a different system but the preference panes are the same and have the same function.
Thanks so much for the response. It worked very well and I have my files once again where I want them. Huge help, thank you.
Cheers,
Dick
How can I find the documents folder on my Mac hard drive?
