THE CLOUD

HI Barry Glasgal, 

Thank you for posting to the Apple Support Communities. 

To start on this, you’ll want to check your iCloud storage details to view what files you are saving in the iCloud Drive. You may want to remove duplicate files here to free up more of your iCloud storage before those changes sync with your other devices. Click here for instructions on how to Access and manage your files in iCloud Drive. 

You may also find suggestions to Free up storage space on your Mac to help optimize your available iCloud and device storage as well. 

If the suggestions above do not help you find a solution, please contact Apple Support directly for more help. 

Have a great day!

Hi Barry Glasgal, 

Thanks for following up. What happens when you use the steps to access your files using Finder on your Mac? You can see how to do so from a Mac here:

You can access iCloud Drive in the Finder on your Mac.

When you add your Desktop and Documents folders to iCloud Drive, you can access all of the files in those folders anywhere you use iCloud. Learn more about adding Desktop and Documents to iCloud Drive. 

See more about that here: Access and manage your files in iCloud Drive - Apple Support

Thanks.

By mistake, I uploaded my desktop to the Cloud.

Do you mean that you turned on Desktop and Documents in iCloud Drive too that those items sync to the cloud?

I immediately got a message cloud almost full.

Anything on your computer is also in iCloud. If you elected to optimize, then there may be files in iCloud only. If you did not, your files are still on your Mac.

Now when I start up, the desktop is the cloud desktop.

Not sure what you mean by this. Has the desktop changed? See the first question above.

I am sure I have lots of duplicated files on the Mini.

Probably not. Unless you made duplicates.

When I double click the Mini HD image on the desktop I get only 4 items-see below.

Yes, that's expected if you have desktop and documents enabled.

If you have enabled desktop and documents, simply turn it off. Then, drag the folder items from your desktop folder in iCloud to your desktop. Same for Documents.