De-synching Documents and Destop Folders - icloud

>Any files still on your Mac are removed.

Really don't understand. There are no D&D folders on the Mac so no files contained therein that can be removed.

Or are you talking about obscurely-named/numbered files hidden in obscure Library folders? That would make sense to me. Thx.

Since ~nobody has any ken of those files' existence, this seems like less than useful info from Apple. Simply saying that D&D folders will be re-created (empty) would be useful OTOH...

Thanks,

Steve

Thanks muguy! So if I de-synch it will re-create doc and desktop folders on my hard drive, but won't populate them. 🙄

I've copied all the files to two folders in home folder as suggested and am feeling pretty confident that I'm safe to turn off D&D synch. Will move files into the new folders when they're created.

(Amazing how fast it copied, suggesting to me that I did have at least some local copies on my local drive. Though where and which I really can't say... 😠)

Just amazing the lengths modern Apple goes to to protect its delicate users from the insanely difficult concept of having files, that are contained in folders, which can be inside other folders.... (I've been using Macs at a quite high level since 1984...)

Thanks again.

Oh two more questions:

One: After a necessary recent drive erase/system-reinstall/recover (from Time Machine), icloud created duplicate Document/Desktop folders inside those icloud folders, named "Documents - MacBook Pro (2)" The new folders seem to be ~identical in size at least, to their enclosing folders (The Documents ƒ is now the twice the size of the enclosed Documents Macbook Pro (2) ƒ.)

My Q: Which are the "live" files? I assume the MBPro 2 folders are redundant and can be deleted, but...?

Two: When I turn off synch, will the mysteriously buried "backups" of my D & D folders be removed, or do I need to find them and delete them manually?

Thanks again.

>If you turn off desktop and documents, your desktop and documents folders will be created new on the Mac

Sheesh: Apple begs to differ. Sorta. I went to turn off D&D synching and got this message:

If you continue, items will be removed from the Desktop and the Documents folder on this Mac and will remain available in iCloud Drive.

What in the actual....?? THERE ARE NO D&D FOLDERS ON MY MAC. Turning on D&D Synch deleted them!

Could Apple make this more confusing if they tried?

I'm confident in my backups (which are themselves now also backed up to Time Machine), but just...really?

>If I were you I'd copy your Documents and Desktop files to another

location - Mac HD if you've got space (but with different folder names

for now and not into docs or desktop) .... I wouldn't rely on Time Machine

Thanks, Zurarczurx, I had thought similar on Yet Another Backup copy but you prompted me to find/create space on an external backup drive I use, and copied the ƒs over. So I now have three hard-drive copies of the ƒs, on Mac HD, TM, and another drive. Will disconnect external drives before Flipping the Switch.

I can't imagine how Apple could screw me here...