Automatic backup of desktop and documents in iCloud Drive..Y

Question

Automatic backup of desktop and documents in iCloud Drive..Y

Turn off Desktop and Documents

From your Mac, choose Apple menu  > System Settings.
Click Apple Account. In macOS Sonoma or earlier, click Apple ID.
Click iCloud.
Under Saved to iCloud, click Drive. In macOS Sonoma or earlier, under Apps Using iCloud, click iCloud Drive.
Turn off Desktop & Documents Folders.
Click Done.

What happens when you turn off Desktop and Documents

When you turn off Desktop & Documents Folders, your files stay in iCloud Drive and a new Desktop and Documents folder is created on your Mac in the home folder. You can move files from iCloud Drive to your Mac as you need them, or select all of your files and drag them to the place you want to keep them.

What happens when you turn off iCloud Drive or sign out of iCloud

If you turn off iCloud Drive or sign out of iCloud, a new Desktop and Documents folder is created in your home folder. You also have the option to keep a local copy of your files that are in iCloud Drive. If you keep a local copy of your files in iCloud Drive, they're copied to a folder called iCloud Drive (Archive) in your home folder. You can move any files that were in your iCloud Desktop and Documents to your new local Desktop and Documents.

Who decided this was a good idea? We should be able to just switch off or never turn this feature on as it always was before and not have to remake all our files back onto the commuter again if we turn it off. this made to discourage a person from doing this as it adds extra work/time. It never was like this before and it worked fine. I don't want my files backed up on iCloud drive unless I choose to do it and only certain files for limited times as I decide. That just fills ups space and costs more money having it happen automatically.

I'm hoping that Apple decides to reverse policy win this and set things back the way they always were fire the last OS upgrade. I only found out this was going on because I kept getting messages saying my iCloud storage was full when I coil see the usual amount of pictures and nites hadn't changed. I d=found all my desktop stuff and docents files in iCloud Drive and that's what was using up all my space.

iMac 27″, macOS 15.5

Posted on Jun 24, 2025 3:37 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

John Galt

Level 10

156,344 points

Jun 24, 2025 4:44 PM in response to johnsiphone4610

... Who decided this was a good idea?

Apple? Just a guess. If you don't like it, turn it off as you wrote.

I don't want my files backed up on iCloud drive ...

I believe you may have been laboring under a misconception. iCloud Drive is not a backup system for your Mac. To learn more about iCloud Drive read Introduction to iCloud - Apple Support.

Time Machine is a backup system for your Mac. Please read Back up your files with Time Machine on Mac.

I'm hoping that Apple decides to reverse policy win ...

Hoping accomplishes nothing and your concerns will go unheard on this site. If you wish to express your disapproval, use Product Feedback - Apple. However, I suspect it is working precisely as intended and as you accurately described, therefore it is my opinion filing Feedback would be unproductive.

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Answer 2

Jun 24, 2025 8:28 PM in response to John Galt

I'm very much aware of how things work. More than most. I've had apple commuters since my first Apple II with an Imagewriter printer and many versions and sizes of G3-G5, notebooks, iPad and Mac-mini etc in between then and now. I've had networks of Apple Computers for my business.

I'm very much aware that my Time Machine is the primary back up for the iMac.

You misunderstand what I'm saying. This problem with iCloud Drive scooping up my files from my documents folder and my desktop is new since the last update to the OS. I only noticed it because I stared getting notices about iCloud having no more space left and I always monitor it so that can't happen. I keep most of my dat locally, on this computer and external drives and don't depend on iCloud for storage lie some people do. It was never like this before and to shut that feature off, it eliminates the files on the Mac and keeps them in iCloud Drive which is the very thing I don't want and then you have to drag them back onto your computer. Funny thing that.. those notices about how you've used up all your pace are always accompanied by sales pitches to buy more space. I think the two are connected.

so, my solution is now to just keep my documents on and external drive and not leave much of anything on ym desktop so they don't get pulled over into iCloud Drive.

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Answer 3

Barney-15E

Level 10

122,828 points

Jun 24, 2025 8:38 PM in response to johnsiphone4610

Who decided this was a good idea?

My guess is a very smart person who works for Apple.

We should be able to just switch off or never turn this feature on as it always was before and not have to remake all our files back onto the commuter again if we turn it off.

You can not turn it on. I’m not sure why you think it must be enabled.

Nothing is moved at all. You can turn it on and off all day long and the data never moves from where it was created on your drive. You may think it has moved because of what you see, but what you think is happening is not. It’s really quite ingenious.

Hard links are created in the iCloud backing store and the Desktop and Documents folders are hidden. The files all remain in those hidden folders, but because of the hard links, they appear in iCloud Drive. If you disable it, the references in the Desktop and Documents are deleted but since there is a hard link in the iCloud Drive folder, the data is retained. Data is only deleted when the last hard link reference is deleted.

Whether you keep the Archive or you copy from the iCloud Drive folders, the same thing happens. Hard links are created back in the new Desktop and Documents folders and then removed from iCloud Drive. In all of this, no data has been moved anywhere. It is all file system magic.

I don’t know why they couldn’t do the “move” back for you, but it really is not difficult to select all and drag into the new folder. What appears to be a copy happens instantly because nothing is actually copied.

The one caveat is if you enable Optimize Storage. Anything that was removed from your drive to make space would take time to download.

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