Tahoe saves Documents and Desktop to iCloud. How can I stop that?

For some reason, the forum is not letting me upload a screenshot (not from my Mac or iPhone), but go to System Settings, scroll down and click iCloud, then click the Drive button. There is a toggle for "Desktop & Documents Folders, Keep your Desktop & Documents Folders in sync with iCloud and access them from other devices and iCloud.com."

See this:

Add your Desktop and Documents files to iCloud Drive - Apple Support

Scroll down to the Turn off Desktop and Documents section.

Tahoe treats Desktop and Documents as iCloud Drive–managed locations once the feature is enabled, and if the toggle is missing it usually means iCloud Drive itself is already partially disabled or stuck in a migrated state. The way out is this, first, make sure everything is physically on your Mac by opening Finder, going to iCloud Drive, and confirming Desktop and Documents show a cloud-with-arrow icon (download them if needed). Then go to System Settings > your name > iCloud, turn iCloud Drive OFF entirely, choose “Keep a copy on this Mac” when prompted, and let it finish. Restart. After reboot, turn iCloud Drive back ON, but immediately go into iCloud > Drive Options and do not re-enable Desktop & Documents. If the toggle still doesn’t appear, log out of iCloud completely, reboot again, and sign back in.

This isn’t user error, it’s a known UI desync where the option disappears while the background sync flag stays active, and forcing a clean iCloud Drive reset is the only way to truly detach Desktop and Documents without losing local data

Barney-15E wrote:

When you turn off desktop & documents in iCloud Drive, the hard links to the files that existed in your desktop and documents folder folders are removed leaving only the hard links in the mobile documents folder. When you then move the files from iCloud Drive back to your new, empty desktop and documents folders, hard links are once again created in those folders and removed from the mobile documents folder.

As they say in the movies, no bits were harmed during this process.

all of the wild accusations on losing data and everything else is just FUD.

I have to admit Apple's documentation is confusing on this. Apple does say you need to copy the items back, but it is not exactly clear how you find those documents unless the "iCloud" folder remains on the sidebar. It would be nice if Apple mentioned local & online locations as well in their articles since the items may exist in both locations while iCloud Drive is active.

I must say your explanation is better than Apple's own documentation because you address the actual behavior of what is occurring behind the scenes.

Add your Desktop and Documents files to iCloud Drive - Apple Support

Turn off Desktop & Documents Folders on your Mac - Apple Support

So what happens to the existing items within the local Desktop & Documents folders when you turn on iCloud Drive?

Are they automatically relocated to the iCloud Drive folder? If so, then why aren't the contents of the iCloud Drive automatically relocated to their respective folders once iCloud Drive has been turned off?

In the first article I linked, Apple mentions you may keep a local copy.....that tends to imply they will be located in the Desktop & Documents folders....especially if existing items in Desktop/Documents are a relocated to the iCloud Drive folder. Only the second Apple article mentions the need to manually transfer those items. I'm always amazed Apple makes people do manual labor when the computer should be doing the heavy lifting here. This is not the only time I've encountered such things with Apple (cannot recall the others at the moment).

I've never intentionally used iCloud for document storage. Apple did enable it automatically for me when I signed into my AppleID/iCloud on my new Mac. My Apple devices only ever had iCloud syncing for Contacts & Messages enabled. I know when I went to disable the unwanted syncing of other items, the message was confusing. I was already aggravated by the difficulties in migrating even before this event occurred and this invasion of privacy irked me even more since I had sensitive items on my local Desktop/Documents I did not want in the cloud.

You want to go to  > System Settings > [name on top] > iCloud > Drive, and in there you should see the toggle to turn it off.

System Settings > iCloud > Drive, turn it off.

then the only way to stop it doing that made it wipe all the documents!

It didn’t. You just didn’t understand what it did.

Nothing actually moved anywhere. It all remained on disk exactly where it was. Finder just made you believe it had moved with file system tricks. You didn’t need to restore anything. You just needed to “move” them from iCloud back into your home folders. However, nothing actually moves. Hard links are created and destroyed, but the data they point to never moves.

It likely took a good amount of time to restore. “Moving” them from iCloud Drive would have been instantaneous because nothing was moved.

So what happens to the existing items within the local Desktop & Documents folders when you turn on iCloud Drive?

They actually remain referenced there along with on iCloud Drive. You can actually see them in Terminal, but Finder will not allow you to see them at all.

Are they automatically relocated to the iCloud Drive folder? If so, then why aren't the contents of the iCloud Drive automatically relocated to their respective folders once iCloud Drive has been turned off?

I don't know why they didn't just do that. I've wondered that since they created the feature.

In the first article I linked, Apple mentions you may keep a local copy.....that tends to imply they will be located in the Desktop & Documents folders....especially if existing items in Desktop/Documents are a relocated to the iCloud Drive folder. Only the second Apple article mentions the need to manually transfer those items. I'm always amazed Apple makes people do manual labor when the computer should be doing the heavy lifting here. This is not the only time I've encountered such things with Apple (cannot recall the others at the moment).

There is always a "local copy" unless you've enabled Optimized Storage and the file gets "optimized" or you "Remove Download."

The description of what happens when you turn it off is overcomplicated and confusing. As you already noted, why put it them in a new, strangely labeled folder. Why not just put them back in their respective folders?

The instructions have changed many times, but nothing else in the process has changed.

Yup, this just happened to me. It dumped a shed load of files all over my desk top and moved my documents onto the cloud; then the only way to stop it doing that made it wipe all the documents! Thank heavens I had backup copies because that was YEARS of work erased by ham-fisted nonsense.

I do NOT want my documents stuck on a cloud, dependent on the net for me to access them. I want them on my laptop.

Have 26.4.1. I click on the Desktop & Documents Folders switch, (click on Turn Off when the pop up shows up), get the spinning pinwheel (not beachball), but after a minute it goes away and is switched back to enable. If I exit with done while it is spinning, and return some time later, it has enabled the syncing. Tried many variations, it never disables the sync.

, first, make sure everything is physically on your Mac

Nothing gets removed from your Mac unless you enable optimized storage separately. All of your data is always still on your Mac and it doesn’t even move from its storage location on the drive.

, turn iCloud Drive OFF entirely,

Absolutely no need for doing that. Waste of time. Does not affect a single thing.

As I noted above, every single bit is still written to your drive, exactly where it was before turning on desktop and documents. When you turn it off, every single bit is still in the same location on the drive.

All that happens is hard links to the files are created in the iCloud Drive folder in your library. The desktop and documents folders in your home are hidden by the Finder. All file references are still active in those hidden folders.

When you turn off desktop & documents in iCloud Drive, the hard links to the files that existed in your desktop and documents folder folders are removed leaving only the hard links in the mobile documents folder. When you then move the files from iCloud Drive back to your new, empty desktop and documents folders, hard links are once again created in those folders and removed from the mobile documents folder.

As they say in the movies, no bits were harmed during this process.

all of the wild accusations on losing data and everything else is just FUD.

Barney-15E wrote:

The description of what happens when you turn it off is overcomplicated and confusing. As you already noted, why put it them in a new, strangely labeled folder. Why not just put them back in their respective folders?

You enable the cloud storage feature, then when you want to disable it you find that the process seems confusing and challenging. Maybe it's easier to just keep the cloud storage. It's not that expensive. [/tinfoil hat mode]

What are you calling "iCloud Options." I have nothing called "iCloud Options."

This is what the iCloud Drive settings looks like: