UselessMacuser26 wrote:
Dear Apple community
Please bear with me, I am a total luddite and not good at this stuff.
So someone in our family must have ticked or clicked something and now all our documents and folders have gone into iCloud and we can't retrieve them.
Why not? iCloud is a syncing service. It simply synchronizes files so a copy is retained locally always and a copy is placed in iCloud to replicate any changes made. So normally there is nothing to actually retrieve from iCloud. Your files should continue to exist locally as well as in iCloud Drive if it was turned on.
To compound things we can no longer attach any documents in emails, no matter what provider.
Why not? What happens when you try? Having the iCloud Drive Desktop & Documents option turned on does not affect your local file operations like attaching files to an email. You'll need to explain exactly what is happening when you try to attach a file.
We have tried going into iCloud Drive on System Preferences and togging off Desktop and Documents folders, but it has done nothing at all. We still can't seem to move documents back from iCloud.
Turning off Desktop & Documents in iCloud Drive settings, just stops the synchronization. A New set of folders is created locally and you then need to drag files from the iCloud Drive section in Finder to these new folders which will be empty. Why can't you move them back? What happens when you try?
Anything we save e.g. attachments from emails, immediately go into iCloud.
If you have Desktop & Documents option turned on, then it's all automatically synced to iCloud, if you turn it off, then this will no longer happen. With it turned on, files still remain local on the computer but will also be synchronized to iCloud. Anything you save locally keeps a copy on your computer and might eventually sync to iCloud. You can always save to a location that does not sync to iCloud, like a custom folder outside of the Documents folder and it will keep files on your computer without making a copy on iCloud.
When we sign out of iCloud nothing changes, and a new folder is not created in our home folder, as Apple articles suggest will happen.
It should create new Desktop and Documents folders that are empty and contain none of the synchronized files. You can then copy files from iCloud Drive to these new folders. The change is automatic and you probably won't see much change, except the Documents folder in your Home folder being now empty.
Does anyone out there know where we are going wrong, how to rectify this?
Rectify what? If you don't want to use Desktop & Documents on iCloud just turn that option off.
What exactly is the issue? Having the Desktop & documents option turned on does not change how you interact with your files in any way. So not sure what you need to be rectified.
You need to explain what the issue is instead of assuming it has anything to do with syncing to iCloud Drive.
If you explain clearly what you can't do or what issue you are encountering someone here may be able to advise a course of action.
