How to change the home dir of iCloud Drive (Windows version)?

Hi Everyone looking for a solution to this.

I came across this thread looking for the same answer. Here is how I did it (on a Windows 7):

1. Very important: disable the iCloud Drive from the control panel. We will be delete this folder and as a result, the delete may remove everything from your iCloud Drive (it may also be necessary to quit all iCloud related processes from Task Manager).
2. The next important thing to keep in mind is the actual name of the iCloud Drive folder it is "iCloudDrive" and not "iCloud Drive" (notice the missing space; it is just set-up to appear like that).
3. Now create the destination folder on your other drive (or where you would like it to be). I suggest using a folder name like "iCloudDrive" or "iCloud Drive" (to easily know what is inside).
4. Now open Command Prompt (PowerShell should also work) in Administrator mode.
5. Type in the following command (the following variables are used: <username> - the Windows account's username; <destination> - the path to the destination folder, including it's drive letter):
   1. mklink /J "C:\Users\<username>\iCloudDrive" "<destination>"
   2. What this does is create a Directory Junction type symbolic link. In short it allows you to have more than 1 path to get to the same content (iCloud Drive will use the C-drive path, whereas to data will reside on your destination drive).
   3. When this command have been performed, Command Prompt will give a message that the link have been created (In your user folder, you will see a shortcut folder with the name "iCloudDrive").
6. If you had to quit all iCloud related processes, restart your computer for them to correctly startup.
7. Now go to iCloud Control Panel and re-enable iCloud Drive (it may take a while for all your data to download).
   1. If it worked, you will find all your data in the destination folder. When going to the original location, it should still be a shortcut folder, and when accessing it, you may notice that the path remains on your C-drive (this is what iCloud Drive will use to add the content).
   2. You may also notice the difference when checking the properties of original's and destination's properties.
   3. If it did not work, retry, this time quitting the iCloud related processes.

This is what worked for me, I posted this hoping it can help someone else. Use of this instructions at your own risk.

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I have tried that Jaco.XiliX's solution 2 times.

At my first try, it didn't work. then i tried again and saw that it worked.

I think the most important point is the "unchecking iCloud Drive checkbox" in iCloud Settings.

because it was the only different thing between my 2 tries 🙂

Same here. I'm looking for the same answer as well. I would like to have an "option" on iCloud Drive to change directory just like you can with iCloud Photos. In the iCloud Photos option, you are able to change the directory. This would be a neat feature for Drive because I'm running out of space.

of course it works. I wanted to post that yesterday and didn't, thinking that most people wouldn't bother trying. The crucial thing here is of course to deactivate iCloud photo first to unlock the original folder, then move it and once done go through CMD with the mklink line. Done this for tens of apps in the past, and it always perfectly worked.

just an edit to my last post: you don't actually move the folder but create an empty one (where you want it relocated) with the same name before creating the simlink, it will then populate automatically once iCloud Drive is activated again.

ok bad news ... the new relocated folder only populates with folders and subfolders for Keynote, Numbers etc... but no content, the files themselves don't sync. I'll give it a bit of time and if that doesn't change I'll switch back to the original location.

Ok, this is apple - you guys are way overthinking this.

If you want the iCloud Drive folder on another drive, just 'move' it - the same way you would an ordinary folder. I know it sounds crazy, and it is totally contrary to how similar Windows services work but trust me - it works!

You may have to hit F5 to refresh after moving the folder to see the proper iCloud Drive folder icon in the destination folder, and on my machine it left a folder I couldn't open in the source folder (which disappeared by itself after a reboot).

This doesn't work for me on Windows 7. All it did was move the folder. On reboot, iCloud folder on c: drive was just restored and I ended up with two folders. The one on c: drive was linked to iCloud and the one on the d: drive was just a copy from the original move.

Apple, please add the option to move the folder just like is possible with photos.

Yep, I see the link, it has the shortcut icon, and I see the folder ALSO in my destination drive... but it's still in C, all the subfolders show up as being on C, and it just seems to be duplicating the files not actually linking them correctly to the new destination drive.

Would be better if iCloud had an option button in the control panel that gave you the choice of saying what directory you want the file to reside in.

Thanks alot 🙂 It works just fine. And to other who are doubting this can verify this as when i re-enabled iCloudDrive, the iCloudDrive folder in my D: drive automatically got populated with the cloud files (while it was empty earlier).

Can i use this linking method to have same Dropbox folder on my Linux and Windows? I am dual booting currently on the same machine. Anyways will try this and report back 🙂

EDIT: wow this method works with Dropbox folder too 🙂

iCloud 4.0.2 has the option to change location of Photos, except whenever I tried to change the location, photostream wouldn't sync any photos. Only the default folder works, so I had to create a symlink from C:\Users\MyUsernName\Pictures\iCloud Photos to D:\Photos -- Come on Apple.. Why do I have to go through all this trouble

Hi all,

This method is giving me a error. Not sure why this is hapenning. When i disable icloud drive it deletes the folder (not sure if it is supposed to).

Then the command prompt then tells me "the system cannot find the path specified"

How would the system find the path specified when control pannel deletes the iCloudDrive folder?

Hi

copy & paste what you are typing in command line an I can have a look at it.

Read the instructions once more you need to create a destination folder. Keep in mind that if you have spaces in the path you would need tho use "e:\my icloud folder\" and not e:\my icloud folder\ without quotes.

worked per instructions, but I hate it why dont we have the option in icloud panel.

and yeah, we need file managing app, and link creation from all documents etc...

EDIT: and I hate I need to redownload all the files. Why cant I just paste them there, and icloud should compare and see they are same and have them like that?

I tried this and the directory junction was created sucessfully, iCloud Drive begun to populate the files from iCloud into the right drive (the E: drive in my instance) but the files being downloaded to my new "E:\iCloud Drive" folder still appear to be taking up space on my C: drive?? Now I have the same amount of space being used on both C: and E: instead of on just one drive! Which completely defeats the purpose of it all! It is astonishing that Apple still haven't added the ability to specify a location for the iCloudDrive folder!