Where is the physical iCloud drive on OSX Yosemite?

It's hidden on your computer's hard drive. There is a Finder sidebar entry for it that you can enable.

Bring the Finder forward, click the "Finder > Preferences" command, then select the "Sidebar" tab..

Enable "iCloud Drive".

You're wecome. 🙂

Got that configured, but it's as if the drive wasn't set up properly upon installing Yosemite as the shortcut doesn't do anything at all when clicked on. Also, when I click on the Go To menu in Finder and then on iCloud Drive, I get a message saying that the operation cannot be completed as the element can't be found... Any insights as to what went wrong ?

Exactly my issue too. Any ideas/suggestions?

Yep, exact same problem.

I've just reboot the iMac and it works fine. Now I can see the folders on iCloud Drive.

Thanks for the post, but this isn't helping to location the actual physical location from what I can see - this just allows you to see the hidden folder in your side bar.

Here is why I NEED to find the physical file location:

- I use a MacBook Pro that can't be upgraded as the hard drive is built into the computer so I am stuck with my measly 500 GB drive

- I have 1.5 TB of data and need to back up at least 850GB of that data as it is sensitive

- I NEED to be able to relocate my iCloud Drive location to an external drive like I have been doing with Google Drive (via inSync) and DropBox so I can start using iCloud Drive vs those two services

I called Apple Support and was given incorrect information - the support agent was polite, but didn't know her information"

- She said, the files were ABSOLUTELY NOT located on the hard drive of your computer, but ONLY on the iCloud Drive and the folder I was seeing was merely a portal into the cloud

- This, of course, I knew was nonsense and proved it by turning off my internet and still was able to use, edit, delete, add, etc. files to the iCloud Drive, but they of course weren't synced until I returned to the internet

There are two MAJOR problems with this otherwise wonderful tool from my limited experience with it today:

- I need to be able to move it to a larger drive as indicated above

- There seems to be no AUTO sync feature as Google Drive and DropBox have and I have to manually sync files after returning to the internet if they were altered or added during an outage

I called Apple Support again and waited another 45 minutes to talk to someone only to be cut off after asking my questions so I am asking here ... Can anyone support these questions?

1. How to locate and move my physical iCloud Drive folder to an external drive...

2. How to auto-sync files after returning to the internet after an outage...

I found an easier way in another thread after not being able to see any of the contents in the icloud drive with the Finder:

Go to the finder icon on your launch bar, press the option key and the right mouse button. Select the option to "Relaunch". When I did that, everything worked. At least for the moment.

iCloud Drive on the side bar is only an alias. I would like to know the actual physical folder on my mac, too.

Thanks for the post, but this isn't helping to location the actual physical location from what I can see - this just allows you to see the hidden folder in your side bar.

Here is why I NEED to find the physical file location:

- I use a MacBook Pro that can't be upgraded as the hard drive is built into the computer so I am stuck with my measly 500 GB drive

- I have 1.5 TB of data and need to back up at least 850GB of that data as it is sensitive

- I NEED to be able to relocate my iCloud Drive location to an external drive like I have been doing with Google Drive (via inSync) and DropBox so I can start using iCloud Drive vs those two services

I called Apple Support and was given incorrect information - the support agent was polite, but didn't know her information"

- She said, the files were ABSOLUTELY NOT located on the hard drive of your computer, but ONLY on the iCloud Drive and the folder I was seeing was merely a portal into the cloud

- This, of course, I knew was nonsense and proved it by turning off my internet and still was able to use, edit, delete, add, etc. files to the iCloud Drive, but they of course weren't synced until I returned to the internet

There are two MAJOR problems with this otherwise wonderful tool from my limited experience with it today:

- I need to be able to move it to a larger drive as indicated above

- There seems to be no AUTO sync feature as Google Drive and DropBox have and I have to manually sync files after returning to the internet if they were altered or added during an outage

I called Apple Support again and waited another 45 minutes to talk to someone only to be cut off after asking my questions so I am asking here ... Can anyone support these questions?

1. How to locate and move my physical iCloud Drive folder to an external drive...

2. How to auto-sync files after returning to the internet after an outage

I have never, ever vented on a forum ... until now ...

After 3+ hours on the phone with Apple Support (not knowing their own product), I finally learned that iCloud Drive is completely unworkable for me ... here is part of the "why":

• It is impossible (according to Apple Support) to relocate iCloud Drive (physically) from the hard drive that the OS is located on
  • This is absolutely insane for a HOST of reasons, but the one that is the most important is that anyone with truly sensitive data would not locate their data on the same drive as the OS, but rather on something like a network storage, etc. for security and back up reasons
  • Another is that MANY business users have more than a few GB of data - you would never trust your data (if it was a great deal) to the same drive as where most corruption occurs (where the applications and OS reside)
• Since my data is both sensitive AND massive I MUST use another drive than the same one the OS is located on

  Example: 1 TB drive for OS/Apps, 1TB drive for WIN (bootcamp), 6TB RAID where I store data

• Although they SAY it is automatically synced, 100% of my tests show that NO syncing occurs other than manual UNLESS it is connected to the internet at the time of the edit, add, delete, etc.

In summary, I have been with Apple since they began and have put up with the insane quirks such as a one button mouse (at a time when the majority of Apple users were power users in the graphics industry and ALL used a multi-button mouse), windows that didn't collapse or resize from all corners/edges unless you built a script (the Apple Support team actually told me, "we don't want to be like Windows"), not being able to see hidden files without a work-around script, etc. ... but offering 1 TB of space (which I paid for in good faith) and then telling me iCloud Drive was never intended for storage truly tries my patience with a company that have always offered such well-thought-out solutions until iCloud and now iCloud Drive.

Of all of the business users I know in the animation industry (my industry), we ALL have TBs of data ... it is ALL sensitive (very little of our industry is actually entertainment related as most people misunderstand) ... and like all others, we need storage redundancy and syncing ...

Though I still don't believe the Apple Support telling me this isn't possible, I will grudgingly return to either an easily corrupted DropBox or a quirky GoogleDrive that requires inSync to work with an external drive because AT LEAST they work to some degree /sigh - rant over - for now ...

I think I found something by creating test files in Cloud Drive then deleting and seeing which folders are updated on the Mac.

Check out user/Library/cache/com.apple.bird

something is happening in there, but I'm not an expert to figure it out.

Honestly, to me, Google Drive makes this process look antique. and it's not beta.