HT204055: Archive or make copies of your iCloud data

Learn about Archive or make copies of your iCloud data
endotronic

Q: How can I download all data from iCloud Drive?

I've put a bunch of data in iCloud Drive from OS X. I'd like to copy it out, though. If I copy via Finder, as if I were copying from one drive to another, it seems that only downloaded/synced data is copied, and no effort is made to download iCloud data that has not already been downloaded/synced. Via the web interface, there is no option to download folders that I have found. Thus, the only solution I can see right now is to manually open every file in my iCloud Drive until the whole thing is synced locally, then copy via Finder. This is not realistic though. Surely there must be a better way?

 

In case it is unclear to anyone what I mean by downloaded/synced, some of the files stored in iCloud Drive accessible via Finder have an icon of a cloud with a down-arrow. Those files don't seem to be present locally until opened for reading, and these are the ones that don't get copied if I copy the parent folder.

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X El Capitan (10.11.3)

Posted on Feb 26, 2016 2:24 PM