iCloud Drive Desktop and Documents Folders

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Level 1

14 points

iCloud Drive Desktop and Documents Folders

Just updated to Sierra and thought it would be a nice feature to be able to back up Desktop and Documents folders to iCloud. However, that is not really what it does… Instead it moves your Desktop and Documents folders to iCloud Drive. Your User's Desktop and Documents folders disappear from favorites. Presumably, this clears up space from your hard disk, but that is not what I wanted. I wanted to work on my files on my hard disk and for these to be synced/mirrored on iCloud. As I don't do real work on files in these folders on any other device than my MacBook Pro, having these files available from other devices was not an important aspect for me.

Now my issues are:

1) Will Time Machine still back up these two folders that are now in the cloud?

2) If I want to get these folders back on my hard disk (My Computer>Users>My User>Documents/Desktop), what is the best way to proceed?

3) Is there a smart way to use iCloud in the way that I intended?

MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012), macOS Sierra (10.12)

Posted on Sep 23, 2016 8:35 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

chuck_3rd

Community Specialist

Sep 24, 2016 3:16 PM in response to tormod v.

Hello tormod v.,

Thanks for asking your question about iCloud Drive and Sierra here in the Apple Support Communities. I understand how important iCloud is, and how sometimes the features can get confusing, especially when combing things like the new macOS Sierra and iCloud Drive.

The first thing we want to ensure is that all your data is safe. You can make a backup using Time Machine and an external hard drive. Some people recommend an external hard drive two times the size of your internal hard drive because it will fill up with backups eventually, but as long as you have a drive large enough to store all the data currently on your Mac, that will suffice. Use this article for help making a backup for your Mac: Use Time Machine to back up or restore your Mac . To answer your first question, now that those files and folders are in iCloud Drive, those will need to be backed up a different way separate from Time Machine. To do this, please open this help article: Archive or make copies of your iCloud data under the first section titled "Documents and iCloud Drive files". You will need to download them to the computer again, and then make a Time Machine backup, the instructions show.

To get these files back to your desktop, go ahead and turn off the feature from the iCloud Drive option in system Preferences. Then, after the warning, go ahead and drag and drop your files from iCloud Drive, back to your computers local documents and/or desktop folders. This will move the files from iCloud Drive, and put them back to your computer.

You final question has been answered by yourself, and the article I post above about making an archive or copies of your iCloud data. iCloud and iCloud Drive are not backups. Yes, you can make iOS backups and save them in iCloud, but to make a dynamic backup of all your files and folders, they need to be on the internal hard drive, or on your external hard drive connected to your Mac, and that external drive is not excluded from backups in Time Machine preferences.

Thanks again and have a great rest of your day.

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Answer 2

tormod v. Author

Level 1

14 points

Sep 26, 2016 1:36 AM in response to chuck_3rd

Thanks a million.

Just a detail: Oddly, my desktop folder has reappeared under favorites (in Finder window sidebar) though both Desktop and Documents have disappeared from my User folder. (Though perhaps something went wrong during the uploading to iCloud: clicking on either of those files, now in iCloud Drive, seems to indicate it as stuck on "n items, 4.06 GB available on iCloud, uploading 1 item (466.9 MB of 9.34 GB).") Will they reappear once I turn off Desktop and Documents from iCloud preferences? If not, is there anything one should be aware of when creating new Desktop and Documents folders in User (on internal hard disk)?

Wonder if changes will eventually be made to Time Machine to enable it to include such folders in iCloud...

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Answer 3

i_rina

Community Specialist

Sep 26, 2016 10:25 AM in response to tormod v.

Hello tormod v.,

Thanks for continuing your troubleshooting here in the Apple Support Communities. I'm happy to hear the steps provided have helped with your understanding of iCloud Drive, and Time Machine. The fact that both your Desktop and Documents folder has disappeared from your User folder, is because you turned the feature to store your Desktop and Documents folders in iCloud Drive off. With Desktop and Documents enabled in iCloud Drive, the system makes that folder in your user folder to access that information. With it no longer enabled, your Desktop and Documents folders return to their normal locations inside the Finder, under the Home Folder, which then can then be backed up by Time Machine. I am unable to comment for the plans Apple has with Time Machine and the future abilities.

Thanks again and have a wonderful rest of your day.

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Answer 4

tormod v. Author

Level 1

14 points

Sep 27, 2016 3:07 AM in response to i_rina

Sorry, that I don't quite understand… I have not yet turned off the feature to store Desktop and Documents folders in iCloud… I guess I will do that once I am ready, and figure out the best way to get my files back on my hard disk and back into Desktop and Documents folders in my home/user folder.

Yet, the Desktop folder has reappeared in my Finder sidebar, under Favorites, while my Desktop folder has not. Why would that be, unless it has something to do with a partially failed upload to iCloud?

Will turning off Desktop and Documents in iCloud Drive bring my folders back on the hard disk, or will I have to recreate them from backup?

Uploading Desktop and Documents folders to iCloud has made more space available on my hard disk. How does that happen if my (Desktop and Documents) files are still available on my computer when I am offline?

Thanks for clarifying...

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Answer 5

Barney-15E

Level 10

113,190 points

Sep 27, 2016 4:20 AM in response to tormod v.

If it is still in the process of transferring files (stuck or otherwise), at this point I would not disable Desktop and Documents in iCloud Drive until it has finished.

As already mentioned, it does not restore the now-hidden Desktop and Documents folders. It deletes all the data from them and you then must copy them back from iCloud Drive. If they have not all transferred, my guess is you will lose everything that wasn't transferred. However, since it never finished the initial transfer, I'm not sure what will happen.

It appears you have them backed up, so you should be able to recover from that.

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Answer 6

Sep 28, 2016 4:46 AM in response to tormod v.

The information provided by alex_h1 is incorrect. The article he cites about "Archive or make copies of your iCloud data" is dated in May 2016, before Sierra was released, and it does not describe the new iCloud Desktop and Documents Folder syncing feature introduced in Sierra. For correct information, download my article, in a PDF file at http://www.quecheesoftware.com/iCloud.html .

The documents that were originally on your startup drive are still there after turning on syncing. They have just been made invisible. When you edit them in your new iCloud Drive Documents folder, your changes will be synced to the copy still on your startup drive. If you turn on syncing on another Mac with the same Apple ID, the document will also be downloaded to that Mac and updated as you edit it on iCloud Drive. It sounds like that is the behavior you want.

You should turn Optimized Storage OFF on your main computer to make sure all of the files in your iCloud Drive Documents folder are copied or synced back to your main Mac, assuming you have room there. On any other computer where you don't need to keep copies of all the files, turn ON Optimize Storage.

irina_w is correct when she says that turning OFF syncing on a Mac where it was already turned on will remove all copies of the documents from that Mac's startup drive, leaving you with an empty Documents folder there. It will then be your responsibility to copy all the files back to that Mac from the iCloud Documents folder, if that is what you want.

I don't know why Apple has not documented all this. It is causing vast amounts of misinformation to be posted to the web and scaring a lot of people.

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Answer 7

tormod v. Author

Level 1

14 points

Oct 11, 2016 5:32 AM in response to tormod v.

I went ahead and unchecked Desktop and Documents folders in iCloud settings. It appears that since my files in those folders were still accessible offline that they were actually still on the hard disk somewhere, even if those folders were no longer visible in my user, so I would expect them to be included in the Desktop and Documents folders in the user (hard disk) once this iCloud feature has been turned off.

I say that, however, as I am still waiting for the process to complete. When unchecking Desktop and Documents folders in iCloud one gets the following: "iCloud drive needs to finish updating before being turned off. iCloud drive will be turned off after your documents have been uploaded." This process appears to take a very long time…

I hope it is not transferring all that data (in Desktop and Documents folders), as I am currently at a location with a data quota of only 30Gb/month. And if my files are already somewhere on the hard disk, I wouldn't have thought it necessary. Anyone know how long this process should be expected to take?

In any case, it appears that this feature in iCloud works well, with syncing of local copies. If that is true, my only gripe with iCloud would be that my files are no longer covered by Time Machine backups. I suppose I ought to trust Apple to take the utmost care with my files, as losing people's files and not having the ultimate in backup procedures in place would be a major blow to the company and its users if something went wrong… So perhaps I should not be so anal about being able to make my own backups locally… (?)

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Answer 8

fruehl

Level 1

13 points

Oct 11, 2016 9:49 AM in response to chuck_3rd

Hi,

right now, I'm not the happy camper, because it fear, that I have lost some weeks of hard work on my documents.

The current modus operandi of iCloud Drive is pure blackmail, because no normal user will understand, how he will ever get the files back to his computer, or what happens, if the quota are exceeded.

The fact, that Time Machine does not cover the files in iCloud drive should have been noted with a big exclamation mark.

I really would like to know, how can I recover from the mistake of having activated iCloud Drive (step by step).

As Maggy Thatcher once said "I want my data back".

Hopefully I can recover my files from Backblaze.

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Answer 9

tormod v. Author

Level 1

14 points

Oct 11, 2016 1:42 PM in response to tormod v.

Some 11 hours later, System Preferences>iCloud is still saying "iCloud drive needs to finish updating before being turned off. iCloud drive will be turned off after your documents have been uploaded." Anyone know how long this could take??

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Answer 10

tormod v. Author

Level 1

14 points

Oct 12, 2016 1:08 AM in response to tormod v.

Now 23 hours later it is still going...

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Answer 11

Oct 25, 2016 12:25 AM in response to tormod v.

i'm having the exact same problem. My important files are struggling on the edge...Did you solve it yet?

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Answer 12

Oct 25, 2016 12:45 AM in response to kikidrops-gb

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Answer 13

tormod v. Author

Level 1

14 points

Oct 25, 2016 3:22 AM in response to kikidrops-gb

I cancelled it. Didn't turn out to be a problem. Nothing had changed. When I unchecked desktop and documents a second time it was almost instantaneous. The files are still in iCloud. I reimported them from backup and was back to where I was before all this, with an extra (old) backup in iCloud.

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