iCloud Drive has deleted all my Documents and Desktop folders

I lost all my files on my mac too after stopping the sync to iCloud.. The folders are in iCloud but most of them are empty and the original files are permanently gone from my MacBook.

chrislzm wrote:

Solution: I found the files in my home directory in a directory named iCloud Drive (Archive).

(As I mentioned above in a previous post this exact same thing happened to me. Hope this helps others!)

That is a good point to remember. Any time you turn off iCloud Drive (I do it on a somewhat random basis depending on what I'm testing for this site), it creates an Archive. I had found that those Archives will actually create duplicate Contact entries (at least on my Mac - I don't remember if they were duplicated anywhere else). I had 3 or 4 Archives out there. Once I deleted them, the duplicates went away. But I hadn't thought about the fact that those Archives are a backup as well. Good thinking!

Cheers,

GB

Apple should keep copies of all files it chooses to move until it is certain that the users files are correctly returned to the user. The idea calling a "mistake" something user might routinely do (like trying to stop something mistakenly started) as an excuse for badly behaving software is sophistry of the highest order.

Simple, fail safe design. It's what users expect from Apple. And in the case of iCloud, do not get.

This is unfortunate! Did you check the Desktop & Documents folder -- macOS Sierra: Store your desktop and documents in iCloud Drive?

When you select the option to use iCloud Drive for Desktop & Documents, that is exactly what it does - it removes them from the local drive and puts them on iCloud Drive. Since you cancelled the process in the middle, the folders had already been removed from the local drive, but had not yet finished uploading to iCloud Drive.

This is not an out of the ordinary kind of thing. It occurred because you interrupted a process that you had initiated because you made an error.

FYI, here are two support documents on the Desktop & Documents option. It is not required. I specifically answered "Not Now" when Sierra asked if I wanted these on my iCloud Drive, so it is not something that you don't have full control over:

Add your Desktop and Documents files to iCloud Drive - Apple Support

macOS Sierra: Store your desktop and documents in iCloud Drive

Best of luck,

GB

Warning to all: iCloud Drive is DANGEROUS!!

Clarification for all.

No it is not.

Not understanding the implications of your choices is.

And one should never blindly cancel any upload/sync process. Yhere are proper ways to reverse this decision if needed that do not result in data loss.

It is not a default - you are asked the question. You can say Yes or No. You also said Yes to the question of whether you wanted to turn on Desktop & Documents. You said Yes to both.

Your files were not lost because of iCloud Drive but because you stopped a process mid-stream in an attempt to stop a mistake that you made. You selected to use both iCloud Drive and the Desktop & Documents option. How are those choices the fault of iCloud Drive?

iCloud Drive is not new. It has been around since OS X Yosemite. Desktop & Documents is new.

Why don't you just restore from your Time Machine backup?

GB

Yes it IS dangerous. This process is just bad design and bad programming.

It is estimated there are ~720,000,000 iCloud accounts worldwide.

I think Apple's got this thing figured out.

Sharp knives are dangerous. Running with scissors. Day old sushi. Texting while driving. Not following directions. Not paying attention. All dangerous things.

Therefore there should NOT EXIST any path that leads to complete loss of files because of iCloud.

Absolutely agreed.

However, programmers, designers and developers can't possibly protect users from themselves. There is and was a path to solve your issue without data loss. You chose not to follow it.

Solution: I found the files in my home directory in a directory named "iCloud Drive (Archive)".

(As I mentioned above in a previous post this exact same thing happened to me. Hope this helps others!)

That is triggered by turning of just the Documents and Data option, not iCloud Drive itself. It is a dialog box that comes up as and informs you of what will happen as well.