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RobbieSnr Author

Level 1

83 points

Documents and Desktop folders not appearing on my Mac

When I opened up my Mac today my Documents and Desktop folders were missing. In iCloud in Settings iCloud Drive is checked and Options show Desktop & Documents Folders checked. As I have sufficient storage on my Mac I've not optimized my storage there. If I go to iCloud.com all my documents and desktop files are there OK.

I thought I could correct this by restoring files from my Time Machine backup so I tried restoring all my desktop files. That was OK at first but then it started uploading these to iCloud and they disappeared again from my Mac! It seems that somehow or other my iCloud settings are not held properly but how do I correct this?

iMac, macOS Sierra (10.12.3), MacBook Pro, iPad Air 2, iPhone 7 +

Posted on Mar 20, 2017 11:10 AM

Top-ranking reply

LocalUser

Level 1

13 points

Posted on Apr 20, 2017 6:30 PM

This is the most honest explanation of the problem that I've read. Apple owes it to its users to be more straightforward in explaining the implications of their iCloud choice and, if a wrong choice is made, how to simply reverse it. Up to know, I've been thrilled with my Mac -- Now I'm wondering, "Why the lack of up-front candor?" There is a clear programming bias here on the part of Apple: Why else, make it very easy to choose the cloud? But very, very difficult to get out of it? If so, that's not right. Is this about "optimizing" my drive space? Or "maximizing" my use of the cloud? Bottom line, I want my own documents and desktop programs visible on my own computer and no need to use the cloud other than when I want to, not as a default. There needs to be a simple way to reverse this and Robbie's right, Apple should provide it.

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47 replies

R. Ranch

Level 1

4 points

Mar 30, 2018 2:53 PM in response to LocalUser

This response, your response, was listed on the top as "helpful" response.

There is no "helpful" information other than an explanation of being displeased with how Apple operates.

Apr 17, 2018 6:48 AM in response to RobbieSnr

I am able to find folders by entering the folder name in search and I found some other help in this article: https://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/mac-software/show-hidden-files-mac-3520878/

Documents and Desktop folders not appearing on my Mac