Does Time Machine Backup My iCloud Drive?

I've been Googling around all day and have been surprised at being unable to find the answer to a rather simple, and vital, question.

I'm about to take the plunge and move my Desktop and Documents folder to iCloud Drive, meaning that they won't be on my Fusion Drive any more. So that means that I will move from (a) having the original of my files on my Fusion Drive and backups on my external Time Machine drive to (b) having a single copy in my iCloud Drive.

I'm a tad nervous about that, which got me to wondering if Time Machine in some way backs up the contents of my iCloud Drive as well as all the stuff resident on my Fusion Drive, and whether the accidental deletion of an iCloud Drive file can be recovered from by going back a day or two in Time Machine.

I ask because I'm sure I'm not the only person concerned about having no Time Machine backups of the stuff they have moved to iCloud Drive.

Posted on Apr 2, 2017 1:52 AM

23 replies

Eric Root

Level 10

685,221 points

Aug 3, 2017 10:50 AM in response to pat from west palm beach

If Optimization is turned on, if space is required on the Mac, then the documents from the Documents and Desktop folders will only be stored in iCloud on an as needed basis to make for more hard drive storage.

Aug 13, 2017 2:25 PM in response to bricknell

Hello there,

I have the same question. Did you get clarity? I want to begin using iCloud to store our photo's and free up space on the MacBook air since it is nearly full. I would still like time machine to be a full backup of my photo's, not just a smaller version. It seems that if I want to free up space I need to turn on photo optimization which will then mean that the MacBook air does not necessarily have the full original photo to store that time machine uses to back up.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Eric Root

Level 10

685,221 points

Apr 2, 2017 2:31 PM in response to bricknell

The only time it won't is if you are using macOS Sierra, have Documents and Desktop syncing with Optimization selected.

deepey

Level 1

4 points

Sep 1, 2017 9:41 PM in response to Eric Root

I'm using Sierra and have 'Optimize' turned on. When I run a Time Machine backup, tons of files are continually downloaded from iCloud. I can tell because the little "loading" animation appears beside the iCloud folder, and when I click for more info, it says "1 file downloading." It does this for quite some time throughout my Time Machine backup. My presumption was that Sierra was downloading the documents in my Desktop and Documents folder, backing them up to Time Machine, and then removing them from my Mac again. Is this incorrect? And if that's not what is happening, then why the constant iCloud downloads while Time Machine is running?

Sep 18, 2017 10:30 AM in response to LACAllen

Hey LACAllen, this was brilliant and helped me immensely, though I had to use Terminal to see my hidden files...nevertheless, you gave me hope. Now that I've found the documents I had lost (someone else deleted them by accident and I didn't realize until after the 30 days), if I click on one, Finder automatically shuts down and the folder closes. Any ideas what next?

LACAllen

Level 8

43,584 points

Apr 2, 2017 6:38 PM in response to bricknell

Hey, it happens.

Glad you're up and running...

Eric Root

Level 10

685,221 points

Jul 29, 2017 12:26 PM in response to Lost in Asia

They should be somewhere on your hard drive unless you are using macOS Sierra, have Documents and Desktop syncing with Optimization selected.

Aug 3, 2017 10:15 AM in response to Eric Root

If Optimization is selected, does that mean that the iCloud drive is or is not mirrored in the Mac hard drive? Mine says Optimized. I want to be sure that the Documents file is mirrored.

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Does Time Machine Backup My iCloud Drive?