When I select and check the "Desktop and Documents" option and select Done, next time I go back the box is unchecked.

I just saw the large "Sign out" button on the iCloud panel! I'm not normally such an idiot. lol. So I am signing out as I write this. Sorry.

I actually upgraded for 1 month to 2 TB. Yes, it shows up in the graph at the bottom of the iCloud storage pane. If I try to turn iCloud off it gives me a message about erasing a bunch of files so I didn't attempt that. How would I sign out of iCloud? iCloud had been turned on for years. I made very few changes to it over the years.

I logged on to my icloud page. Yes, there is a desktop folder with items in it but not up to date with the current desktop. There is also a Documents folder which is empty.

Yes it created a new Desktop and Document folder. Both were empty but I have updated my Desktop folder and linked my Documents folder to a documents folder I created on an external drive.

Signing off iCloud may solve the problem but I don't know how to do that. Maybe you could share the secret if you know.

Thank you very much for your suggestions.

john

I've been trying for over a day to sign out of iCloud. It seems no matter what I do when I go back to system preferences/icloud the button at the bottom says "Sign out". This last time it looked like it worked but the button still reads "Sign out". I followed the on-screen instructions except for this last time I selected not to have iCloud backed up to my computer because of the size of iCloud. Any suggestions?

Gail, it's me again. From the looks of the attempt to sign off, it appears to have worked but the button still says Sign out" as shown below.

If I click the Sign Out button from the above window I get asked for my Apple account password and my computer password and then it appears to be working except I end up at the very same window as shown above. At this point I appear to be in an endless loop.

I tried that but it didn't work. It asked me about backing up iCloud drive to my computer. I can't do that because I have many files on the iCloud drive and not much space on my hard drive. I don't know if this causes a problem or not. Since my last attempt at signing out of iCloud I have noticed one big difference. If I do "get info" on my internal drive I get the numbers indicated below. For the past year the "Available" value has been around 20 GB. That was one reason I started this whole exercise, to free up disk space. Now it says 123 GB available! Maybe these numbers will shed some light on what's happening. Thanks for your help.

No, you select Keep a Copy or Cancel. Here is the window when you select sign out.

I have tried unclicking iCloud and then click on Keep a Copy but I get following screen.

This screen indicates to me that maybe iCloud is still trying to sign out. But its been like that for 2 days now. I'm afraid to stop it if its 2 days into whatever it is trying to do. Does anyone know for sure if the sign out button does indeed change to Sign in when a user signs out? I'm basing this effort on the assumption that I will be notified when I sign off.

I recently increased my iCloud starage to 200 GB and I'm only using 25 GB. I think that should be plenty but I can increase it for 1 day and see if it works. Thanks.

I increased my iCloud storage to 2 TB. More than my whole computer but no difference. And no other Macs are synched. Just my iPhone and iPad...