Desktop & Documents - Duplicate?

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Desktop & Documents - Duplicate?

I just decided to start using "Desktop & Documents folders" in iCloud as I was annoyed to always replace and manually upload files in iCloud. However, I was wondering if these two folders were stored in duplicate on my Mac? I'm hesitating to choose "Optimize Mac storage" as I don't want old files to be stored in the cloud. But that does mean that the "iCloud Drive" folder in Finder will still store the Desktop & Documents folders on my Mac? What I mean is that I only want files to be stored in Documents, and I want the iCloud Drive folder to be all in the cloud.

Thanks for your help!

MacBook, macOS Mojave (10.14)

Posted on Oct 5, 2018 2:45 AM

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Answer 1

Clemgoff Author

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Oct 5, 2018 4:11 AM in response to Clemgoff

Nevermind, I got it! The iCloud Drive folder now just contains shortcuts to the Desktop and Documents folder... Sorry about that

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Answer 2

Clemgoff Author

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Oct 5, 2018 4:07 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Thanks for your reply, but it doesn't really answer my question... Sorry if I phrased badly. What I meant is, is it going duplicate the content, meaning that obviously, the Desktops & Documents folders will also be in the iCloud Drive folder, but will they take double the space? I'm asking bc if I click "Optimize Mac storage", I only want everything in the iCloud Drive folder to be in the Cloud, and keep all files in the Documents folder (not just the recent ones). Thanks!

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Answer 3

Oct 5, 2018 3:50 AM in response to Clemgoff

Your last sentence pretty much explains itself...

You should keep your Documents folder on your mac. When you want to save something in iCloud Drive, do so.

It only makes sense to have Documents & Desktop in iCloud, and check “Optimize Storage” if 1) you have little storage on your mac (e.g. only 128GB) and 2) you have a paid tier in iCloud (e.g. 200GB or more)

For example my mac has 512GB of storage, of which I’ve used almost 400GB. I have the free tier of iCloud (5GB).

A significant part of it (maybe 100GB) is in Documents and Desktop folders (there is of course Movies, Pictures and Music taking up a lot of space).

Obviously I don’t want to activate Documents & Desktop in iCloud.

When I want something there, I just save it in my iCloud Drive.

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Desktop & Documents - Duplicate?

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