iCloud Drive - Unable to turn on "Desktop & Documents Folders"

Question

Level 1

8 points

iCloud Drive - Unable to turn on "Desktop & Documents Folders"

I would like to use iCloud Drive to store all of my Desktop and Documents folders. I have enabled Preferences --> "iCloud Drive" and when I go to the Options panel, I see the option to enable "Desktop and Documents Folders", but it is grayed out and I cannot select it. See screenshot below.

Has anyone else run into this? Appreciate any ideas to resolve this issue. Thanks.

MacBook Pro TouchBar and Touch ID, macOS Mojave (10.14.1), null

Posted on Nov 22, 2018 8:27 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Best reply

Bryan126 Author

Level 1

8 points

Nov 24, 2018 2:39 PM in response to Bryan126

After troubleshooting this some more, I began to suspect a permissions issue. My laptop is managed by my company so I decided to take a look at the Profiles that were installed. Lo and behold, there is a profile installed that disables iCloud Desktop and Documents:

Problem solved! Thanks to tygb and Eric Root for providing suggestions.

Reply

Answer 2

Bryan126 Author

Level 1

8 points

Nov 23, 2018 4:23 PM in response to Bryan126

I did some additional troubleshooting and the mystery deepens. If I go to Apple --> "About This Mac", select the Storage tab, and click Manage. In the Recommendations section, I can enable the option to "Store in iCloud".

The status changes to Completed, and all of my Desktop and Documents files are synced and available in iCloud.

If I then open Preferences --> iCloud (so I can check if the iCloud Drive option to sync "Desktop and Documents Folders" is enabled), my Desktop and Documents folders stop syncing.

When I go back to the Storage tab, "Store in iCloud" is no longer enabled. If I click "Store in iCloud" again, the status changes to Completed and syncing starts again.

My short term work around is to avoid going into Preferences --> iCloud so that syncing does not get disabled. But this is not the right long term answer. Suggestion appreciated.

Reply

Answer 3

tygb

Level 9

64,582 points

Nov 23, 2018 7:19 PM in response to Bryan126

In sytem preferences - icloud - I cloud drive - options if you uncheck the box of desktops and documents a pop window appears and you click on turn off .

To turn on / check the box of documents and desktops again , again click on show in finder .

Again tap on empty box of desktop and documents , a small circle will rotate setting up , finally the box of it would be checked and click on done .

Note : Your documents will be intact in iCloud Drive once again .

Reply

Answer 4

léonie

Level 10

194,389 points

Nov 25, 2018 8:12 AM in response to Bryan126

You can use iCloud Drive as your Documents folder to circumvent the restrictions, if you want.

As a work-around you could create two folders on iCloud Drive. Name them "MyCloudDesktop" and "MyCloudDocuments"and put an alias to these folders on your Desktop and into the Documents folder. All items you are dragging to the "My iCloud Desktop" alias on your Desktop will sync with iCloud between your devices. All documents and folders you drag into the "My iCloud Documents" alias will also sync with iCloud.

Reply

Answer 5

tygb

Level 9

64,582 points

Nov 22, 2018 8:45 AM in response to Bryan126

First create a new test user account see this article How to test an issue in another user account on your Mac - Apple Support

The last option is reinstall the os see this article How to reinstall macOS from macOS Recovery - Apple Support

Reply

Answer 6

tygb

Level 9

64,582 points

Nov 24, 2018 9:43 AM in response to Bryan126

Contact apple support and take views from them Contact - Official Apple Support

Contact Apple for support and service - Apple Support

the box for desktops and documents is greyed , it's better to erase the hard drive completely and reinstall the os , back up the data before erasing .

Reply

Answer 7

Bryan126 Author

Level 1

8 points

Nov 23, 2018 4:05 PM in response to tygb

Thanks for the suggestions. I created a new test user account and the same issue occurs with the new account. I have also re-installed macOS from macOS Recovery (without erasing the disk) and the issue remains.

Reply

Answer 8

Eric Root

Level 10

684,015 points

Nov 24, 2018 12:54 PM in response to Bryan126

Something you can try.

Do a backup, preferably 2 backups on 2 separate drives.

Quit System Preferences.

Go to Finder and select your user/home folder. With that Finder window as the front window, either select Finder/View/Show View options or go command - J. When the View options opens, check ’Show Library Folder’. That should make your user library folder visible in your user/home folder. Select Library. Then go to Preferences/com.apple.systempreferences.plist. Move the .plist to your desktop.

Restart the computer, open the application, and test. If it works okay, delete the plist from the desktop.

If the application is the same, return the .plist to where you got it from, overwriting the newer one.

Thanks to leonie for some information contained in this.

Reply

Answer 9

Bryan126 Author

Level 1

8 points

Nov 24, 2018 9:28 AM in response to tygb

Well, that's the problem. The "Desktop & Documents Folders" option is grayed out - I can't enable or disable it as shown in the screenshot in my original post.

Reply

Answer 10

Bryan126 Author

Level 1

8 points

Nov 24, 2018 2:35 PM in response to Eric Root

Thanks Eric for the suggestion - I tried that and it also did not work.

Reply

iCloud Drive - Unable to turn on "Desktop & Documents Folders"

Similar questions