Very useful video. Apple could do with some interface changes to make this all less confusing. 🥴 Why remove the folders "Desktop" and "Documents" from your local home folder instead of just renaming them "Desktop - iCloud" and "Documents - iCloud" ? The first time I played around with this feature I nearly had a heart attack thinking both were deleted...
To me there is an elephant in the room rarely mentioned. Apple lets you either turn off optimization or turn it on for everything. Despite having 1TB of data space and only 460Gb of data, the OS 'optimizes' for them and moves things into its cloud. I don't mind that, its a good back up and I can access everything on my iPad and iPhone. The problem is when the OS optimizes, it randomly picks things to remove from my Mac of iPad that have not been opened or changed recently. So when I am sitting on a plane and looking for some documents, wanting to read my camera pdf in Books, or listen to my playlist for traveling - I find that the OS has maliciously deleted (it seems) everything I wanted to access. How about a way to designate certain folders and playlists never be optimized (copied and sync'ed yes)
If you turn ON the desktop and document feature the files in those documents will be available on all your macs and idevices (acting sort of like Dropbox) if you turn OFF the feature your documents are only on your local computer
Should have said something about the cost of additional iCloud storage that you’re eventually going to have to pay out as you fill it up. External HDs are very affordable and you only pay for that space once.
Gary, you never seem to disappoint. This was perfectly timed as I have been struggling with this concept for the last week, since my iCloud storage was full and I didn't want to pay a recurring monthly fee to Apple when I have plenty of space on my mac. Based on this Tutorial, I just need to move the large video files from iCloud to my local desktop mac and this will resolve all the issues. Thanks for a great tutorial.
I’m here because I’m super pissed. Trying to transfer large files I’ve downloaded to my server and it won’t work because Apple is syncing them using up all my damn bandwidth. It’s horrible. So pissed off.
Some bit of care needs to be done using these features... At one point, somehow, I was syncing my Mac desktop with iCloud and over time (and files on my desktop) iCloud sucked up all that data. The space wasn't the issue, it was the number of files that resided on my iCloud, and the syncing between iCloud and my main Mac caused the Mac to slow down dramatically. Once I stopped syncing my Mac it came back to its normal self. Makes sense, since it was having to go through many folders at two locations and "sync" everything. That is what backups are for!
As someone who has used Windows for the last 20 years, I've been having a very difficult time understanding the way the file system works after picking up my first Mac. Your video cleared up a large majority of the issues I was having when moving and accessing files between my local drive and iCloud. Thanks so much and keep up the good work!
I wish I could have Desktop and Documents synced to iCloud but I’m not going to pay for an even higher tier of storage to do it. My 50gb plan is enough for everything else. If I could enable just Desktop for syncing, I’d do that.
Thanks for the explanation Gary! You confirmed my conclusion that the concept is too clever and far too much the opposite of intuitive for me to use. I tried it recently and was scared and confused when my Documents files seemed to be gone from the local machine. Luckily I had a fresh backup which I restored from after more or less in the dark having managed to clean out and forever turn iCloud Drive off. This was just a little too much for me…😵💫
I learnt a long time ago to never let Apple control my files and folders. Way back when I used iTunes and it said allow iTunes to manage your music, big mistake, it renamed my music files, if I wanted to delete a track from iTunes it deleted it from the hard drive. On more than one occasion I deleted my entire music collection. So no thanks Apple I will manage my own files, this iCloud is way more complicated than it should be, why would it delete any files from my computer by default, it's crazy.
As someone finally just trying to deal with this now, I agree completely. My ONLY intention when I first activated iCloud was for it to function as a BACKUP for my Desktop, not to move my entire desktop to the cloud and off my computer. And I am now finding the task of moving all my desktop files back to my hardrive and off iCloud to be absurdly convoluted. Even the "clarification" given at the start of this video feels disingenuous. He's basically saying, "Apple isn't technically deleting your Desktop off your computer, because it ALREADY did that when you synced to iCloud in the first place, you just didn't realize it."
Single-handedly the worst feature of Macs- if you try to stop syncing your Mac by turning off back-up desktop folders to iCloud (after you selected the backup option in the past) your desktop is wiped clean(!) of folders. No one wants that! You can stare at the dialogue "warning" box all day long, but you will *not* be prepared for seeing *nothing* on your desktop. I did a file search and discovered the iCloud Archive by chance.
Thank you for this! I'm a music producer and a lot of my project files were taking up space within my iCloud Drive. This video gave me the fix I needed!
I have never been able to figure out if I should use this option or not. Until now! Wow! How I love this channel! While I watch Gary's videos, I start to elaborate on some questions and boom! What's the next thing Gary answers? LOL. Thanks for the tips when you do or do not have much space in iCloud.
Very helpful! Thanks. (To other viewers out there: I recommend pausing the video, study your Mac and copy Gary, play around with it, and then go back to the video. ‘Rinse and repeat.’ At times, I did have to replay it back by 10 or more seconds by tapping twice on the left side of the video screen on my iPad.)
Hi Gary, incredibly helpful and informative explanation of the maze which is iCloud vs local storage. I would really like to hold a copy of all my files in icloud, but when travelling on case of a power cut sometimes there is no access to iCloud I would like to have a local copy of my files on my Mac. Which I can use anytime. Is that at all possible. I have loads of space in iCloud and on my new M2 Mac Mini. Really enjoy your technical forays into the complexities of file manager. Thank you.
iCloud Drive automatically keeps copies (caches) of files you access frequently and recently. Or you can opt to have ALL of your files cached at all times if you have the space (Optimize OFF then).
I think i’m probably going to end up turning iCloud desktop and documents off (i currently only have 1 Mac, but 2 Windows computers, and my NAS should be good enough for making files accessible from multiple computers, and when i am working on a file, i can copy it to the local storage of the computer, and even if i do get a second (or even third) Mac, I don’t think there will be any benefit of me using cloud storage, as desktop Macs will always have access to the NAS, and for MacBooks i would need to have the files stored locally anyway)
This is a clear explanation of a complex topic but there are some nuanced implications of placing those folders on the iCloud that can trip users up. It's great to have the backup capability that iCloud provides and this is a huge win for users that otherwise make no provisions for backup. However the iCloud backups do not provide a versioning capability for all documents in the manner Time Machine does for local Desktop and Documents. Further if you use Time Machine AND iCloud Desktop and Documents thinking you have all bases covered, then be aware Time Machine will not fully backup any stub files that have been evicted to iCloud. Also be aware that if ever there's a need to logout from iCloud (and some troubleshooting steps require this on occassion) you're in for a world of confusion as to what happens with Desktop and Documents folders. To be clear - the use of iCloud Desktop and Documents is likely a win for many users but there are certainly some pitfalls that Apple glosses over.
I accidentally turned on Desktop and Documents in iCloud drive and now tons of documents from my MacBook are being uploaded. I don't want them stored on my iCloud drive! But if I turn off the Desktop and Documents on iCloud, it'll remove all the folders from my MacBook, which I don't want to have happen! 😫 What can I do now?!
Wait for it to upload. Then turn it off. Then move them from iCloud Drive/Document and iCloud Drive/Desktop back to your local drive. OR -- consider keeping this ON. It is very very useful in a number of ways.
Just the information i have been looking to understand for years, for but never knew until now. Clears up many concerns about these files. Thanks a ton.
I’m sure glad all this info is on video…these videos are so helpful. I need to clean my Mac I have information on my iCloud Drive that isn’t a bit valuable…could be on a local drive. Thanks again for your great videos.
Great tutorial, Gary… and timely-I was just figuring this out the other day, trying to manipulate some files on my iPad. It’s just way easier for me to do it on my Mac and then go to iPad. Thank you!
Great information. Especially about keeping iCloud Documents and Desktop switched on but pulling files into your Local folders to save space in iCloud. Thanks!!
I never asked for everything that I save on my desktop to be automatically sent to i cloud, and I'm kind of pissed that Apple doesn't tell you this up front...if I save something to the desktop, that's the only place I need/want it...I have no need for all my desktop files on my phone or i Pod!!!....damn!!..just let ME decide!!!...if I hadn't gotten the note that my iCloud storage was full, I would never have known this...I'm already paying monthly and of course, now that it's full, they keep prompting me to pay another $10/month to get more room....whatever happened to the simplicity of the past?...all progress ain't good progress OR necessary for everybody....this is such a hassle....double damn!
I'm not a fan of "Optimize Mac Storage". People add files to their computer like it's an endless pit, then when they run out of space they find the "Optimize" button, turn it on, gain some space, then go back to cramming more data onto the computer again as if it's an endless data pit.... then... when they run out of memory again, they're in a position where there's more data than can fit on the device. The biggest problem is that people aren't taught the basic tenants of file and folder management and monitoring and maintaining free space on the computer.
Couldn’t agree more. My wife never moves or trashes anything in the Downloads folder. It’s like a file archive or something. She’ll download files three and four times because she can’t find them in the glut that populates the Downloads folder. This of course adds to the glut. But I love her and I can’t imagine my life without her.
@@pgk60 A) 2nd user account, or B) you play 'garbage man' and keep the folders tidy'd up. If her folder management is her biggest fault... you're a lucky guy! lol
No, I disagree. Turning off iCloud storage USED to prompt one to view those folders AND be able to copy them back to purely local control. This was a logical thought process. The current process in Ventura is highly ILLOGICAL! You get no prompt to access those files, and if an uniformed user does this, their first alarming question will be: "Where did all my desktop files go"?! As a 35 year plus Apple Computer Consultant I feel aghast at the finder interface choices that the current crop of Apple Devs are making! It's like they have no background in OS X interface. I just dealt with this today 11-18-23 with a client, tried to turn off iCloud storage of desktop and documents folders (since they only use a MacBook Pro), found there was no way to copy them off iCloud back to local Control, except for ONE F'ING FILE AT A TIME, ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! APPLE, PLS GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER. Increasing complexity, like Microsoft loves to do, is not your friend. You young Apple "Software Engineers" (as well as the current software Mgmt folks) really ought to look back in history at Steve Jobs vision of INTUITIVENESS !!! You've gone so far off that track that you are leaving those "WHO BROUGHT APPLE TO THE DANCE IN THE FIRST PLACE BACK IN THE 80'S, THAT THEY CAN NO LONGER RELATE, AND CAN NO LONGER NAVIGATE YOUR SOFTWARE WITHOUT OUTSIDE HELP. It's just a clusterfuck at this point. What a shame.
Such a great informative video. New to Mac, I’ve been wondering about where to store files (particularly video/music/images) so as not to use up all my iCloud storage which incurs a monthly fee. I don’t need to access everything that’s on my current PC from my phone or iPad. So great to be starting from scratch with the mac and be able to know where to save files to avoid the issue - thank you so much for your expertise, much appreciated. 🙏🙏
Try to follow but got confided. I don’t know what happened to any of my files. All of my folders are there from 2 Macs ago but none of the files are in it. It’s also not in my iCloud
One year late unfortunately, you showed me how to turn it on in one video but didn't tell us what would happened if I turn it off’ poof… I nearly cried thinking I lost some valuable items until I turned it back on freaking out🚩
Confusing. How many people are really logging onto other Macs to access documents? I assume most people have 1 Macbook they use primarily and maybe an iPad. Also, what happens if you go somewhere with crappy wifi (or no wifi) and need access to documents? It'd make sense to make copies both on Mac and in cloud
I've seen multiple issues with this feature and directories within Documents that are "managed" by another service such as Github or Steam. The problem in the latter case is that I cannot move or rename those documents since they're expected to be in a specific place with a specific name (so for example, I can't usually work around it by adding ".nosync" as a file extension. I also tried making a softlink to the directory with the same name without .nosync and it always ends up renaming it with a " 2" at the end, breaking things again.)
Have a question, trying to figure out with Microsoft Word latest edition on my MacBookAir m2 I was wondering how do you change your Microsoft Word when you type something and you save it and it goes to OneDrive and when you go to retrieve that you have no access to it. How do I switch back to the regular saving documents are on my MacBook.
I don't want all these file across these devices. I have different computers for different reasons. This is a stupid sucky thing that just fills my drive
This org is just way too complex, this is not good for the majority of macs users, and having supported macs users for 35 years I have on the ground real world experience.
This is a great video that’s very informative. I eventually had to turn it off a few years ago because I had more than one Documents and Desktop folder in iCloud Drive and it was tripping me up. Worse, some applications set up folders and content there, which took up space on my iCloud storage space. Now I managed to tame my overall workflow and deliberately save documents selectively so that I’m in control. Again, thanks!
I dragged the documents folder into the macs home documents folder and now it’s empty. Did I lose everything?? Or is there a way to fix this and get them back?😅
The folder itself, or the contents of the folder? You should have created your own documents folder, named anything, and dragged the contents into that. You'll have to retrace your steps if you can't find the files as you dragged them somewhere...
very well explained.Thank you for the video. I have a question re attaching a iCloud file to outlook mail in my Mac. It won’t attach. What is the reason?
Thanks Gary for all your help on the confusions of iCloud. Here's a question for you: I want to turn off desktop & documents and drag everything back to the computer. What happens to files that are still waiting to be loaded and those that are only partially loaded. Will I lose these files and data? With desktop and documents turned on where do files reside before and during uploading?
I want to delete them from iCloud, those two empty forced files on iCloud just take up space with regards to organization. I don't share across devices, I don't want my documents all over the place. I use Airdrop if I need 1 document temporarily on another device & then delete. PS: It does not show the same files on the desktop- IT MOVES THEM ALL TO iCloud. I do not want that.
Great video...I noticed that your iCloud folder had a folder named downloads. Is this a shortcut to the downloads folder in your home folder? I ask because I would also like my downloads folder in my iCloud Drive. Related question: is it possible to move the downloads folder in the home folder to the iCloud Drive?
It is a separate folder. iPhone and iPad use it. But Macs use the local Downloads folder by default (though you can change the setting in Safari to use the iCloud one if you really want). I prefer to only use a Downloads folder as a very temporary holding place for a new download, and never for long-term storage of anything.
Hey, I want to turn off my documents and desktop icloud feature but not sure what way to go about it. I have a plug in through Abelton that says it needs documents to not be on cloud in order to run properly on my Mac. The documents tab is where I have like 200GB of DJ Music that I need with Rekordbox. I want to turn off the iCloud share on my Mac and leave my desktop on my Mac as is. It has my ableton project files on a desktop folder. I want to make sure that that folder stays on my Mac when I turn off the feature. And then the 200GB of music I want to stay on my Macbook. When I turn off this feature from my Mac, will it leave my desktop items here, or send them to the cloud?
Just move your Abelton (whatever that is) files to another location in your Home folder and leave your iCloud Drive like it is. Seems silly to disable all of iCloud Drive because one app claims to have some sort of problem with it. I can't see how an app would even care, as long as the files are present (Optimize turned off).
Switched iCloud Drive with Documents and Desktop syncing off on my MacBook Air M1, Apple Support tells me if I switch it back on, the now empty local Documents and Desktop folders will overwrite their iCloud Drive counterparts on the server - where the only copies of my folders, subfolders and files are -. The only way you can download from the iCloud Drive web interface is files only, which is unfeasible with more complex folder structures. Any suggestions on how I could get my files and folders on iCloud Drive safely back to my Mac? Thank you!
Overwrite? No. You get both. See support.apple.com/en-us/HT206985 "If you add a second Mac Desktop, you can find those files in the Desktop folder in iCloud Drive. Look for a folder with the same name as your second Mac." I think for the Documents folder it merges them. You can actually see all of your iCloud Desktop and Documents folder content right now on your Mac, even if you have "Desktop & Documents" turned off. No need to go to iCloud.com. Just look in iCloud Drive and you'll find these folders. You can move the contents to your local folders (in your Home folder) or back them up to another folder or whatever you want.
Turning this on won't change where your files are located. If they were in the Documents folder before, they are in the Documents folder now. It would just be under iCloud Drive now. If you are short on space on your Internal drive, then turn on the "Optimize" option.
What you are saying makes perfect sense. But what is happening on my Mac is not matching up. I have plenty of space in iCloud (1.3 TB) But am nearly completely out of space on my Mac. Most of it is documents and mail, but also iCloud Drive! What is going on with that? I want iCloud not only for access but also for storage to free up my Mac. I read on another site that storing files on my iCloud will also store them on my Mac. I'm confused by this. Regardless of what I seem to do, I cannot free space on my Mac. Even when I click on optimize storage. Thanks for help on this.
Yes, "Optimize Storage" is the option you need. Then continue to use your Mac and it will automatically offload files over time. You can select some large files and folders if you want and use "Remove Download" in the context menu to force some files off your local drive if you are impatient. See ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-S7JYHX2iT9Q.html
Love your videos but I have a big question. Are Desktop and Documents joined at the hip? I store all my data in Documents on iCloud which is great but I use the desktop and a work bench for screenshots, dumping video footage between SD cards and hard drive and just generally moving things around or just but my Mac keeps trying to upload my desktop as Im working on stuff. Should I remove Docs/Desktop from iCloud Drive and invent a folder called say My Documents in iCloud Drive to achieve this?
Just don't use Desktop for that. Create a folder in your Home folder ("Local Documents"?) for that instead. Save your screenshots and video footage there instead. Or I like to use the Movies folder for video footage (seems to make sense, right?)
I have done something horrible without meaning to. Last night I got an email from iCloud complaining that I was almost out of storage. I'm already paying them money every month for iCloud and I can't afford to pay them any more money. So, a very stupid move, I now know, I turned off iCloud completely from my iPhone. I unchecked everything and deleted the backup. I figured that would solve the problem. No, it only caused a much worse one. When I turned on my M1 MacBook Air, I realized, with horror, that it had been affected, too. That was not my intention! It was only supposed to be the iPhone! Now I no longer have a desktop. Everything that was on it is gone, including some very important things, like the intro and outro for my RU-vid channel and some videos I had waiting to be uploaded to RU-vid. Even my desktop wallpaper image is gone! None of it is under iCloud, either. It's all just GONE PERIOD. So, feeling defeated, I created a new into and outro for my RU-vid videos and re-created the file folder I had on there to keep them and other RU-vid things in. It worked fine...until the next time I turned on my MacBook Air. It was all gone again! Then I realized I have no desktop & document folders. It's like they just don't exist. When I click on them in Finder they say, "error, cannot be found." I Googled for hours and finally found out how to turn Desktop & Documents back on, which is supposed to fix the problem. Here's the big problem. When I click that little checkbox next to Desktop & Documents it immediately unchecks itself, over and over for all of eternity! Why can't I turn it back on? This is absolutely horrible and I have destroyed my expensive MacBook Air! I can't use Time Machine to fix it, either, because now, unlike back when I had a MacBook Pro in 2015, they make you have an external storage drive with a backup already on it, which I do not have. My laptop is an M1 MacBook Air that I bought in 2021 and it's running Ventura 13.4. I even updated it last night hoping that would fix the problem and it didn't. Is there any hope? Can I turn Desktop & Documents back on and get it to STAY on...or do I have to fork out another $1000.00 that I don't have for a new MacBook Air? Obviously, I'm so upset I'm trying not to cry here.
The real issue is that these designers actually think documents and desktop should be permanently linked as the same. I WANT my documents in cloud, I do NOT WANT the desktop, and that is important to me. Apple truly needs to let some old timers that are in position of designing use case on MacOS and get some better younger people that actually use these laptops.
You can do exactly that. Since you don't want the Desktop files in iCloud, then turn this feature off. But then create a Documents folder of your own making on iCloud Drive (Maybe called "Projects" or "Docs" or whatever to differentiate it from "Documents") and use that as your Documents folder.
Thanks but my concern is taking my MacBook with no WiFi or way of accessing the internet. Can I still view my documents? Meaning is there a copy of those on my hard drive?
all i want to do is turn off desktop on icloud so that every thing remains on my computer desktop and doesnt go onto icloud drive on my iphone. I only want specific files that I select from my computer to sync with icloud so that I can access them on my phone. I literally only want a few numbers documents on my icloud that are from my computer, so that I can access them on my iphone. How can I do this? Thank you.
I have now lost my files to iCloud and I can’t create any new files on my actual desktop on MacBook, they are in iCloud but I don’t want them there, and move to my laptop but still I am unable to access desktop, makes the piss boil.
Just move the files out of iCloud that you don't want there. If you want to keep Desktop & Documents in iCloud, then just create a Local Documents folder in your Home folder and move those particular files there.
So you have Desktop & Documents turned off? Perhaps you have another device where they are turned on then. Either way, if you have them turned off and aren't using them then just ignore them and use your local ones if that is what you want.
My desktop is in "Favorites" but it is also on iCloud. This drives me nuts. I need a file NOT on iCloud and if it is there now, it needs to come out. Perplexed.
It's very annoying that they've done it that way. There are ways to do it where I'm not looking at iCloud folders when I want to see local folders. What if I want it returned to the way it was before the folders went into iCloud. There should be an option for that.
I don’t know what happened, but I have two home folders in iCloud drive one is empty and the other has all my files. I am unable to delete the folder that is empty. What should I do? 10:37
Mine doesnt say that? It says - Do you want to download a copy of your iCloud Photos to this Mac? If you don't download a copy, photos and videos that have not been fully downloaded will be removed from this Mac. These items will still be available on other devices using iCloud" = options are Download, Delete from Mac, or Cancel?? I don't want to use iCloud but my options are not the same as the ones you are showing? macOS Monterey
@@macmost Photos is just one of the folders selected for iCloud; hard to show you as I can't post a screenshot here; but if you untick a folder it says ......If you don't download a copy, photos and videos that have not been fully downloaded will be removed from this Mac. These items will still be available on other devices using iCloud"
@@Janz2707 Photos and iCloud Drive are two different things. This video is about an aspect of iCloud Drive. But OK, let's just look at Photos. If you turn of iCloud Photos, yes you see this message. If you want to turn off iCloud Photos and keep your photos on your local drive, then first go into Photos, Preferences and under iCloud turn off the "Optimize" feature. Then wait a day or so to let all of the photos fully download to your Mac. Then you can turn off iCloud Photos. Then of course you lose all of the features of iCloud Photos, for instance you'd need to manually sync your iPhone to your Mac to get photos from your iPhone to your Mac, and choose which photos to include on your iPhone. So there will be a lot of ongoing work after that depending on what you want.
Thank you... Upgraded to Sonoma, my Desktop and Documents local folders ended up empty. I spent 2 hours with apple support and they couldn't solve/explain what you just explained in a few minutes.
i did turn that off accidentally as my icloud storage was full and i see that it doesnt show all the contents inside my folder ???does that mean i have lost all my precious data
I just realised I have 3 cloud accounts, google drive, iCloud and one-drive. I pay for all of these. :))))) I am going to have to find a way to get my stuff from those storage options in to icloud storage.
If all you did was turn off the Desktop & Documents feature, then all of your stuff is still there, right where you left it: in the Desktop and Documents folders in iCloud Drive. You just can't see them by going to the Desktop and Documents folders in your Home folder anymore. You have to look at iCloud Drive, specifically.
@@macmost yeah I spent three days on the phone with Apple Tech Support. They couldn’t find it. It was all gone. Here I am two years later, It’s still gone.
When you turn it off, you are asked if you want to save them. But you can also just move them first (create a folder in your Home folder) and then turn off iCloud Drive when it is empty.
I wish there was a way to keep more than one desktop and documents from two separate computers but on the same Apple ID in iCloud. I have my work computer and my home computer. sometimes I want files between them but want the organization completely different
I don't think so, but try it. I think it will be in the trash on the Mac you used to put it in the trash. It should also appear in Deleted files in iCloud.com.
Hi Gary, I use iCloud with my documents turned on iCloud. I can see the cloud in front of each folder in the finder. My wondering is, how to get your documents file when u have no internet and no network. It doesn't open the files... Can I work with no connection as I know my files are also in my SSD ? thanks so much
If you have Optimize turned OFF, then you would have all of your files local for offline access. With Optimize turned ON then recently-accessed files would still be available. See ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-S7JYHX2iT9Q.html
Thank you for explaining it so clearly. Unfortunately, I deleted my Desktop-Local folder. Is there anyway to get it back or can I just create and new folder in Finder called Desktop-Local? Thank you!
So do you have iCloud "Desktop & Documents" turned ON or OFF? If OFF, then you should have a Desktop folder in your Home folder that can't be deleted. If ON then your Desktop folder is in iCloud Drive now. You can't have a second Desktop folder as that wouldn't make sense. You can create whatever folder you want in your Home folder, but don't create something named "Desktop-Local" as it wouldn't have anything to do with the Desktop so it would be confusing. Make it "Local Documents" or "Local Files" or whatever name fits its purpose.
@@macmost Thank you so much for your detailed response! Currently my ICloud Desktop and Docments is turned ON. I am using OS Sanoma 14.1.1. My goal is to store all of my documents and desktop locally - not on ICloud. I understand that the information would not be shared with my other devices devices. Thank you in advance,
Thanks so much for this video. Very helpful! I am running out of room on my iCloud storage, so I wanted to turn off Documents and Desktop folders from being on iCloud. You've showed me a much better way, thanks!
I find this terribly terribly confusing. There is one desktop, on the computer on my physical desktop. Two different ones, one of which may delete documents is risky. Does this mean that if i lose internet access i lose access to all my stored documents? Does this give Apple access to my documents because they are stored in THEIR cloud? I like to keep my devices discrete from one another. iMac for work, ipad for recreation such as social media etc. Rarely if ever would I try to edit a document on my phone or iPad because they are too confining. Can one opt out of this everything everywhere always mindset?
You certainly won't lose your documents just because you lose Internet access. Cloud services like this wouldn't be very useful if that were the case. You don't need to use iCloud Drive at all if you don't want to. Or, you can use it for some things and not others.
@@macmost sorry if I wasn’t clear. The documents might still be there but if I’m offline I can’t access them so I’ve essentially lost the use of them. Internet connections do fail or hardware disconnects so I prefer to trust having my stuff where I know where it is and can get at it.
@@qwincyq6412 iCloud Drive caches your frequently and recently accessed documents locally, depending on space. So if you are offline and go to access an iCloud Drive file you haven't used in months, then it may ask you to connect. But if the file is something you recently worked on, or seems important in some other way, you'll be able to work on it using the cached version, which will sync back to iCloud Drive when you connect later.
@@qwincyq6412 And, if you turn OFF the "Optimize" feature then you get ALL of your iCloud Drive files cached. So you can access everything even if offline. You need the space on your local drive to do that, but that's logically the case, right?
Please i still dont understand. ive had over 200gb worth of documents and files and they've all gone, they cant all be uploaded to icloud and its all gone please help how do i get it back? i have so many precious things on there
@@macmost thank you for the help!, i ended up speaking to apple support anyway. I think this feature is terrible and definately needs some pre warnings. I don't think files should ever be removed off a machine unless done so yourself. I understand your video now i think i was just so panicked i couldn't think straight xD
