Enabled iCloud Drive Desktop and Documents - second computer

[rmeulen]

Hi, enabled iCloud Drive Desktop & Documents on my MBA and both folders appear in iCloud Drive. When adding a file in icloud drive it appears on my desktop so all doing fine.

Enabled iCloud Drive Desktop & Documents on my iMac expecting that both desktop contents were appearing on both screens.

However now a subfolder named 'myiMacs desktop' appeared on the desktop of both computers. Is that the intended behaviour? According to how I read the feature it isn't so ... help?

 

[grahamperrin]

Please see https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/23532090 and other related posts under iCloud Drive – Desktop and Documents Folders

 

[steve62388]

Hi, enabled iCloud Drive Desktop & Documents on my MBA and both folders appear in iCloud Drive. When adding a file in icloud drive it appears on my desktop so all doing fine.

Enabled iCloud Drive Desktop & Documents on my iMac expecting that both desktop contents were appearing on both screens.

However now a subfolder named 'myiMacs desktop' appeared on the desktop of both computers. Is that the intended behaviour? According to how I read the feature it isn't so ... help?

It's working correctly. You turned the feature on from your MBA first and that became 'the master' device (after the initial setup it's not really important which device is the master). When you turned the feature on from your iMac macOS didn't try to figure out what if any files were duplicates, it has left you to do that work. That's a reasonable method, if macOS tried to do it automatically it would probably end screwing something up.

macOS then dumped what was originally all your iMac Desktop and Documents files into the folder on your desktop that you're talking about, and because your desktops are now synced it has shown up on both your MBA and iMac. It's now up to you to go through that folder and decide what you want to keep and what to throw. If you don't want a file, delete it. If you want to keep it you can leave that folder as it is or you can move those files back into what is now the linked Documents and Desktop folder. Whatever you do on one device will now automatically be mirrored on the other.

 

[ahostmadsen]

It's working correctly. You turned the feature on from your MBA first and that became 'the master' device (after the initial setup it's not really important which device is the master). When you turned the feature on from your iMac macOS didn't try to figure out what if any files were duplicates, it has left you to do that work. That's a reasonable method, if macOS tried to do it automatically it would probably end screwing something up.

Well, that's reasonable if you have 5 files. If you have 20,000 files it's not going to work. That's why I'm using SugarSync, as far as I can see the only cloud service that can merge folders. It seems neither Dropbox nor iCloud drive can do it. I wish they could -- SugarSync works poorly in iOS.

 

[steve62388]

Well, that's reasonable if you have 5 files. If you have 20,000 files it's not going to work. That's why I'm using SugarSync, as far as I can see the only cloud service that can merge folders. It seems neither Dropbox nor iCloud drive can do it. I wish they could -- SugarSync works poorly in iOS.

Is a cloud service suitable for somebody that has 20k files?

 

[ahostmadsen]

Is a cloud service suitable for somebody that has 20k files?

Yes, definitely. I have used it for years with around 20k files synced between multiple computers and the cloud. With that many files, moving manually is not feasible, so you need very reliable sync. Sugarsync has been doing that, but it lost out to Dropbox, and as a result is poorly integrated with iOS.

 

[grahamperrin]

MBA first and that became 'the master'

If thinking of anything as the master, it's better to think of iCloud Drive as serving that purpose.

 

[rmeulen]

It's working correctly. You turned the feature on from your MBA first and that became 'the master' device (after the initial setup it's not really important which device is the master). When you turned the feature on from your iMac macOS didn't try to figure out what if any files were duplicates, it has left you to do that work. That's a reasonable method, if macOS tried to do it automatically it would probably end screwing something up.

macOS then dumped what was originally all your iMac Desktop and Documents files into the folder on your desktop that you're talking about, and because your desktops are now synced it has shown up on both your MBA and iMac. It's now up to you to go through that folder and decide what you want to keep and what to throw. If you don't want a file, delete it. If you want to keep it you can leave that folder as it is or you can move those files back into what is now the linked Documents and Desktop folder. Whatever you do on one device will now automatically be mirrored on the other.

Thanks for the explanation. After asking this question I figured this out myself. Seems smart to make the feature initially work like this. After making the right choices and moving the files around to the 'common' desktop all is in sync.