iCloud Desktop & Document Folders from 2 Macs

[rhino7]

If I enable iCloud Desktop & Documents folders syncing to iCloud, does this automatically merge the contents from both machines and lead to me seeing a unified view on both machines? Is there then any way of determining which machine a file came from?

 

[grahamperrin]

Backup both Macs, then test it

I imagine that there'll be a conflict resolution routine, similar to what was offered (before Sierra) for portable home directories.

Related: FileSync – Support for portable home directories has been removed. …

 

[zorinlynx]

I'm curious about this feature and how reliable it is.

Do the Documents and Desktop folders remain regular folders on your machine, in your home directory? I never liked how the "iCloud Drive" folder is a weird folder at:

~/Library/Mobile\ Documents/com\~apple\~CloudDocs

I mean, directory names with tildes in them? There's some real sado-masochists working at Apple. Anybody with some UNIX experience will know what I mean. How does conflict resolution work? If I edit the same file offline on two machines, how does it decide how to merge them?

This stuff drives me crazy, and I'd actually enjoy having a regular folder I can manipulate in and out of the GUI that gets automatically backed up, both to the cloud and Time Machine.

 

[KetchupRob]

The file conflict resolution issue is a bit like time travel and alternate timelines. Which is the right one!

 

[grahamperrin]

@KetchupRob did you test the feature? I never got that far.

 

[KetchupRob]

@KetchupRob did you test the feature? I never got that far.

Not yet, I've installed on my only MacBook so I'm testing things like Outlook (which is buggy with Gmail) and universal copy and paste.

 

[Brookzy]

When I enabled iCloud Desktop & Documents, the Mac I first enabled it on - my MacBook - uploaded all the files to the Desktop and Documents folders, respectively.

When I enabled it on the second Mac, its content was placed in a "[Brookzy]'s iMac" folder that was created in both the Desktop and Documents folders.

Personally I didnt want to separate them like that so I just moved the contents of the "[Brookzy]'s iMac" folders to the main folder, and now a single Desktop, and a single Documents, folder syncs between my Macs.

 

[grahamperrin]

A thumbs-up to@Brookzy for describing the behaviour but I'm surprised that there's no automated attempt to merge the contents.