iCloud Drive - Desktop & Documents Folders

[blackdogaudio]

This is confusing indeed. Don't mind optimising Photos, iTunes and other stuff, however, Desktop & Documents better be fully offline.

Could someone confirm whether it is possible to have Desktop & Documents synced to iCloud while also having them FULLY downloaded to the Mac at all times (no optimisations going on at all)?

During one of the early Public Betas I had iCloud Drive>Desktops and Documents enabled (and with appropriate backups made first of course in case of disaster) and confirmed local copies were made simply by turning wifi off on my iMac and opening the shadow copies of some of those documents still showing in Finder>iCloud. Of those spot-checked, all were intact with no data missing.

I then repeated the check after performing a complete shutdown on my iMac while it was offline and spot checked additional documents after I logged back in with the same results (all the data was intact.) Finally, I added data to one of the documents while in offline mode and after re-activating wifi that new data was added to the version stored in iCloud within a few minutes.

I'm still a bit torn about entrusting my documents to the cloud so have disabled the feature for that reason as well as the process itself still being somewhat in a beta state but I hope this helps others considering dipping a toe into these waters.

regards,

BD

 

[supermati]

I want to turn off the iCloud Desktop and Documents feature because I want to store them locally on my laptops drive. The "it will delete it from your Mac" message scares the crap out of me. Which is the right way to proceed without risking losing all the data?

 

[jpn]

the way that i understand it is, if you want to keep your files in the Cloud AND on your device as well, just enable iCloud for Desktop and Documents, but do NOT select Storage Optimization.
In which case, files do not stand the chance of being evicted (deleted) from your local device.
Can anyone else confirm this?

 

[supermati]

the way that i understand it is, if you want to keep your files in the Cloud AND on your device as well, just enable iCloud for Desktop and Documents, but do NOT select Storage Optimization.
In which case, files do not stand the chance of being evicted (deleted) from your local device.
Can anyone else confirm this?

As of now I have it checked, will unchecking it recover my local files?

 

[Phil A.]

To anyone who has two or more Macs: I'd like to know whether the data loss bug has been fixed.

Drag some text, from e.g. TextEditor, to the desktop of one Mac. Then if the text clipping file appears at the other Mac, see whether the file contains what's required.

Just tried it and it worked perfectly

This is confusing indeed. Don't mind optimising Photos, iTunes and other stuff, however, Desktop & Documents better be fully offline.

Could someone confirm whether it is possible to have Desktop & Documents synced to iCloud while also having them FULLY downloaded to the Mac at all times (no optimisations going on at all)?

Yeah, you can simply turn off "Optimize Mac Storage" under iCloud Drive settings and it keeps all your documents on your mac while also syncing them to iCloud

 

[NazgulRR]

Just tried it and it worked perfectly



Yeah, you can simply turn off "Optimize Mac Storage" under iCloud Drive settings and it keeps all your documents on your mac while also syncing them to iCloud

Thanks. Doing that just now.

 

[grahamperrin]

For users of optimised storage, a gentle reminder that there's a separate topic:

• Optimized Storage …

 

[grahamperrin]

Just tried it and it worked perfectly

Thanks. I retested by dragging, from a separate volume to my desktop, a .textClipping file that predated Sierra.

I don't have a second installation of Sierra but the web interface to iCloud Drive shows the file, zero bytes, with content.

I guess that whatever was wrong was fixed during or after upload of my earlier test set.

 

[ZMacintosh]

Im curious about the applications that currently dump application settings/data i.e.; Microsoft, Adobe...if there going to change their paths or how this may cause issues

 

[grahamperrin]

applications that currently dump application settings/data i.e.; Microsoft, Adobe

I don't recall testing any Adobe product.

For Microsoft: https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/23124903 in July there was an exclusion.

 

[davidjearly]

I want to turn off the iCloud Desktop and Documents feature because I want to store them locally on my laptops drive. The "it will delete it from your Mac" message scares the crap out of me. Which is the right way to proceed without risking losing all the data?

I would like to know how to do this too, without losing data.

 

[blackdogaudio]

Manually copy the data back over from your backup if you lose it.

 

[urkel]

I want to turn off the iCloud Desktop and Documents feature because I want to store them locally on my laptops drive. The "it will delete it from your Mac" message scares the crap out of me. Which is the right way to proceed without risking losing all the data?

I would like to know how to do this too, without losing data.

My AppleID was stolen this summer by someone using Apple China support to "verify my identity" and reset my password. Apple was quick to disable them from accessing my account anymore but it took several weeks and dozens of frustrating phone calls for them to restore me as the account holder.

That said, yeah. I don't want my personal info stored on iCloud. So how do I restore my desktop locally because when I try unlocking the setting in the iCloud Pref Pane then it deletes the Desktop and Documents links/files.

 

[insomniac86]

What i really want them to do is seperate the Documents & Desktop sync to not be tied into each other.
I want my document data to sync but not my desktop.

I use the desktop as a work in progress area and often dump huge files there. So I really don't want that crap to sync up.
Why you need them to both be on is beyond me.

 

[grahamperrin]

a work in progress area and often dump huge files there. So I really don't want that crap to sync up.

1. Find, or make, a more suitable area for the crap
2. make the area easily available from the sidebar and/or Dock, or from wherever suits your workflow.

 

[insomniac86]

1. Find, or make, a more suitable area for the crap
2. make the area easily available from the sidebar and/or Dock, or from wherever suits your workflow.

Don't make excuses for poor design choices.

I know i could make a Dump/Temp/Working directory, but it's the added convenience of have a full screen, always open folder, where i can just dump stuff on. These files wouldn't last longer than a day on the desktop. I'm a highly organised person who doesn't fill my desktop with crap.

In fact most users have cluttered desktops. So it will be funny to watch the performance hit when everyones upload bandwidth is saturated.

This will be something network administrators will throttle the crap out.

When people add a file to their Dropbox account, its because they want it to upload. People don't place stuff on their desktop to be shared. Again, a poor design choice, and one thats easily fixed by separating the option.

 

[grahamperrin]

shared

Uploading and sharing are quite different, let's not confuse the two.

I … often dump huge files … crap

I'm a highly organised person who doesn't fill my desktop with crap.

(Screen shots to follow; a method …)

 

[insomniac86]

Uploading and sharing are quite different, let's not confuse the two.

LOL ok mate.

"Shared" also known as sharing (i should have said "sync") your files across multiple devices, people don't just add files to dropbox to share with another people (though you can).

Sharing your files requires an "Upload" just as syncing does.

"I … often dump huge files … ""crap"" Large files are not crap. Don't twist my words.

Anyway, you're clearly someone that doesn't understand peoples use cases.
You demonstrate a lack of understanding of the real world work.

Just because you might not add anything of size to your desktop, doesn't mean other don't. As i said, most users have tones of clutter on their desktop. People export bulk data for sorting and organising and files that are currently being worked on. Thats kinda the point of the desktop. It was meant to represent your "Working area" just like your desktop in an office.

Graphic/video designers often dump large "in-progress" files to their desktops.

Anyway go back to making poor excuses for poor design.

As a senior network/systems administrator who is responsible for multiple schools, oil & gas and media outlets IT infrastructure, i can spot a poor design choice quite well. This is one of them.

 

[grahamperrin]

You demonstrate a lack of understanding

No. Or if you know me and my organisational skills so well, prior to me mentioning them, you should have already known that in the past I habitually moved works in progress to and from the desktop.

Whatever you imagine that you know about me: please be patient. You overlooked the postscript to my previous post.

 

[insomniac86]

No. Or if you know me and my organisational skills so well, prior to me mentioning them, you should have already known that in the past I habitually moved works in progress to and from the desktop.

Whatever you imagine that you know about me: please be patient. You overlooked the postscript to my previous post.

Sorry i didn't see the "(Screen shots to follow; a method …)"


I know how i can personally work around having my desktop auto sync. But dude, it doesn't scale well.

Users have terrible habits...
-Most users use their email Inbox as a document filing system.
-Most people have a desktop full of clutter.
-Most users never empty their trash. etc etc..

I can see the Desktop sync to be a real PITA at our school sites where we have 3000 kids, all with BYOD (Apple Laptops). We have strict filtering and HTTPS inspection in place, however we allow them access to iCloud. Now without a MDM policy of sorts to disable/suspend the desktop sync. It has the potential to cause havoc.

The design companies i look after who's iMac's are littered with media clips and photo dumped all over their desktops...
I can't have this stuff syncing up to iCloud non stop. My only solution is to shape the traffic to iCloud.

Thankfully though, it appears iCloud Desktop/Document sync is disabled by default, and thankfully most people wouldn't know how to enable it.

Here's an example of the IT issues a system admin has to deal with.
Many companies provide their staff with a work mobile. Usually these are iPhones...
This in turn means iTunes is installed on their desktops/laptops.
Now most Windows networks will have either redirected folders or roaming profiles enabled. The iTunes media library by default sits within the "documents" directory. This means their entire music library and iTunes iOS backups end up being synced back to the windows file servers. Now imagine 5 GB's of music with 3 10 GB iPhone backup files * by 100 users.

Thankfully it's an easy group policy fix to re-write the My Music shell folders to local disk. This in turns means iTunes only saves all that crap to local disk. I could also block file types such as m4a, mp3 from being allowed to be written to the file servers. But that could block legitimate data that needs to be synced.

Now, again, people have terrible habits, Syncing the Documents = good idea. Syncing the Desktop = Bad Idea.

 

[grahamperrin]

Related, with an unanswered question about profiles

Disable Desktop & Document Sync | Apple Developer Forums

 

[Apple Knowledge Navigator]

I'd just like to thumbs up the selective sync with Desktop and Documents. If I had the choice, I would only sync Documents because the Desktop is my area to dump things temporarily.

 

[insomniac86]

I'd just like to thumbs up the selective sync with Desktop and Documents. If I had the choice, I would only sync Documents because the Desktop is my area to dump things temporarily.

You use your desktop as majority of people do hence my point. So again my point.

It wouldn't be hard at all to implement desktop & or document sync. No need to re-work my workflow when a simple tick box can be implement to resolve the issue.

Related, with an unanswered question about profiles

Disable Desktop & Document Sync | Apple Developer Forums

Cool i will keep my eye on this.

 

[grahamperrin]

I'd just like to thumbs up the selective sync with Desktop and Documents. If I had the choice, I would only sync Documents because the Desktop is my area to dump things temporarily.

Mornings, dears. I'd too easily dump data from Documents to desktop, dismiss dialogues about removals from iCloud Drive and all other devices, dip a Digestive in my morning cup of tea, drink up, time to dash, drive to work, get there, d'oh I didn't think to de-dump before I closed the front door at home, dunno what to do about that apart from drive back home, de-dump data from desktop to documents whilst being distracted by cats meowing 'cause they don't know that it's not yet dinnertime, drive back to work and begin doing wot should have been dun and dusted an hour earlier. Ta-da.

I do understand the wishes for user-preferable exclusions but I reckon that for the forthcoming initial release, Apple wants to keep things as close as possible to a level playing field for all users of the feature.

Early days. There'll surely be more than enough noise from (and around) people surprised by the behaviours when two or more Macs are introduced to the service. Throwing voluntary or enforced exclusions into the mix would amplify, complicate that noise.

D'oh I forgot to mention optimisation by … default.

 

[Apple Knowledge Navigator]

What's with all the bold text?