iCloud Threatens to Delete My Files

[FinalAct4]

I turned on my iCloud account when I bought my new iPhone 6 last weekend, and didn't realize that by deleting emails on my phone that it would do the same to my iMac.

When I went to turn off my iCloud for mail, it was fine. Anyway to get back my old emails that I had stored in my mail inbox? When I tried to turn off documents and data, because I'm already out of icloud space and do not wish to purchase their services, it returned this rather threatening message:

If you turn off Documents & Data, all documents stored in iCloud will be deleted from this mac. Your documents will still be available on other devices using iCloud.

WHAT?? Now, these are MY documents and data, my intellectual property, so how can they delete documents and data that are OWNED by me from MY hard drive just because I want to stop using their service? Am I reading this message incorrectly? I can understand if they were deleted from iCloud, but how is it legal for them to delete what's mine from my mac??

Your help and guidance is appreciated. Admittedly, I am iCloud ignorant, so do forgive my shorfall.

Lisa M.

 

[Rigby]

If you turn off Documents & Data, all documents stored in iCloud will be deleted from this mac. Your documents will still be available on other devices using iCloud.

WHAT?? Now, these are MY documents and data, my intellectual property, so how can they delete documents and data that are OWNED by me from MY hard drive just because I want to stop using their service?

The files "live" primarily in the cloud. Mac OS keeps cached copies on your local hard drive for fast access. If you turn off iCloud Documents on the Mac, it assumes you no longer wish to access the cloud documents on the Mac and the local cache will be deleted. The files are or course still in the cloud. No other files on your drive will be affected.

I'm not sure why you want to turn iCloud Documents off in the first place? This will not delete any files in the cloud and thus not save any space there.

 

[California]

The files "live" primarily in the cloud. Mac OS keeps cached copies on your local hard drive for fast access. If you turn off iCloud Documents on the Mac, it assumes you no longer wish to access the cloud documents on the Mac and the local cache will be deleted. The files are or course still in the cloud. No other files on your drive will be affected.

I'm not sure why you want to turn iCloud Documents off in the first place? This will not delete any files in the cloud and thus not save any space there.

I'm not sure why the above person asked such a stupid question of the OP. They do not want to store files in the iCloud Server, or Computer, or iCloud hard drive. The files "live" on our hard drives, unless we give permission, albeit deceitful or tacit or sneaky permission, to have our files stored elsewhere. If I'm wrong, show me the fine print or the law.

I turned on my iCloud account when I bought my new iPhone 6 last weekend, and didn't realize that by deleting emails on my phone that it would do the same to my iMac.

When I went to turn off my iCloud for mail, it was fine. Anyway to get back my old emails that I had stored in my mail inbox? When I tried to turn off documents and data, because I'm already out of icloud space and do not wish to purchase their services, it returned this rather threatening message:

If you turn off Documents & Data, all documents stored in iCloud will be deleted from this mac. Your documents will still be available on other devices using iCloud.

WHAT?? Now, these are MY documents and data, my intellectual property, so how can they delete documents and data that are OWNED by me from MY hard drive just because I want to stop using their service? Am I reading this message incorrectly? I can understand if they were deleted from iCloud, but how is it legal for them to delete what's mine from my mac??

Your help and guidance is appreciated. Admittedly, I am iCloud ignorant, so do forgive my shorfall.

Lisa M.

I know I'm resurrecting an old thread, but just seeing this issue on my iPad. Not happy.

 

[Julien]

...I know I'm resurrecting an old thread, but just seeing this issue on my iPad. Not happy.

All iWork documents are stored locally on your Mac in addition to iCloud in the folder: User: User Name: Library: Mobile Documents. Not sure if the files are deleted if you turn off iCloud. However you can easily use Time Machine to retrieve them.

 

[dsemf]

I turned on my iCloud account when I bought my new iPhone 6 last weekend, and didn't realize that by deleting emails on my phone that it would do the same to my iMac.

When I went to turn off my iCloud for mail, it was fine. Anyway to get back my old emails that I had stored in my mail inbox? When I tried to turn off documents and data, because I'm already out of icloud space and do not wish to purchase their services, it returned this rather threatening message:

If you turn off Documents & Data, all documents stored in iCloud will be deleted from this mac. Your documents will still be available on other devices using iCloud.

WHAT?? Now, these are MY documents and data, my intellectual property, so how can they delete documents and data that are OWNED by me from MY hard drive just because I want to stop using their service? Am I reading this message incorrectly? I can understand if they were deleted from iCloud, but how is it legal for them to delete what's mine from my mac??

Your help and guidance is appreciated. Admittedly, I am iCloud ignorant, so do forgive my shorfall.

Lisa M.

If you no longer want to use iCloud for document storage and sharing, just move them to your regular Documents folder. Once you have moved all of them, then you can turn off the option. You may still get the message, but it only applies to the contents of /Users/<name>/Library/Mobile Documents. Just to be safe I would do a backup before turning the option off.

DS

 

[dsemf]

All iWork documents are stored locally on your Mac in addition to iCloud in the folder: User: User Name: Library: Mobile Documents. Not sure if the files are deleted if you turn off iCloud. However you can easily use Time Machine to retrieve them.

Actually, iWork documents are stored where ever you put them. Most of mine are in the Documents folder. Those that I wish to have available across devices I put in iCloud which on OS X are replicated to the directory you indicated.

DS

 

[jsmith189]

This doesn't really help your question, but ARE they still your property once uploaded to the cloud? It wouldn't surprise me if there were something in the terms and conditions along the lines of Facebook's photo ownership.

 

[tracyselena]

I feel like no one knows what they are talking about in this thread. I have read that the files in your Documents folder are really only on icloud and the local copy is just a pointer to the icloud file. Maybe it caches recently used one..not sure. But I've also ready that people who turned off "Documents and Data" in icloud settings lost everything. I am very very nervous to do this but I want to stop using icloud for doc because half the time it doesn't work and my files are inaccessible. I can't even access a local "Documents" folder anymore..it just default to the icloud one.

Although this feature sounds great...I think they have a lot of work to do to get it to where it's stable. Disappointed.