iCloud Drive With or Without Desktop & Documents Folders
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 มิ.ย. 2024
- macmost.com/e-2705 The Desktop & Documents Folders feature of iCloud Drive lets you decide whether those two folders are stored only on your local Mac's hard drive, or as part of iCloud Drive and available across all of your Apple devices.
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00:00 Intro
00:30 Home Folder
01:52 iCloud Drive Folder
03:04 Favorites
03:29 The Desktop & Documents Feature
04:53 Custom Folders
06:04 Best Practices
06:47 The Desktop Folder
#macmost #icloud #iclouddrive - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
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WOW ! You are an educational genius !! 🔥 That presentation was phenomenal. First time I ever truly "got it". The accompanying chart drove it home. BRAVO ! The "best practices" advice is also killer 😊 and THANK YOU so much. !! 🙏❤
It’s refreshing to see a presenter on TH-cam who is truly focused on the subject, makes a sincere effort at explaining to all levels of expertise, and is respectful of other possible opinions on the topic! I enjoyed your tutorial of iCloud Documents & Desktop feature.
thank you!
Excellent review. I was already familiar with this and have been using iCloud with desktop and documents for sometime. However you made this so clear and easy to understand. Thanks
You explained in a few minutes what I have wondered for a decade. Thank you!
Whenever I need to setup anything on my Mac I come to your TH-cam channel, because I know I'll fine a relevant video related to what I need. Thank for the great content!
Gary, this completely answered all my questions about cloud storage! Thank You again!
Absolutely a perfect explanation of the iCloud Desktop. It confused me at first when I recently got my M1 Mac, but it’s a great feature for me. Thanks for this video and explaining it even further. The graphic is a perfect companion. 🇨🇦👍🏼
Awwwhhh . . This takes the confusion out of everything I wondered about saving files and iCloud, Gary! ThkU you for your huge content contribution. I am WOW’d.
So helpful Gary. I'm going to show this at our Pi Afternoon Learners Meeting today!
Thoroughly enjoyable! Love your work!
Hello Gary; you have the ability to make the complicated more comprehensible; what brilliance! I will use iCloud with confidence because I now understand it. And incidentally, having watched many of your video's, I have mastered Mac's "Pages" (love it) and will never go back to another word processor. THANK YOU 😶🌻
This was extremely helpful. Love the documents folder for best practices advice. Makes perfect sense! You've got a new subscriber and a big thanks from a fellow TH-camr. :)
The quality of your videos and explanations are way better than the intro (which looks a bit old fashioned). Thank you!
Thank god for this well-organized video. I was going crazy trying to figure out what happened to my Desktop Folder. This explains it so well and I am relieved. Great job on this video. Oh, and the "chart" was significantly helpful to a visual person like me.
Gary, been watching for long time! You are a genius!
Great explanation! I have mine set up a little different. I have my iCloud turned off but I still have a Document and a Desktop folder in both my local and iCloud. I like it this way so I can pick and choose when I want to save something locally or on iCloud.
Brilliant! Thank you. This is just what I needed.
Gary you are an incredible asset for us Mac users. icloud has confused me for a long time and watching a couple of your videos today on the subject has finally made it come together. Thank you so much. You do this so well...even if I have to watch it several times for it to sink in! LOL
Great Explanation!! Thank you for sharing this!
You have made me a Mac enthusiast! Best explanation & clarification I have seen. Gracias señor
You are an excellent instructor. Thank you! I consider you one of my mentors. 🤩
July 28th, 2022: Thank you, for making this simple to understand, this is exactly what I was wanting to understand and I got it watching your video one time. THANKS!
Thank you for giving me the confidence to move forward to make this feature work for me. I tried it once before and I freaked out - I couldn't understand where things were. This video has made it so much clearer for me.
Great advice as always, Gary. Thanks so much! 🤗
Thank you so much for explaining so clearly.
Perfect timing for this review, I'm just starting to set up my new Apple Studio as soon as a monitor gets here. Thanks!
Just like that! You are better than my morning coffee!! Thanks so much!
Thanks so much Gary, this video cleared up a lot of confusion for me.
Many thanks for this video, incredibly clear.
Thank you Gary for this. I have tried iCloud in the past and didn't understand the desktop feature. I currently use GDrive most of the time now, but everything I try has drawbacks. I have 1T One Drive cloud included with MS Office 365, but have never used it. Also, I pay for both iCloud storage to backup our phones and pay for GDrive storage to backup our rental business and church records. The identities of these can be a nightmare. I have 3 user accounts at Microsoft, 4 accounts with iCloud due to our phones, and 5 Google accounts including the church account. If I try to share, it gets really complicated, especially since both my wife and I take care of the rental business records. Thank God that I retired 2 years ago, because I worked for 2 different companies. I had in addition to the above, 2 iCloud accounts as I had 2 work iPhones and 2 Macbooks but with different MS Office 365 accounts and corresponding iCloud accounts.
same here.... i cloud drive n desktop .... thx much for clarifying it so clearly....
Very helpful video. Thanks so much for this.....Take care, Bluefin.
thankyou this helped so much ive been having this problem for days
Thank you so much. one of your other videos suggested the use of documents in iCloud. It was exactly what I needed to do today. This video reinforced and help me find out how I can make sure my file folders are arranged as I had them on the windows computer that I replaced. I was concerned this morning that files weren't in iCloud and my documents but this was the perfect video to see that I am on track and actually have my files where I want them and the file folders within the file folders within the file folders, etc as I wanted. Thank you for the precise information and great presentation
Great tutorial vids. I'm trying to sleuth a specific problem, but as a I click and watch, I'm learning all sorts of other things along the way. Some are simple that I'd never known. For instance: Command-click the header in Finder to see it's hierarchal location... Mind blown! Others are about strategies / choices that hadn't occurred to me. Thank you! Subscribed!
Fantastic video! Thanks so much!
great videos very clear and concise
Thank you so much you break it down so well
The graphics showing iCloud Drive on and off was very helpful. Picture worth 10,000 words. Thank you.
Excellent Video Thank You!
Many thanks Gary for sharing your never ending knowledge. iCloud now makes sense. Thank you. Forget the rest, Gary is the BEST.
SO HELPFUL!!!! THANKS VERY MUCH 🎉🎉🎉🌞
Great. Idea. Makes this feature very clear!
Gary,
I’m just setup a new iMac (data from an old miniMac) for my wife and this was exactly my doubt, because she created a terrible confusion in her data.
Thank you very much.
Regards from Lisbon, Portugal, Europe.
António
Thank you, I've been using iCloud for years and I didn't realise I could also keep local copies. I think it's confusing though and apple could simplify things
Thank you, it’s so helpful ❤
Thank you so much! It's clear now!
Well described. Now I just have to figure out how to also use my NAS to do something similar but for different reasons.
Very helpful, thank you!
I could not for the life of me figure out where the local desktop and documents folders were. The added visuals were extremely helpful to since I was struggling to navigate the various storage folders. My iCloud is always over filled with documents so I was able to clear up so much space by moving said documents to the local folders. Thanks for making this awesome vid!
What you. can do is create "Folder" Aliases. for the. Documents and. Desktop and put them in the Finder and on the Side. Bar that point to the iCloud Versions such that when you go to look for them they are there in spirit...
Amazing explanation and video appreciated by a brand new Mac user.
Thank you again!
Great job! thank you
Thank you!
This is a feature of my Mac that took me time to understand when it’s actually quite simple. I use iCloud Drive as my default storage location. As for my desktop, I have two folders for various files I want to find quickly e.g. photos for eBay adverts. Other than that it’s empty.
Great explanation.
Another GR8 video, Gary!!! I keep my documents / desktop folder on my main Mac - not on iCloud. (Photos and other things OK - on iCloud, but not Documents and Desktop). I have a very organized hierarchical structure to my Mac (and have had that since my Mac SE in 1989…) Under my HOME folder I have my "Steve-Main" folder which is 141 gb in size. (I don't use the "Documents" to store my personal data). In that I have 12 sub-folders (Steve-1, Steve-2, Steve-3 and 9 others-- thinks like Printers, Family, Macs, iOS etc.) Each sub-folder has from 4 to 18 sub-sub-folders (if I may express it that way) - for example Steve-1 has a Financial folder which has 8 sub-folders including Banks, Balance Sheets, Retirement etc. Banks includes my 8 financial institutes that I use (not all are strictly "banks") and then more sub-folders. Generally I don't go deeper than 10 sub folders. AND all this is intuitive. To access the key 50 gb of folders I use SugarSync - like having my Mac on my iPhone or iPad!! (I could store everything but only 40-50 gb are really "key" information to have all the time). Of course using "Image2icon" all my folders have artwork! A real joy to go to my Mac these last 34 years! Just upgraded to Big Sur -- I don't rush into new macOS's!! Steve on Tuesday 1 August 2023.
Yes, thank you for patient voice of clarity. One question- how does one handle say Dropbox? I presume one moves its file contents to the iCloud Desktop and Folders?
Not sure what you are asking. Dropbox is a separate cloud system. It would be like iCloud Drive, but there would be a Dropbox folder instead. Not sure why you are saying "moves its file contents to the iCloud Desktop and Folders" -- what are you trying to do by that?
A very useful and informative video tutorial today! Thank you, Gary! 👏🏻❤️
Thank you, Garry!
It's amazing that I have used a mac for more years than I can count, & just now fully comprehend all this. I've used iCloud since day one. When I digitized all my photos, I put them directly in iPhotos (what it was called in those days), never physically on my Mac. I just didn't know better. I'm now wondering if I can make an external backup of all those photos that are now in Apple Photos?
Thank you for your detailed vdo on docs and folders, one thing i want to know that besides having docs and desk top backed up on icloud is there any way that all of our apps installed on mac gets backed up as other docs does and in case we switch to another mac same apps apears on my new mac as they were in my old, just like we have this feature in iphone. or may be its there and i dont know.
No, apps aren't stored in the cloud. No need to. Anything you get from the App Store you can just download to another Mac when it is time. Migration Assistant will do that for you.
Hi Gary, great videos. If I move my desktop folder to ICloud, and then my Internet supplier has an internet outage ( which happens frequently ), I guess the files I had on my desktop would not be available... Correct?
Thanks for the clear instructions and explanation! How would this work in case of having multiple macs? If the Desktop and Documents folders are turned on in iCloud drive - Would that lead to having multiple folders or would it be labelled according to the computer
You turn this on for each Mac. iCloud Drive Documents would be shared by all. By local Documents would be just for that one Mac.
Gary, can I have icloud desktop and docs on on my powerbook and off on my desktop? Or does it turn it on globally?
Gary will iCloud Drive take a way any of my internal hard drive storage?
thanks for the great tips. I its showing currently 15 items to upload to iCloud folder, I don't know which files waiting to upload and how to delete recreate them again. and I don't know why it takes too long to upload these not huge files (1.6MB)
Hi,
Thank you for this informative video. I was wondering if you would recommend doing something like this for the Applications folder if I wanted to sync my settings and preferences of apps across multiple Macs? Or perhaps there’s something else better you can recommend, I’d greatly appreciate it! 😊
No, that wouldn't work and would be a bad idea since many apps are large. But preferences aren't stored IN the app itself. They are deep in your Library folder in a variety of formats and locations, depending on the app. There's no good way to sync app preferences unless the app developer has provided a system for that.
@@macmost Gotcha. I wasn't expecting to get a reply considering the popularity of your channel, so thank you so much for answering. As for my predicament, I really wished Apple would somehow implement this process. Since most people who use an Apple device typically own an ecosystem of Apple products, and setting up your preferences for every single device is such a hassle.
Another good one Gary. Quick question do have a video on finding duplicate files on a Mac? Also if you have a video on that as well. Not just excel files, but word, excel, .pdf, tax returns, etc.
Search for large files, sort by file size, duplicates should be together and have the same name and exact same size. Then carefully decide what to do about each pair.
thank you
Hello Gary,
Great Presentation
I have 3 MacBooks with a Desktop and Documents on each one.
If I turn on Desktop and Documents are the folders merged from the different MacBooks or I would have 3x different Desktop and Document in iCloud drive?
Thank you
They should merge.
Gary, you should work the Apple and help them, help consumers unravel the mystery/mess that is icloud. How they managed to make something so simple so confusing is beyond me. Thanks so much for your help.
Thank you. I was just debating turning this on. Question - what does TimeMachine backup then? Just the apps and the structure?
I’d like to know that too! Time Machine has always been a mystery to me.
Hello. Thanks a lot for this very good explanation about iCloud Drive. Do you know how to configure to have some sub-folders available both in iCloud as well as in the local HD (in order to work offline without internet) ?
See th-cam.com/video/S7JYHX2iT9Q/w-d-xo.html
Thanks Gary, can you shed some light on why my MacBook Pro hard drive free space is constantly going down? I think it has something to do with iCloud since the Cloudkit file is over 100 Gb and slowly growing even when I am not active on the laptop. I think this is a common problem but haven't been able to find any useful answers elsewhere.
Hi Garry, I have been watching your videos since I got a Mac and you have been very helpfull. I just want to ask if it is possible to not use the desktop sync feature but still use the document sync feature on. I was just thinking maybe I can use either dektop or documents only.
No. It is both or neither. But you can still work with that. You can, for instance, turn off Desktop and Documents and then simply use iCloud Drive/Documents as your main Documents folder. The only problem would be the keyboard shortcuts and Go menu wouldn't point to the right place. But you can put it in the Finder Sidebar, Favorites.
@@macmost thank you so much for that idea!!! god bless!!
When I first tried that setting a few years ago, I panicked when the documents folder just disappeared as it was moved to iCloud Drive 😳. I think it would be better if it was replaced by an alias so the structure stayed the same, but the files store in iCloud.
I also feel Documents & Desktop should be separate options, not all or nothing, although a way around that is to just move the Documents folder yourself & then create an alias 🤷♂️.
I totally agree with what you've said. I have a very organized hierarchical structure to my Mac (and have had that since my Mac SE in 1989…) Under my HOME folder I have my "Steve-Main" folder which is 141 gb in size. In that I have 12 sub-folders (Steve-1, Steve-2, Steve-3 and 9 others-- thinks like Printers, Family, Macs, iOS etc.) Each sub-folder has from 4 to 18 sub-sub-folders (if I may express it that way) - for example Steve-1 has a Financial folder which has 8 sub-folders including Banks, Balance Sheets, Retirement etc. Banks includes my 8 financial institutes that I use (not all are strictly "banks") and then more sub-folders. Generally I don't go deeper than 10 sub folders. AND all this is intuitive. To access the key 50 gb of folders I use SugarSync - like having my Mac on my iPhone or iPad!! (I could store everything but only 40-50 gb are really "key" information to have all the time). Of course using "Image2icon" all my folders have artwork! A real joy to go to my Mac these last 34 years! Just upgraded to Big Sur -- I don't rush into new macOS's!! Steve on Tuesday 1 August 2023.
@@stephenschulte3996 yes, I’m similarly organised over many years and like you I don’t rush into macOS upgrades, although I am currently on Monterey as that came with my new MacBook Air last year 👍.
Nice!
Great video. What if you are at a place with no internet connection, will you still able to access the Desktop and Document folders if they are stored into the iCloud Drive?
With "Optimize" off, yes, as everything would be cached locally. With "Optimize" on, then recently-accessed files will be there, and files you chose to download (Control+click, Download Now).
Gary, Is it possible to put files into iCloud Drive and choose not to have them appear on one of my Mac's? I have a MacBook with less storage and so I would like to keep the files in iCloud but only download when I need them. On my Mac mini I would like them all on the machine as well as it has more storage.
thanks gary for this very informative video. we appreciate the way you make them understandable for the non-tech people.
i do have one question though, if i have two macs, and i turn on 'desktop & documents on iCloud', on say mac 1, what will happen on mac 2? will mac 2 automatically move its' document and desktop folders to the cloud and 'merges' with that of mac 1? or will I have to turn it on manually?
No, you can have it with one Mac on, the other off. The other Mac would have two Documents and Desktop folder sets, one in the Home folder and one in iCloud Drive.
@@macmost thanks so much. i really appreciate the help!
Gary, If the folder called Pictures is in my home folder which is not in iCloud then why is my Photos Library in that folder instead of in the iCloud Drive folder called Photo? That seems backwards?
If I turn on the desktop and documents feature in my iCloud, will it clear up any space on my Mac?
Thanks for the great explanation. I wonder if actual syncing is possible with iCloud drive? I want to put a copy of my local folder to iCloud drive and while working in my local folder (creating new files, modifying existing files) I want the iCloud copy of that folder to get automatically updated with the changes I make. Is that at all possible?
That's exactly what iCloud Drive is. But you are saying two opposite things: "local folder" and "iCloud Drive" are opposites here. Just put what you ant in a folder in iCloud Drive and then everything in that folder can be accessed from all of your Apple devices. See th-cam.com/video/S7JYHX2iT9Q/w-d-xo.html
Thanks so much for your quick feedback!! Optimized was off. The problem might be that the computer is still syncing. My documents folder is 113 GB. My hard drive is 2TB (with 1.07 TB available, 32 GB of memory, Apple M2 pro, Sonoma 14.2.1. Opening documents, searching, or modifying documents became exceedingly slow after I turned on syncing. I am not able to modify Adobe documents except by waiting literally minutes for each change. What I want is to make use of the syncing feature, but continue to access my documents on the local drive instead of through iCloud first.
That's exactly what having "optimize" turned off does. Everything is always available locally then. Opening a file should be instant.
If you move the documents/desktop folder from two (or 3) smacks to icloud drive, will you have a documents folder for each computer in icloud drive or will they all go into one documents folder?
If you turn on Desktop & Documents in iCloud on three Macs, it will merge the contents of all three into one Documents folder that all your Macs will share via iCloud.
Even when I don‘t use that, it is good to understand those mechanisms, we don‘t know when we are going to need it.
I use icloud drive for documents and desktop, but many files go into a dropbox folder which is shared with my wife and has a folder shared with my son and daughter as well. I have a paid dropbox account which saves revisions for a month (I also use Time machine at home). I also pay for icloud drive. I don't need the amount of storage at all but the extra perks are worth it for me.
Still not possible to have the Documents folder on an external drive? Great video, thanks a lot.
You can, but I would strongly recommend against it. Mac internal drives are so much faster. It would be like getting a sports car and driving around with a trailer attached to the back.
Hi, one thing I do use is naming a folder name.nosync then it will not sync to the cloud. Thanks for the great vid.
Not a fan of that. I prefer to put things I don't want in iCloud in my Home folder. Less confusing and less chance that it will change in the future.
@@macmost I understand your point there. I use iCloud to sync my desktop and use a temp folder on my desktop for temporary files that do not need syncing. But yes it can make things more confusing for new users and experienced alike.
Thank you for your video! I did as you explained. The two folders are still there and when I delete them they return. UUGG!!
Where is "there" in your comment? In your Home folder, or in iCloud Drive? If you mean iCloud Drive, keep in mind that other devices may be using iCloud Drive so just turning off Desktop & Documents on your Mac won't delete those folders from iCloud Drive, it will just mean that your default Desktop and Documents folders for that Mac are in your Home folder, not the ones in iCloud Drive.
What is the advantage of moving the documents and desktop folders to icloud drive instead of keeping them on the local computer and the creating a icloud documents folder for the things you want to share?
Less complexity. You won't need to keep track of whether a file is in your iCloud Documents folder or one of three other local Documents folders. And there won't be a problem if you put it in the wrong place and have trouble finding it. If you just want some files to be local, why not put Desktop & Documents in iCloud, then create a "Local Documents" (or any name you want) folder on any Mac in your user folder for local files. Less confusing.
Will I retain a copy of my files on my local drive if I use the iCloud for documents and desktop or do they all move up to iCloud? Also working on large image files is using the iCloud feature slower?
Retain? Do you mean will it be local? You'll have access to the files on all of your devices. If you also want to guarantee access if you are offline for some reason, then just don't use the Optimize option. th-cam.com/video/S7JYHX2iT9Q/w-d-xo.html
Thanks for that very helpful video. I am just a bit confused about how to move folders that I seem to have inadvertently created in iCloud Drive back to my local drive. I dont want to delete them because my understand is that iff I delete from iCloud Drive, they will delete also from my device - so how do I move them back to the local drive without removing them altogether please! thanks so much,
Moving files and folders from iCloud Drive to your local drive is different than deleting files and folders. Moving vs. deleting. Two different things. If you want something removed from iCloud Drive and put on your local drive for just that one Mac, then move it. If you it makes you feel more comfortable, copy the files or folders to your local drive first, then delete the old files and folders on iCloud Drive second.
Hi. When you start Icloud on your Mac Desktop for the first time (on that computer) will the default auto start settings be that it will sync everything immediately ? I am concerned not to overwrite data as I have to desktop Macs and have never tried syncing both macs at once with Icloud. In the App Notes on my oldest mac there is a mega lot of notes I like to keep.
So for example would it be possible only to sync contacts on that new mac (which currently have only 3 notes)?
Are there any logic so that the notes made on one Mac would be easier to spot on that Mac than the other? Or will it be a lot of notes from both Macs on both Macs?
The whole idea is you don't have separate notes. You have one set of notes for YOU. If you have two Macs, you have one set of notes that you see from both machines. That's kind of the primary idea behind cloud services.
This was helpful thank you! Can you tell me if I can move my iMovie library of videos to the iCloud and if I can, how I go about doing that? thanks
No, iMovie usually stores libraries locally because they are huge files (video clips) that need fast access. Also because iMovie Mac and iMovie iOS are very different apps. What is your goal? What are you trying to do by moving your iMovie library to iCloud?
@@macmost thanks for your quick reply - just trying to get space back on my MacBook - guess it needs to be an external hard drive then?
@@DesignWithJo You didn't mention that in your original comment. It is always better to ask what you really need when asking a tech question. If you are low on space with your internal drive, I would suggest breaking up your iMovie projects in the future into one library = one project. That way you can move the whole iMovie Library as one file very easily and tell what is contained inside by the name you give it. Then when you are done with a library/project you archive it to an external drive by moving it there. This way you can have the speed of your internal drive while working on the project. An external drive may be too slow to actually use while working on it.
@@macmost thank you
I have a documents folder from iCloud on my docs, but is there anyway to get the iCloud drive icon to dock? :) Thank you for your work!
Not really. You could create a folder somewhere and fill it with aliases to some or all of the folders in iCloud Drive. Then put that folder in the Dock. Hard to know if that will work for you without knowing your goal here.
Always informative and educational. I have a question about the "iCloud Archive" file that shows up when I analyze my internal hard drive. I am not using iCloud for my Desktop and Documents but for other files/folders that I don't need fast access to but want available (on my main MBPro and other Macs iii the household). What is the function of this "archive"? I seems to take up a lot of space on my MBPro. Can it be deleted? Thank you for all the great videos. Go Dragons!
It sure what you are referring to. What is it called, exactly, and how exactly did you “analyze” your drive?
@@macmost Sorry for the lack of precision and terminology. I'm using Disk Space Analyzer Pro and it shows my home directory is using 703GB; of that 193GB is listed as a "iCloud Drive" folder. This folder is contained in the "Mobile Documents" folder in "Library". It represents one third of my usage. Can delete it? Or otherwise clean it?
@@RonLego That's your iCloud Drive files. If you delete it, you will lose everything in there. I don't know "Disk Space Analyzer Pro" but definitely don't mess around with this unless you know what you are doing. I'd hate for you to lose important files.
Gary I created a ICloud folder on my desktop. I now want to remove this folder, if I do will I delete them in ICloud as well? FYI I do have documents and desktop checked on ICloud. Thanks for your help…
Any files or folders in iCloud Drive are shared by all of your devices. If you delete a file from iCloud Drive then the file is gone from iCloud Drive and you won't see it on any of your devices because they are all showing the same thing: the contents of your iCloud Drive.
Thanks for sharing this. I have always been nervous about using these folders via iCloud.
Now, the real question is this:
If you have two MacBook's, and both have that setting on to have the data in iCloud, does it sort of 'merge' the data?
Yes. They are the "same" location. Add a file with one Mac and you see it on the other. Change a file on one Mac and you see the change in both locations. This is probably the top feature of iCloud Drive or any cloud system.