Sierra and iCloud Drive problems.

I have only recently become a convert to iCloud Drive and was getting on very well dropping a few documents in it occasionally to access via my iPad and iPhone.

Today I upgraded to Sierra and during the set up I inadvertently signed up to allow my Documents and Desk Top to be synchronised without realising. Everything looked ok in Finder until I realised that I was looking at iCloud Drive/Documents not iMac/Documents and realised what I had done. I went to the iCloud preferences and unticked Documents and Desk Top from iCloud Drive but, when I went back to Finder, Documents didn't exist anymore. So I reinstated the synchronisation and once again Documents & Desk Top was returned as it was before as part of iCloud.

I have some questions.

1. When Documents is initially synchronised does that mean that nearly 4GB of bandwidth is being used up? (I am on 25GB a month - at the moment)
2. If I am, for instance, up in a plane or for some other reason unable to access my internet, can I still access all of the files on my iPad, iPhone and iMac?
3. Is there a simple way to restore my use of iCloud Drive to synchronise just the files I choose and return all of the files in iCloud Drive back to iMac Documents as it used to be?
4. Should I turn off iCloud Drive and use Microsoft OneDrive?

Thanks for any advice.

I use both OneDrive and iCloud, however, if you're not a subscriber to Office 365, Microsoft will limit your OneDrive usage.

1. Yes, when you sync your documents that will use bandwidth space. (which is why I declined when setting up Sierra)

2. As far as I'm aware, yes. However, I would make sure to have a separate copy of the files you need elsewhere other than your documents folder which will be synced.

3. I'm not sure how easy it is but I would first copy those files elsewhere (again away from the documents folder) and then turn off syncing to iCloud.

4. I guess it depends on how much space you have for OneDrive. As I stated above, if you're an Office 365 subscriber, you have lots of space.

Thanks for your reply.

In 3 above, restoring documents to there original position and stop synchronisation, research I have done suggests that all you have to do is go to the iCloud Drive Options and untick Desktop and Documents Folders. If I do this a pop up states 'If you continue Documents on your desktop and in you Documents Folder will be visible in iCloud Drive only. No documents will be deleted from iCloud Drive.' So unticking appears to achieve exactly the opposite of what I am trying to achieve.

Anybody had any success reverting back from synchronisation?

Edit- I have just done some testing and, with my internet disconnected, I have full access to all the files that are stored on iCloud Drive on my iMac although, clearly, they are not synched. However when I access those same files on either my iPhone or iPad I get a thumbnail of the file only which is so small it cannot be read. I am starting to wonder about the merits of iCloud Drive as I am retired and the majority of the time I am at home and can access all files on my iMac when I want them. If I'm not at home I'm on a cruise ship or somewhere foreign where internet access is not necessarily available so I will still have to ensure that all files I might need are downloaded onto both devices in advance.

Am I missing something?

What is the advantage to me of using iCloud Drive? I use Time Machine on my iMac as well as CCC to safeguard all my files where they are always available with or without internet access.

What is the advantage to me of using iCloud Drive? I use Time Machine on my iMac as well as CCC to safeguard all my files where they are always available with or without internet access.

Click to expand...

There may not be much of an advantage in your situation. One thing that iCloud does well is sync contacts (contacts app on your iMac to your iPhone and iPad), notes, reminders, Safari bookmarks, and some other things that you may or may not make use of.

If you're a user of any of the iWork apps (Pages, Numbers, Keynote), using iCloud will allow you to sync documents from your iMac to your iPad or iPhone if needed. Again, that might not be something that is useful to you. Like you I'm retired but still very active doing volunteer work that takes me away from home quite a bit. I make use of iCloud to sync contacts, documents, and other things to my iPhone and my wife's iPhone. (She is also involved with our volunteer work.)

Thanks for your reply.

Now that it is set up I think I'll run with iCloud Drive synching for a while and see how I get on.

I am loathe to try stopping the synching of Documents and Desktop at the moment as there doesn't appear to be a definitive way to restore the status quo and all attempts i have made resulted in all my documents being uploaded to the cloud again, and again!

Thanks again for your advice.

Well,this is what I just did. I went and unchecked Desktop & Documents from the iCloud Drive options in System Preferences. A window came up and said those folder will now only be on the Cloud in iCloud Drive. This seems like the new status quo. I moved the files from iCloud Drive > Desktop to my newly created Desktop folder. I was asked if I wanted to remove the files, so I accepted and they moved, exactly the same as if they were on the same drive. Like if you move a file between two folders. The files were no longer in iCloud Drive, only on my Desktop. So then I deleted the Desktop Folder from my iCloud Drive folder, and 10 seconds later it was recreated. Hmmm.

I did wonder if I created a new folder in Finder called something like My Documents then dragged all of the Documents files from iCloud Drive into it. In theory that Documents folder would now be empty.

If I was then to uncheck Desktop & Documents from iCloud Drive and create a new Documents folder in Finder and drag all the files from My Documents into Documents I would be back where I started before Sierra got involved.

Ahhh but I forgot about Desktop. Not sure what would happen to that.

As I said earlier I am loathe to experiment as I always seem to end up uploading all my Documents back to iCloud Drive again & again etc!!

pine man said:

I did wonder if I created a new folder in Finder called something like My Documents then dragged all of the Documents files from iCloud Drive into it. In theory that Documents folder would now be empty.

If I was then to uncheck Desktop & Documents from iCloud Drive and create a new Documents folder in Finder and drag all the files from My Documents into Documents I would be back where I started before Sierra got involved.

Ahhh but I forgot about Desktop. Not sure what would happen to that.

As I said earlier I am loathe to experiment as I always seem to end up uploading all my Documents back to iCloud Drive again & again etc!!

Click to expand...

When you uncheck Desktop & Documents in iCloud Drive options, the Desktop & Documents folders are recreated, and, the Desktop folder anyway, could not be modified because it is needed by the system. I tried to move the Desktop folder that was still in iCloud Drive to my user folder so I could replace the new empty Desktop folder that was just created.

I think I'm going to have to leave the experimentation until next month. At the moment I'm limited to 25GB internet usage a month, which is rapidly disappearing and will result in a nasty email from my provider. It appears, amongst other things, that you cannot pick either Desktop or Documents you have to have both synched. Maybe good old Apple will modify the options at some time in the future?