Where is the iCloud folder with Documents and Desktop?

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iCloud is in the Finder sidebar, and below it are the Documents and Desktop folders. I turns out that if I go to /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/Applications/ there is an app, iCloud Drive.app. Click on the app and it takes me to the iCloud in the Finder sidebar with all its underlying folders. So, I still cannot find where the information in these folders is hidden on the local HD.
 
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Dunno if you've found the answer by now, since it's been over a year and not sure if this is what you're looking for, but this appears to be the root folder of iCloud Drive on the local computer; only the folder structure and downloaded items appear here in Terminal:

/Users/[username]/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/

For some reason the Desktop folder is absent here, but Documents and everything else was there. Note that I could only access that folder in Terminal; Finder automatically jumped me over to the iCloud Drive pane when I entered it into "Go to Folder...". Notably, while Desktop and Documents are absent from the User Folder in Finder, they do appear there in Terminal. But the path above is the only place I found items in the root of my iCloud Drive.

Experimentally, I copied a file into a subfolder of that path in Terminal and was able to access the file on my iPhone, so it does seem to sync from there. I'm still on Catalina, if that makes a difference to anything.
 

swingingfish

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The files are at this location, but you should not move them.

~/Library/Mobile Documents/

Note: inside this folder is a hidden folder. This is where your documents are stored locally. To see your iCloud Drive folders enter the following path in the Go > Go to Folder... dialog box in Finder. Your files should be listed here.

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

I use online backup at Backblaze. If I navigate through their restore interface, I can see the files at this location. They are not hidden in the backup. This is how I discovered the location.

Hope this helps.
 

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