Cannot Sign Out of iCloud

Sign out of iCloud doesn’t work.
I’ve followed each step but still come round to the first screen each time, I’ve tried to force quit this doesn’t work either. I need some guidance please.

Force quit what? Are you signing out from Sys Prefs->iCloud or elsewhere? More details please.

And may we assume that this is on your iMac and not your iPad or iPhone 7plus?

As this post is under macOS, I presume the iMac. Are you doing the signing out as Ashwin asked or have you signed into your iCloud via your web browser?

Ian

Many thanks for your replies.
I'll attempt to explain what happens in the sequence, hope I've covered each one.
I am attempting to sign out from Sys Prefs> iCloud on my iMac not from my Browser. It seems to be locked into a circle. The sequence as follows
A Pane with heading iCloud list commences with
iCloud Drive, Photos, Mail,Contacts, Calendars, Safari, and Notes. All boxes checked with blue tick
"Do you want to keep a copy of your iCloud data on this Mac before signing out etc. In the blue box I clicked Keep Copy""
"Do you want to keep a copy of your Safari Passwords on this Mac? In the blue box I clicked Keep on this Mac"
There's two sections on the next panel which shows "Use iCloud for your Documents and data. I've checked the box with a blue tick. Use Find my Mac. Again box checked with a blue tick"
Next "Use iCloud for your Documents and Data. Again box checked with a blue tick. The next step is to click "Next" I am then brought to the beginning again. Pane with heading iCloud list commences with
iCloud Drive, Photos, Mail,Contacts, Calendars, Safari, and Notes. All boxes checked with blue tick. After this I am right back at the beginning. I hope I've made it clear.
I really need to sort this out. Any guidance you can give me will be most welcome.

Apologies didn't think the attachment would be this size.
My sincere apologies once again.

Chrysippus
Greek Philosopher

What you are doing is to sign IN to iCloud, not out. The checked boxes are to indicate that you want those to be synced and/or stored on iCloud.

Now, if all you are really trying to do is to leave the options pane, that is accomplished on the top bar where you see this:


The icon on the far right that looks like a set of little squares will take you back to the System Preferences window.

Maybe if you described what you are trying to do we can be of more assistance. Are you trying to sign IN or OUT of iCloud, or IN or OUT of System Preferences?

Many thanks for your reply. I apologise for the confusion which I appear to have caused. I assume it is preferable to sign out of iCloud when it is not needed at the time. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
I must confess that I'm still a newbie but eager to learn Mac.

No need to sign out of iCloud on the Mac at that screen. What that screen is saying is that those things with the check mark are syncing automatically into the iCloud and to any and all devices that are also using your account at iCloud (your iPhone, iPad, etc). So you don't need to sign out at all, just let them sync.

If you want to SEE what's in iCloud, log into iCloud.com with your AppleID and password and you can then see the documents, pictures, etc, that are stored in iCloud. If you do that, then when you leave the iCloud.com website you can log out by clicking on your name in the upper right corner of the site and log out from there. You don't have to, but it's good practice to do so there. What you are logging out of at iCloud.com is the Internet presentation of what is stored in iCloud from the selections you made in System Preferences.

It's a bit confusing, but I hope that helps some.

Hi Jake
I'll follow your advice which is very well received and appreciated. I agree a bit confusing but now I know the finer points it's becoming clearer.
Many thanks once again

Chrysippus
279-206BC