Sync Desktop and Documents Folders now in Finder Settings!!

[Rod]

Why the heck would Apple do this?
For those of you, who like me, have Finder Settings as you want them so don't visit that window very often you may be as surprised as I was to see this;


When the heck did they do that? Without a doubt one of the most challenging things to do on these forums is explain to a novice OP how to undo this option and/or explain the difference between iCloud Drive and iCloud along with where all the stuff they had on their Desktop has gone not to mention their Documents Folder.
It's also found in initial Mac Setup as an option and one of the things I always warn people not to tick, at least not until they understand the use of iCloud Drive and the iOS Files app.
Happily the option was pretty much hidden in System Settings > Apple ID > iCloud > iCloud Drive but not any more!



But although accurate the description in the window fails to mention one very important thing; everything on your Desktop and the Documents Folder in the Finder sidebar will effectively disappear!!

If you have not gone to the Finder Settings > Sidebar > iCloud Drive and ticked it, I don't believe it displays by default, confusion and panic sets in prompting some users to turn the sync feature off. This doesn't work of course, can cause more problems depending on when they turn it off and that's usually the point at which they contact this forum.

Of course if they'd had the wherewithal to read the blue "Learn More" text;

Add your Desktop and Documents files to iCloud Drive – Apple Support (UK)

Find out how to share your files from your Mac Desktop and Documents folders to all of your devices with iCloud Drive.

support.apple.com

They may have realised the somewhat monumental nature of what they are about to do, although the same page tells where to now find your files and how to turn the feature off it doesn't explain restoring things to how they were,"When you turn off Desktop & Documents Folders, your files stay in iCloud Drive and a new Desktop and Documents folder is created on your Mac in the home folder. You can move files from iCloud Drive to your Mac as you need them, or select all of your files and drag them to the place you want to keep them." it doesn't mention that those recreated folders will be initially empty or how to easily put the contents back and erase them from iCloud Drive thus freeing up GB's of storage.

In short it can be a nightmare for both the OP and the forum members especially if the OP is inexperienced. I know because I've done it.

So why make it easier to do accidentally?

 

[IWT]

Checked it on my Mac, Rod, and of course, you're right. I cannot see the point of this change. Making things easier to locate is fine and dandy; but not those "difficult to understand and even harder to recover" options.

Thanks for the heads-up, Rod.

Ian

 

[MacInWin]

Curious, that's not what I see in that tab in Finder Settings. Maybe it's only there if one has opted to store Documents and Desktop in the cloud? It does not, after all, say it's going to move the data, just sync it.

 

[Jimmysb]

I do!!

 

[ferrarr]

Maybe it's only there if one has opted to store Documents and Desktop in the cloud?

I have the option, but I didn't elect to use the sync



option.

 

[pm-r]

Just as I posted in my #17 post@ More Newby Questions

MacInWin said:
... Rod. I don't get that option in Finder Settings at all.


Ditto, same on my iMac running macOS 15.5.
Maybe because I don't have Desktop and Documents folders in the Cloud?

I have been fighting this mess Apple created on my wife's 2020 27-in iMac running Mac OS 15.5 since I discovered it and where her desktop folder disappeared too.

Some of the annoyances are the fact that apple and others provide a so-called solution that doesn't match what we have installed on our Macs. Even where they provided graphics they don't even match what we have installed with a recent update or even before. Pure sloppiness and unnecessary and my wife got no opportunity to choose otherwise when she got her newer iMac and everything migrated over.

Would anyone care to offer what the actual process is to get both the desktop and documents folder back into the user folder where they used to be. According to Apple it's a simple click on a setting. Yeah, right, just let me know which one, please.




- Patrick
=======

 

[IWT]

I have it as well, as Rod posted:



Ian

 

[pm-r]

I have it as well, as Rod posted:

@ Ian,
Do you have your Desktop and Documents folders in your Username folder on your Mac?

And if so, as I do on my iMac running macOS 15.5, why do I not have the Snc Desktop and Documents folders option box on my iMac as you seem to have?

Or is this yet another sign of MacOS's lack of consistency?



- Patrick
=======

 

[Rod]

Patrick, I had to perform the process when I accidentally allowed it to occur during a reinstall of macOS.
It's not all that difficult if you have a good understanding of macOS to begin with. As soon as I'm back on my Mac, I'm on my iPhone at the moment I'll explain how I did it.

 

[Rod]

Okay, back on my MBP.

So, this is basically just a drag an drop process. I will assume that iCloud Drive appears in the sidebar of the computer in question, if not make it so.

First you need to turn off sync Documents & Desktop Folders in System settings as per my screen shot in post #1

This as Apple explains recreates those folders in the Finder sidebar but they are empty.

Now open a second Finder window and in that window open iCloud Drive.

Locate either the Documents or Desktop Folder, you have to do both so let's say you open the Documents folder first.

Select all of the contents in that folder and drag them to the empty Documents folder in the first (local) Finder window, you may want to open it so you can see what's happening, it may take a little time, some of the files will be greyed out until they have downloaded.

Now your local Documents folder is populated with the contents of the Documents folder in iCloud Drive.

Now do the same thing for the Desktop folder.

Once that is done and it could take a little while because you may be downloading a lot of data, (I advise you compare the folders to ensure that all of the files in each of the Documents and Desktop folders are the same as the iCloud Drive versions), you can go ahead and delete the iCloud Drive versions of the Documents and Desktop folders.

At first I just deleted just the contents of the Documents and Desktop folders in iCloud Drive but eventually I deleted the folders themselves as well.

 

[pm-r]

Okay, back on my MBP.

So, this is basically just a drag an drop process. I will assume that iCloud Drive appears in the sidebar of the computer in question, if not make it so.

@ Rod

Thank you for your clear instructions, and I was suspecting that was the method to use, as it would be too much to expect for Apple software Developers to simply reverse the process by unchecking the options and provide a button that would migrate everything back the way it should have been in the first place.

I wonder if it's time for some old-time Apple software developers to retire, especially
considering some recent "features" they have added to the macOS?




- Patrick
========

 

[Rod]

Curious, that's not what I see in that tab in Finder Settings. Maybe it's only there if one has opted to store Documents and Desktop in the cloud? It does not, after all, say it's going to move the data, just sync it.

That's what it says in System Settings too, "Keep your Desktop & Documents folders in sync with iCloud and access them from other devices and iCloud.com." It doesn't say next time you look at your Desktop it will be empty. That's my point. So, I think ticking the box in Finder Preferences will do the same thing but...you could try it?

 

[Rod]

@ Rod

Thank you for your clear instructions, and I was suspecting that was the method to use, as it would be too much to expect for Apple software Developers to simply reverse the process by unchecking the options and provide a button that would migrate everything back the way it should have been in the first place.

I wonder if it's time for some old-time Apple software developers to retire, especially
considering some recent "features" they have added to the macOS?




- Patrick
========

Yeah, I mean if you think of iCloud Drive like an external HD the process is simple. "Oops! I accidentally deleted 20 documents from my Documents folder, oh well, I have a copy on my EHD, I'll just drag copies from the EHD back to my Documents folder." Simple right? But an inexperienced user might think there is something mystical about iCloud remote storage which there clearly is not, it's just an EHD in another location.

I'm sure the techs at Apple think the same way, they'd look at my long winded explanation and say, "Well thats obvious, why would we bother to write that down?" Sadly, it's only obvious when you know it.

 

[MacInWin]

Thank you for your clear instructions, and I was suspecting that was the method to use, as it would be too much to expect for Apple software Developers to simply reverse the process by unchecking the options and provide a button that would migrate everything back the way it should have been in the first place.

Apple is fairly consistent in that they never assume that it is acceptable to overwrite anything already on the user's storage. So, in the restoration process, they create new Documents and Desktop folders. But they cannot assume that the user doesn't put something in those folders, so they then create the folders to hold what is in the cloud and allow the user to move to the new Documents and Desktop folders what the users want there. I'm ok with that decision. In APFS nothing actually moves, just the directories are updated, so it is really quick. What takes time is the downloading of the stuff from iCloud back to the internal storage.

As for the differences in the Finder settings, it might be caused by a user having EVER chosen Optimize in macOS. I never have, so I don't see the "sync" prompt. If, however, someone did turn on Optimize, even if they then reversed it, that action may have triggered a change in the settings options. Apple does have dynamic menues that adjust as the system is changed.

 

[IWT]

Jake, I find this a bit confusing, but I can say that I have NEVER chosen or even considered choosing Optimise despite seeing what I posted earlier.

Ian

 

[Rod]

And I have to admit I have, albeit accidentally.