[MacTUG] iCloud syncing desktop and documents turned on by accident

[Kate Wood]

I'm going to suggest they connect to OneDrive and back up their files there. Then disconnect iCloud.

And then I'm going to soak up the round of boos. Lol

Kate

Get Outlook for Android<https://aka.ms/AAb9ysg>
________________________________
From: MacTUG <mactug-bounces at lists.uwaterloo.ca> on behalf of Glenn Anderson <anderson at uwaterloo.ca>
Sent: Friday, September 15, 2023 10:42:41 AM
To: MacTUG <MacTUG at lists.uwaterloo.ca>
Subject: [MacTUG] iCloud syncing desktop and documents turned on by accident

Hi,

I have a person who accidentally turn on iCloud syncing of their desktop and documents, and the situation now is that they are stuck with some of the files uploaded to iCloud and quite a number left pending to go up but can’t as they don’t have sufficient iCloud storage to store everything.

The person doesn’t want all their files to be on iCloud, and one can turn off this option. The issue is that when one goes to turn off this option, there is a warning that comes up saying that all your desktop and documents will be deleted from the computer. If all the files had been uploaded to iCloud then this wouldn’t be a major issue as one could then simply download them to the computer from iCloud. However that isn’t the case here as only some of the files have been uploaded to iCloud with the rest waiting to go up. I don’t know if the OS is smart enough not to delete files on the desktop and in documents that haven’t been upload to iCloud yet and leave them on the computer, but even if it does then their is the hassle of figuring out and downloading the files that are on iCloud and not on the computer.
I am hoping I am explaining things reasonable.

The solution I can think of is for the use to backup up their desktop and documents folders to an external hard disk before disabling the syncing of them from iCloud. This will at least give the a copy of the files if they are deleted and not on iCloud.

Another option I am thinking of would be for the user to create new folders in their account ( desktop - new, documents - new ) at the user root level. Then move the files from the desktop and documents folders to these new folder. Doing so would remove them from the desktop and documents folders of both the computer and iCloud. Once the documents and desktop has been cleared of files, turn off the iCloud syncing, and then move them back.

Has anyone encountered this situation? Or have some thoughts?

Thanks, Glenn

PS. They do have a Time Machine backup, which looks like it has the files backed up on it.

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