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Re: iCloud Drive Muddle - help!

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Jaimie Vandenbergh <jaimie@usually.sessile.org> wrote:
> On 20 Jul 2020 at 16:51:10 BST, "John Hill" <watcombeman@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> 
>> On 20 Jul 2020 at 02:18:24 BST, "John" <Man@the.keyboard> wrote:
>> 
>>> On 19 Jul 2020 20:44:06 GMT, Jaimie Vandenbergh
>>> <jaimie@usually.sessile.org> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> On 19 Jul 2020 at 11:25:47 BST, "John Hill" <yclept@outlook.com> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>>> The Documents and Desktop folders on Anne's iMac have got into an iCloud
>>>>> muddle, and I would be grateful for advice on how to sort it out. She has a
>>>>> 2017 iMac running Catalina, fully up to date.
>>>>> 
>>>>> This is the current situation:
>>>>> 1. iCloud Drive holds a Documents folder, containing her documents and a
>>>>> Desktop folder containing items that do appear on her desktop. Neither
>>>>> bears the appropriate icon; they appear as standard folders.
>>>>> 2. The option for iCloud to be the home for these folders is definitely OFF
>>>>> in Settings.
>>>> 
>>>> Ok. Probably at a major OS version update, eg Catalina, the "oh yes let's do
>>>> the default terrible action of using iCloud Documents" has been clicked
>>>> through, then unchecked again in settings later. Or it was checked in
>>>> Settings, and then unchecked. Anyway, hardly matters - just avoid doing it
>>>> again :)
>>>> 
>>>> As John says, make sure her backup is up to date first.
>>>> 
>>>>> 3. Her User folder contains a Documents folder and a Desktop folder that do
>>>>> have the appropriate icons. The Documents folder is empty, the Desktop
>>>>> folder contains a folder of Relocated Items (there is an alias for this in
>>>>> the iCloud Desktop folder). When either is opened, the title of the window
>>>>> has the suffix "(local)".
>>>> 
>>>> Fortunately the fix is simply to (backup first and then) drag all the files
>>>> from the iCloud Drive Documents folder back to the local Documents folder. 
>>> 
>>> Optimist. 
>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> And the same for the iCloud Drive Desktop folder, copy back to the desktop.
>>>> 
>>>> Once all looks okay, and you've taken the next backup (big thumbs up for that
>>>> John!) then you can delete out the extraneous Desktop and Documents folders
>>>> and content in iCloud Drive.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> *W*A*I*T*!*!*!*!   .....  a word or two to the other John .....
>>> 
>>> At some point in the "drag all files to the local folder from the
>>> iCloud one" operation, the little demons in your system are going to
>>> ask a very, very important question [or maybe they won't]:
>>> 
>>> "A newer version of this file is already in the target folder, are
>>> you sure you wish to replace it with the older one?"
>>> 
>>> That is where you stop, think and probably don't. 
>>> 
>>> The reason it only *may* ask the question is because the desktop
>>> versions may be newer, older or identical, it all depends on which was
>>> last touched. Or there may only be one copy. That would be nice. 
>>> 
>>> Be careful. 
>>> 
>>> Do a backup.
>>> 
>>> Make a short written note of every step you are going to do before
>>> you do it just so you know exactly how dumb you were when you did it
>>> and sort of what you can do to fix it. 
>>> 
>>> This has all the makings of a project to occupy yourself with until
>>> the end of Winnie's Flu's Quarentine if it goes all soggy but if you
>>> are careful, follow Jaimie's advice and do it slowly, it may go
>>> beautifully. 
>>> 
>>> I hope it's easy. 
>> 
>> Operation de-iCloud complete, and all seems well. No problems along the way.
>> 
>> The folders in Anne's User folder still have window titles Documents - Local
>> and Desktop - Local, but hey, we can live with that. 
> 
> You can just rename them, they're not that special :)
> 

Well, not on our iMacs. The Apple proved folders  - Desktop, Documents,
Pictures etc. - can NOT be renamed (at least, not by my amateur efforts).
Folders I've created can, of course.

In any case, the name in the Finder is just Documents. It's the title of
the opened window that has the suffix.

>> Oh, and the Documents
>> icon in the Dock is called iCloud Drive rather than Documents. Maybe these
>> will go away in time.
> 
> That won't - it'll always lead to iCloud. Right click, Options, Remove and
> then replace it with a drag of the correct home folder one.
> 

It did lead to the right place, just its name was misleading. I'll try that
at a convenient time.

>> Thank you all for your help. It was easy in the end, but as I said I'm wary of
>> messing with things I don't really understand.
> 
> It's a worry fixing things up after some automated system has "improved"
> things...
> 

Yes, I do become irritated by Apple's attempts to get me to do things its
way rather than my way. Back in the Classic era we were given plenty of
scope to customise how we used the Mac; we could, for example, give sounds
of our choice to all sorts of actions. Mine used to say "My mind is going"
(HAL in 2001) when it was shut down.

I miss the Easter Eggs, too. I suppose it's the Corporate Mentality.

I expect that Windows is just the same; at least we can still put
applications anywhere we want, or just throw them in the bin.

John.

-- 
Today is the tomorrow we worried about yesterday, and all is well.

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Thread

iCloud Drive Muddle - help! John Hill <yclept@outlook.com> - 2020-07-19 10:25 +0000
  Re: iCloud Drive Muddle - help! John <Man@the.keyboard> - 2020-07-19 17:53 +0100
    Re: iCloud Drive Muddle - help! John Hill <watcombeman@yahoo.co.uk> - 2020-07-19 18:14 +0000
  Re: iCloud Drive Muddle - help! Jaimie Vandenbergh <jaimie@usually.sessile.org> - 2020-07-19 20:44 +0000
    Re: iCloud Drive Muddle - help! John <Man@the.keyboard> - 2020-07-20 02:18 +0100
      Re: iCloud Drive Muddle - help! Graham J <nobody@nowhere.co.uk> - 2020-07-20 08:19 +0100
      Re: iCloud Drive Muddle - help! John Hill <watcombeman@yahoo.co.uk> - 2020-07-20 15:51 +0000
        Re: iCloud Drive Muddle - help! Jaimie Vandenbergh <jaimie@usually.sessile.org> - 2020-07-20 17:06 +0000
          Re: iCloud Drive Muddle - help! John Hill <yclept@outlook.com> - 2020-07-22 08:58 +0000
          Re: iCloud Drive Muddle - help! John Hill <yclept@outlook.com> - 2020-07-22 09:04 +0000
            Re: iCloud Drive Muddle - help! Jaimie Vandenbergh <jaimie@usually.sessile.org> - 2020-07-22 11:17 +0000
              Re: iCloud Drive Muddle - help! John Hill <watcombeman@yahoo.co.uk> - 2020-07-22 14:32 +0000
        Re: iCloud Drive Muddle - help! John <Man@the.keyboard> - 2020-07-23 02:27 +0100
          Re: iCloud Drive Muddle - help! John Hill <watcombeman@yahoo.co.uk> - 2020-07-23 16:12 +0000
            Re: iCloud Drive Muddle - help! John <Man@the.keyboard> - 2020-07-24 04:23 +0100
              Re: iCloud Drive Muddle - help! John Hill <yclept@outlook.com> - 2020-07-24 14:12 +0000
                Re: iCloud Drive Muddle - help! John <Man@the.keyboard> - 2020-07-25 02:53 +0100

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