iCloud foul up

[sluggo]

Since the most recent update, I've lost my wallpaper and screensaver. Mac Mini. OS 13.4. The folder with those items along with some other folders/files no long appear on the desktop at startup. Not too fond of this automatic iCloud thing.
If I get into the system settings/Apple ID/iCloud drive I cannot toggle the switch for desktop and documents folders. I turn it on and it turns itself right back on.
So I now have a generic Apple wallpaper and the folders and photos that used to be on the desktop do not display. Has anyone run into this? If so did you find a fix?
I'm still searching around in the meantime in hopes that I find an answer.

[krissel]

I gave up on having iCloud automatically store docs, etc. Even though it says it won't take things off your Mac if you have room to keep them there, it lies. I was sick and tired of having to actually download items before I could back them up to external storage because they had been removed from my main drive. Finally I downloaded most to an external drive, then turned off the iCloud sync for docs (which made all the synced files disappear from both iCloud and the Mac) and then copied the data back from the external to my Mac. Did this on two other Macs which was very time consuming but worth the effort.


Now I only use iCloud sync for Mail, Safari, Notes and manually upload selected files and photos for storage.

[sluggo]

I gave up on having iCloud automatically store docs, etc. Even though it says it won't take things off your Mac if you have room to keep them there, it lies. I was sick and tired of having to actually download items before I could back them up to external storage because they had been removed from my main drive. Finally I downloaded most to an external drive, then turned off the iCloud sync for docs (which made all the synced files disappear from both iCloud and the Mac) and then copied the data back from the external to my Mac. Did this on two other Macs which was very time consuming but worth the effort.

Now I only use iCloud sync for Mail, Safari, Notes and manually upload selected files and photos for storage.

I show plenty of storage space in iCloud so there's no reason for stuff to disappear. But I agree with you. I'm not a fan of this new system at all.

[sluggo]

I lost most of the month of May in my business accounting app. Fortunately paper copies are on hand for each expense and income item. So this morning I went in and manually entered each item into the accounting app to bring it back to current.
iCloud will not be turned on with this computer again. It wouldn't have been on this time if not for the Ventura update doing it without my knowledge.
The 2021 and 2022 accounting years have disappeared. Maybe a Time Machine search will find them but it isn't a pressing issue for now.
I still have no idea why it happened. Plenty of storage left on the Mini and also plenty on iCloud.

[Xairbusdriver]

Never trust a basically free cloud (nor any other) service for business data. Local and off-site, rotatable backups are much safer.

[sluggo]

Never trust a basically free cloud (nor any other) service for business data. Local and off-site, rotatable backups are much safer.

This kind of snuck in the back door on me with a Ventura update. It wasn't something I purposely selected.

[sluggo]

I have now found several missing documents in the Documents folder. However, none of them will open, no matter the application required to open them.
Is this because the things that I now see are just symbols (for lack of a better term) of something that is stored somewhere in iCloud? Of course now that I have it set so that the Mini is not syncing to iCloud I have no idea how to retrieve these documents.

[krissel]

Do you still see that little cloud symbol next to the item that signifies it's in the Cloud?Probably not, but drag the column line far enough to the right just to be sure.


Also, try disconnecting your Mac from the internet and see if they will open. Then reconnect and try. Does a GetInfo show a size for them or just 0 kb/mb?


Go online to your icloud acct and see if they are there. If so, download those files and try again.

[sluggo]

Do you still see that little cloud symbol next to the item that signifies it's in the Cloud?Probably not, but drag the column line far enough to the right just to be sure.


Also, try disconnecting your Mac from the internet and see if they will open. Then reconnect and try. Does a GetInfo show a size for them or just 0 kb/mb?


Go online to your icloud acct and see if they are there. If so, download those files and try again.

No iCloud symbol next to anything. Get Info shows it as being on the Mac HD and it does show this particular doc as 4kb.
I did go to iCloud Drive and selected the document who's Get Info is pictured here and that isn't opening on the Mac. Downloaded it to my desktop. It would then open.
So apparently a whole lot of items are located on iCloud Drive that I could probably open if I took the time to download them back to the Mac. An attempt at a wholesale Select All download yesterday didn't work. It appears that each document would have be downloaded individually.
Or if I try to download a folder from iCloud, that doesn't appear to be allowed. It has to be the individual files within that folder downloaded one at a time.

[krissel]

Yes, I found it extremely frustrating that it wasn't easy to download folders, just files. I don't remember exactly what I did other than allow it to sync with the cloud, then copy all the files from the Desktop and Documents to an external. Then turned off the sync and copied those files/folders back to the Mac. I then moved the most important things to a different location (like Downloads) that wasn't under the Desktop/Document file hierarchy just in case it somehow synced on its own as it did in your case.


Here is a link with some interesting thoughts:
https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/274642/download-folder-from-icloud-drive-web



Here is some other info I found that may work, or not:
How to download entire folders from iCloud to a MacBook: Here are the steps:Open the Finder app on your MacBook.

• Click on "Go" in the menu bar and select "iCloud Drive" from the dropdown menu.
• Navigate to the folder you want to download.
• Click on the folder to select it.
• Click on "File" in the menu bar and select "Download" from the dropdown menu.
• The folder will be downloaded to your MacBook and will appear in your Downloads folder.
  Note that if the folder is very large, it may take some time to download. Also, make sure you have enough storage space on your MacBook to accommodate the download.

[sluggo]

Thanks for the insights Krissel. Some rainy day when I'm not out running the business I may delve deeper into this farce.