Add your Desktop and Documents files to iCloud Drive

Acquire how to share your files from your Mac Desktop and your Documents binder to all of your devices with iCloud Drive.

Desktop of a MacBook Air running macOS Big Sur showing iCloud Drive. And an iPhone 12 Pro running iOS 14 showing the iCloud Drive Desktop.

Turn on Desktop and Documents

Plow on Desktop and Documents on every Mac that you want to use with iCloud Bulldoze.

  1. From your Mac, choose Apple menu  > System Preferences. Click Apple ID, and then click iCloud. In macOS Mojave or earlier, choose Apple tree card  > Organisation Preferences, then click iCloud.
  2. Make sure that iCloud Drive is turned on.
  3. Side by side to iCloud Drive, click Options.
  4. Choose Desktop & Documents Folders.
    iCloud Drive Options screen on a Mac that shows the Desktop & Documents Folders option selected.
  5. Click Done.

If you lot want to store your files in iCloud Drive and another deject storage service, you can keep copies of your files in both, but you can't go along folders from a tertiary-party cloud service in iCloud Drive. You lot can keep your other deject service folders in a unlike identify on your Mac, similar the home folder.

If you already use a feature from another deject provider that syncs or manages your Desktop and Documents folders, you need to plow it off to utilize Desktop and Documents.

Find your Desktop and Documents files on all of your devices

When you add your Desktop and Documents to iCloud Bulldoze, all of your files motility to iCloud and any new files you create are automatically stored in iCloud too. Then you tin can find your files on all of your devices.

Your files upload to iCloud each time your device connects to the Internet. Depending on your Net speed, the time it takes for you to meet your files on your other devices might vary.

On your Mac

Y'all can notice your Desktop and Documents folders in the iCloud section of the Finder sidebar. If you lot add a 2nd Mac Desktop, you can find those files in the Desktop binder in iCloud Drive. Look for a folder with the same name as your 2nd Mac. You tin likewise use Spotlight to search for specific file names.

On your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch

You can find the files in the Files app in iOS 11 or afterward. You can apply whatsoever compatible app to access and edit your files directly on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod bear upon.

If you're using iOS ix or iOS 10, you tin can access your files in the iCloud Drive app.

On iCloud.com

  1. Sign in to iCloud.com with your Apple ID on your iPad, Mac, or PC.
  2. Go to iCloud Drive.
  3. Double-click the Desktop or Documents folder.

If you desire to use the file or make edits, simply click and download it to your iPad or computer. When y'all're done making edits, upload the file to iCloud Bulldoze to see the latest version everywhere.

Store your files in iCloud and save space on your device

The files that you continue in iCloud Bulldoze use your iCloud storage. And as long as you have enough space in iCloud, you lot tin can store equally many files as you like.

If you demand more space, you can delete files to free upwardly infinite in iCloud. When you lot employ iCloud Bulldoze and delete a file on one device, it deletes on every device that you're signed in to with the same Apple ID. You tin can find deleted files in the Recently Deleted binder in the Files app or on iCloud.com for thirty days. After that, they're removed.

Larn more about how to manage your iCloud storage.

Turn off Desktop and Documents

  1. From your Mac, choose Apple menu  > Organization Preferences. Click Apple ID, so click iCloud. On macOS Mojave or earlier, choose Apple carte du jour  > System Preferences, then click iCloud.
  2. Side by side to iCloud Drive, click Options.
  3. Deselect Desktop & Documents Folders.
  4. Click Done.

What happens when you turn off Desktop and Documents

When you turn off Desktop & Documents Folders, your files stay in iCloud Bulldoze and a new Desktop and Documents folder is created on your Mac in the home binder. You can movement 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.

What happens when you lot turn off iCloud Drive or sign out of iCloud

If you turn off iCloud Bulldoze or sign out of iCloud, a new Desktop and Documents folder is created in your home folder. You also have the choice to keep a local re-create of your files that are in iCloud Drive. If you go along a local copy of your files in iCloud Bulldoze, they're copied to a folder called iCloud Drive (Archive) in your home binder. You lot tin can movement whatever files that were in your iCloud Desktop and Documents to your new local Desktop and Documents.

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