Add your Desktop and Documents files to iCloud Drive

Learn how to share your files from your Mac Desktop and your Documents folder 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 lot want to employ with iCloud Drive.

  1. From your Mac, choose Apple bill of fare  > System Preferences. Click Apple ID, and then click iCloud. In macOS Mojave or earlier, choose Apple menu  > System Preferences, so click iCloud.
  2. Make sure that iCloud Drive is turned on.
  3. Next 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 want to shop your files in iCloud Drive and some other cloud storage service, you tin keep copies of your files in both, but you tin can't go along folders from a tertiary-party cloud service in iCloud Drive. You can keep your other cloud service folders in a unlike place on your Mac, like the home folder.

If yous already utilize a feature from some other cloud provider that syncs or manages your Desktop and Documents folders, you need to turn information technology off to employ Desktop and Documents.

Find your Desktop and Documents files on all of your devices

When you add your Desktop and Documents to iCloud Drive, all of your files movement to iCloud and whatsoever new files yous create are automatically stored in iCloud too. Then you tin find your files on all of your devices.

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

On your Mac

You can observe your Desktop and Documents folders in the iCloud section of the Finder sidebar. If you add a second Mac Desktop, you can find those files in the Desktop folder in iCloud Drive. Look for a folder with the same name as your 2nd Mac. Yous tin can also use Spotlight to search for specific file names.

On your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch

Yous can observe the files in the Files app in iOS 11 or later. You can use whatsoever compatible app to admission and edit your files directly on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch on.

If you're using iOS 9 or iOS 10, you lot tin 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. Become to iCloud Drive.
  3. Double-click the Desktop or Documents binder.

If you want to use the file or make edits, just click and download it to your iPad or computer. When y'all're done making edits, upload the file to iCloud Drive to meet the latest version everywhere.

Store your files in iCloud and save infinite on your device

The files that y'all continue in iCloud Drive use your iCloud storage. And as long as y'all have plenty space in iCloud, you can store as many files as you like.

If y'all need more space, you can delete files to complimentary up space in iCloud. When you lot use iCloud Bulldoze and delete a file on one device, information technology deletes on every device that you're signed in to with the same Apple tree ID. You lot can find deleted files in the Recently Deleted folder in the Files app or on iCloud.com for 30 days. After that, they're removed.

Learn more nearly how to manage your iCloud storage.

Turn off Desktop and Documents

  1. From your Mac, choose Apple tree card  > System Preferences. Click Apple ID, then click iCloud. On macOS Mojave or earlier, cull Apple tree menu  > Organisation Preferences, and then click iCloud.
  2. Next to iCloud Bulldoze, click Options.
  3. Deselect Desktop & Documents Folders.
  4. Click Washed.

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 folder. You can motility files from iCloud Drive to your Mac every bit you need them, or select all of your files and drag them to the place yous want to keep them.

What happens when you turn off iCloud Bulldoze or sign out of iCloud

If you plow off iCloud Drive or sign out of iCloud, a new Desktop and Documents folder is created in your home binder. You also have the option to keep a local copy of your files that are in iCloud Drive. If yous keep a local copy of your files in iCloud Drive, they're copied to a folder called iCloud Bulldoze (Archive) in your dwelling binder. Y'all can move any files that were in your iCloud Desktop and Documents to your new local Desktop and Documents.

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