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Big Sur M1: Documents folder invisible

After upgrading to Big Sur on MacMini M1 from High Sierra my Documents folder is invisible. It shows up in the finder window, when pressing cmd-shift-dot and it shows up in the application save menus.


So it is present on the computer, contains some Microsoft idendities, but not visible.


I tried turning on and off iCloud Drive. No improvement. iCloud Drive just asks me to buy more space...


What to do?

Posted on Jan 25, 2021 3:41 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jan 25, 2021 5:47 AM

dr. meguro wrote:

Sorry for not being clear.
I migrated from an iMac i7 late 2010 2,93 Ghz with High Sierra 10.13.6 to a Mac Mini M1 Apple Silicon Big Sur 11.1 from an external backup disk of my iMac. The backup disk was created with Carbon Copy Cloner on High Sierra.

The migration process was the standard Apple procedure in Big Sur.

I can save files to the invisible Documenst folder - just it is not visible in the finder windows.




Your Documents folder is in your User/Home folder


If you want to see it in the Finder


Make changes

Finder>Preferences>Sidebar


If iCloud drive got turned on by default—missing desktop and documents


Add your Desktop and Documents files to iCloud Drive - Apple ...


Set up iCloud Drive - Apple Support


How to Restore Your Desktop and Documents After Disabling ...


How to find your Documents and Desktop folder contents after ...



Finder>Go>Go to Folder>copy & paste:

~/iCloud Drive (Archive)


iCLoud Drive (Archive) - here you should find all your files 

6 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jan 25, 2021 5:47 AM in response to dr. meguro

dr. meguro wrote:

Sorry for not being clear.
I migrated from an iMac i7 late 2010 2,93 Ghz with High Sierra 10.13.6 to a Mac Mini M1 Apple Silicon Big Sur 11.1 from an external backup disk of my iMac. The backup disk was created with Carbon Copy Cloner on High Sierra.

The migration process was the standard Apple procedure in Big Sur.

I can save files to the invisible Documenst folder - just it is not visible in the finder windows.




Your Documents folder is in your User/Home folder


If you want to see it in the Finder


Make changes

Finder>Preferences>Sidebar


If iCloud drive got turned on by default—missing desktop and documents


Add your Desktop and Documents files to iCloud Drive - Apple ...


Set up iCloud Drive - Apple Support


How to Restore Your Desktop and Documents After Disabling ...


How to find your Documents and Desktop folder contents after ...



Finder>Go>Go to Folder>copy & paste:

~/iCloud Drive (Archive)


iCLoud Drive (Archive) - here you should find all your files 

Jan 25, 2021 7:18 AM in response to dr. meguro

dr. meguro wrote:

Hi Leroy Douglas,

thank you very much. This worked !
How complicated and non-intuitive, though.

The biggest hurdle was, that I had some mp4 files on my desktop (from the problems migrating from iTunes to Music, but that is another story), so when I tried to have my desktop and Document folders on iCloud, Apple always tried to sell me 200GB of iCloud space, because they thought I need it.

And I still don‘t know why they just deleted the Documents folder and put it in the iCloud Drive without telling me before.



Good computing dr. meguro !


You can submit Apple Feedback http://www.apple.com/feedback regarding your experience.


I have never turned on the iCloud Drive for this very reason...

Jan 25, 2021 5:41 AM in response to PRP_53

Sorry for not being clear.

I migrated from an iMac i7 late 2010 2,93 Ghz with High Sierra 10.13.6 to a Mac Mini M1 Apple Silicon Big Sur 11.1 from an external backup disk of my iMac. The backup disk was created with Carbon Copy Cloner on High Sierra.


The migration process was the standard Apple procedure in Big Sur.


I can save files to the invisible Documenst folder - just it is not visible in the finder windows.



Jan 25, 2021 7:11 AM in response to leroydouglas

Hi Leroy Douglas,


thank you very much. This worked !

How complicated and non-intuitive, though.


The biggest hurdle was, that I had some mp4 files on my desktop (from the problems migrating from iTunes to Music, but that is another story), so when I tried to have my desktop and Document folders on iCloud, Apple always tried to sell me 200GB of iCloud space, because they thought I need it.


And I still don‘t know why they just deleted the Documents folder and put it in the iCloud Drive without telling me before.


Big Sur M1: Documents folder invisible

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