Desktop completely missing from hard drive, only shows in iCloud

You’ve opted to synchronize your Desktop and Documents in iCloud: Add your Desktop and Documents files to iCloud Drive - Apple Support.

Your desktop and documents and now both on your local computer and on iCloud. Even without an internet connection, you’ll be able to use them on your Mac.

iCloud, in this particular case, is a synchronisation service not a remote storage service. Your documents are accessible anywhere.

As 6x6 says, if you have elected to keep your Desktop and Documents folders on iCloud Drive,

at System Settings>[your name]>iCloud>Drive, then those folders will no longer appear in your User's folder, but they will be seen on your iCloud Drive, instead, where they will be accessible at iCloud.com and on all your devices. The Desktop itself continues to work normally. Since you have also checked "Optimize Mac Storage," then other considerations also apply. See this:

Understanding iCloud Drive - Apple Community

Any file or folder in the iCloud Drive folder is synchronized with iCloud.com. Any thing not in the iCloud Drive folder is not synchronized. iCloud Photos is synchronized separately. Desktop and Documents are special folders that have multiple uses, so they are entirely, together, either on or off.

To get the Desktop and Documents folder back to your User Folder, you have to turn off Desktop & Documents at  > System Settings > [name on top] > iCloud > Drive > Desktop & Documents Folders. You don't get the option to have the folders in both your User Folder and iCloud Drive at the same time.

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

Depending on your use case, you may finder it much easier to manage by saving individual files in your iCloud Drive that you want available on your other devices instead of saving your entire Desktop and Documents folder.

With Desktop & Documents in iCloud turned on, the files you see there may also be stored locally, but they remain in that iCloud folder on your Mac. Choosing Get Info on a file in those folders gives you the options to "Keep Downloaded" or "Remove Download". When space on your Mac becomes constrained, the files stored there will be offloaded to iCloud only and will download again to your Mac when needed. That is why when you go to  > System Settings > Storage > iCloud Drive, it shows how much space is being used on your Mac from the files that are also stored in iCloud.

When Documents and Desktop are in iCloud Drive, they leave an invisible alias in the User's folder. You can check to see if the invisible file is there by use the "make visible" command by pressing (⌘⇧.) command-shift-period. You should see a bunch of files. Here's an section of my User folder:

I cut out most of the (unreadable) invisible files, but you can see Desktop and Downloads. These really refer to the folders in iCloud Drive, and if I double click on them I get the same thing. They have to appear (even if invisible) so that they will fill their local functions.

Do you see these when you turn the visible? You can revert to normal by pressing (⌘⇧.) again.

As Richard.Taylor said, they are hidden in your User Folder and that is to avoid the confusion of whether they are being stored on your device or not. With a Mac that has enough storage, they are going to be stored locally and also synced to iCloud automatically with no interaction on your part.

When you Get Info on a file in the Desktop/Document folder and do not see the option to download, then they are already being stored on your Mac and can be used when offline. When your device goes back online, they will then be resynced to iCloud. That is why when you go to  > System Settings > Storage > iCloud Drive, it shows how much space is being used on your Mac from the files that are also stored in iCloud. If it showed 0 there, then all the files would be stored in iCloud and not available for offline use.

I am not clear what issue you are having with your Desktop/Documents folder in iCloud. Since you do not have a device storage issue, are you not able to access those files when offline? You are correct that Optimized Storage should be turned off to prevent those files from being offloaded.

head_unit wrote: …Why the heck is that hidden? Ah that stuff is not actually on the hard drive, it is just an alias pointing to iCloud Drive.

Seriously, read this:

Understanding iCloud Drive - Apple Community

I see people explaining the same stuff over and over. The alias of Desktop has to be in the User folder so that its contents will show up on your Mac's Desktop, even though the stuff is really in iCloud Drive. As I said earlier, that folder is used a bit differently that other folders. Seems reasonable to me.

So how the **** are you supposed to use these files offline?!? I just flew to the bottom of Africa and back, couldn't use any of this...

Seriously, read this:

Understanding iCloud Drive - Apple Community

iCloud Drive is a folder on your Mac. Only if you choose Optimize are any of these files off the computer.

head_unit wrote:

• Thanks for the replies and patience.

I do *believe* I understand all this. And what I understand is that given I have enough storage, and Optimize is now OFF, then

There should be iCloud --> Desktop --> files inside, stored in the cloud

To be clear, the location at iCloud Drive > Desktop, should be showing you files that are also available on your device when offline and Optimized Storage is turned off. You should not be accessing the hidden Desktop folder in your User folder.

Test it out for yourself by turning off your WiFi and you should be able to access all files you see in your Desktop folder in iCloud Drive. You will see a message on the top of the Finder window saying iCloud syncing is paused, so any changes you make to the files in the folder will then be synced back to iCloud after WiFi is turned on. The only time that would not be the case is if Optimized Storage is turned on and the file was offloaded. Now that you have turned that off, you should no longer experience that problem. You do have the option to manually offload any file in the Desktop folder, but by default they are being stored locally and also synced to iCloud.

You are welcome and I appreciate your sense of humor. Ironically it was by not having the Desktop/Document folder in 2 locations that was supposed to reduce the confusion. If you wanted to save a file to your Desktop folder, would you choose the one in your User Folder or the one in iCloud Drive?

Anyway, you got it all figured out now and it really is seamless once you get past no longer having the Desktop and Documents folder in your User folder as it was before.