Turn off iCloud Drive and Restore files to Mac Desktop

Did you disable iCloud syncing and all your Desktop files disappeared? This is how you can undo Desktop and Documents syncing and disable iCloud Drive from your Mac to get them back! Updated version for 2020 and Catalina. Questions? Comment below!

[ronmartino]

This was extremely helpful. I searched for this info for a long while and hesitated because all other explanations were not so thorough. Thank you for showing you are not losing the documents and where they will show up. Excellent!!

[dmlwins]

Thank you so much for this! Was having a really hard time and your video was super easy to follow!

[Cabrazzi]

Amy you are a "God Send" I've had this problem for a year with no fix until today. Thank you so much! I hope you and yours have an amazing holiday!!

[alperundkelbs]

FINALLY. The only video on YouTube about exact this problem that I had. Thank you!

[DriveMusicVibes]

you made this seem so easy, thank you. Tbh apple are sh*t for not making this whole process simpler in the first place.

[guave]

This was so helpful, it has always bugged me how every time I wanted to open a document I had to download it first ! Thank you so much for the help and keep on helping others !:)

[jbborg]

Great video. Very easy to follow. THANKS big time. I watched 2 other videos before yours that didnt solve the problem. Keep up the good work.

[chrisc.]

Amy, thank you so much! This is such a wonderful tutorial! All my other searches for how to get my documents and desktop back from iCloud were so confusing and did not clarify what to do when the "all files will be removed" scary warning showed up. I've watched some of your other videos to learn more. You are amazing!!! Thank you!!!

[estelley]

Simple and clear instructions, exactly what I was looking for! Thank you!

[darlenehealy]

I have watched many videos on this subject and yours is the only one that showed me what to do. All I wanted was to keep my documents only on my Mac not on phone or iPad. Thank you, this is exactly what I want.

[jackfaulkner]

Thank you so much for this video, I just bought a new iMac last week and it said I've already used all my storage which made no sense! This video cleared it all up for me thank you.

[johnparsons]

I accidentally uploaded all my files to the iCloud which slowed down my iMac and spent time trying to find how I could return my files to my hard drive.
I followed your video carefully and my files are now restored to the hard drive on my computer.
I just wanted to say a huge thank you for your help you have saved 10 years of my life!

[sangpeters]

THIS WAS THE MOST HELPFUL VIDEO I HAVE WATCHED ALL DAY

[quiltamma]

Thank you thank you, couldn't figure out how to have everything on my hard drive, cannot say how frustrating it was trying to save/back up on ext hard drive for me... so easy to follow and worked no problem

[PrisonACE]

I like the style you are doing your videos!

[mikeroberti]

I followed your step by step process for moving my desktop documents out of iCloud and it was successful!!! Thank you for posting this video!!!!

[thaineolsen]

Thank you Amy I was so frustrated trying to follow the instructions from Apple and other sites wanting to sell me a new program of some kind. Your instructions were clear and exact and worked a treat. Thank you so very much.

[AlongwithAlana]

Omg thank you thank you THANK Literally EVERY other video I found when trying to solve this problem was showing the OPPOSITE - how to keep in iCloud but delete on local! You are a QUEEN!!!!

[nedddz]

Thank you this helped a lot. My iCloud Drive has been full for a while and I didn’t know what was taking it up. But now everything is on my desktop rather than on iCloud

[nicolebellaremini]

This was a HUGE help. Thank you for doing this. I was so frustrated as I couldnt get a presentation to open. This fixed it right up