iCloud Drive - GRRRRR

[rainbowcat]

I am very careful about settings, but somehow iCloud Drive managed to grab 5GB of my photos. I don't want ANY photos in iCloud, and can't figure out how to get them out. The only thing I can think of is that I just got a new iMac running Ventura, which has been very instrusive, and somehow allowed this. "Delete from iCloud" seems to threaten to delete the photos on all of my devices. How to solve this please?

 

[Rod]

Okay, I'm not sure how iCloud Drive could, "grab 5GB of my photos" without you initiating it. You may not know how you initiated it but that is probably a topic for later.
If you have iCloud Drive in the sidebar of your Finder window then your photos should be visible in that folder.
You can select any item/s in that list and drag them onto you desktop. You will see;

 

[rainbowcat]

Okay, I'm not sure how iCloud Drive could, "grab 5GB of my photos" without you initiating it. You may not know how you initiated it but that is probably a topic for later.
If you have iCloud Drive in the sidebar of your Finder window then your photos should be visible in that folder.
You can select any item/s in that list and drag them onto you desktop. You will see;
View attachment 37730

Thank you Red. I got a new iMac, running Ventura, and it did just grab my photos, as iCloud Drive is disabled on all of my other devices. If I just grab these photos and put them on the Desktop, won't I have to reorganize them all? I can't imagine doing that with 5GB of photos. If I just shut down iCloud Drive on the new iMac, won't it delete all of the photos? I'm starting to dislike that new iMac...

 

[Rod]

Well, firstly iCloud drive is just like an external hard drive (EHD), nothing mysterious about it except unlike an EHD you might buy it's not plugged into your computer by a cable, rather it's connected via the internet.

So, in all other ways it behaves like an EHD plugged into your device. That means that if you download your 5GB of photos from iCloud it's a bit like dragging and dropping from an EHD they will not be in any order.
If you had a complete Photo Library on another computer it could be copied to the new one.
Are you using the native Photos app on the new iMac? If so are all your photos organised in the app.

 

[IWT]

Are you using the native Photos app on the new iMac? If so are all your photos organised in the app.

Critical questions, Rod.

@rainbowcat

Truly sorry that you're in this mess. I know you've posted other difficulties here in the past.

Below, is a Link worth perusing, which gives you info about iCloud Drive and how one sets it up.

Set up iCloud Drive - Apple Support

Files in iCloud Drive stay up to date across all of your devices.

support.apple.com

From the article, you will see why Rod pointed out that somehow you initiated iCloud even if you didn't intend to or can't recall the steps.

Answers to Rod's questions would greatly help us to assist you

Ian

 

[rainbowcat]

I know I can copy the photos, but I don't need to - they are already on my devices, which is the problem. I want to delete everything in iCloud, but it seems if I do it will also delete everything from my devices. My Contacts ended up in iCloud Drive too. I didn't have this problem until I set up the new iMac, and I guess the default setting was to use iCloud Drive, and I didn't catch it. Now I'm confused because my email is @icloud.com, and without iCloud Drive I can't use that, and if I close out iCloud Drive (how?) it will delete my Contacts too?

 

[pm-r]

I know I can copy the photos, but I don't need to - they are already on my devices,

I would sure sincerely suggest you make a current backup of your own if you haven't done so already of all your data from all your devices if there is any chance of them being deleted, removed or just lost.

And a single backup is absolute minimum for any critical personal data.



- Patrick
=======

 

[MacInWin]

Now I'm confused because my email is @icloud.com, and without iCloud Drive I can't use that,

That part is wrong. iCloud and iCloud Drive and iCloud mail are all separate things. iCloud is a storage area in the Apple cloud, iCloud Drive is an app that creates a folder on the Mac and things within that folder are synced across all devices that you have logged into iCloud Drive. iCloud mail is just a mail service. Whether or not it syncs across devices depends on whether or not log the various devices into iCloud mail.

That said, there are settings that may have gotten you into this mess that you can check. Open Settings, click on your name at the top of the resulting window and you will see things that are associated with, or could be associated with, iCloud. One is iCloud Drive. If that is set to ON then there is a folder on your system that syncs with any other devices that is logged into your Apple ID and has iCloud Drive turned on. You will also see iCloud Mail which has a separate on/off button. So, iCloud Drive and iCloud Mail are separate and can be used/not used separately. You will also see Contacts and other things that are on/off for storage in the cloud, beyond syncing with other devices.

One thing I suspect you really want to turn off is in Settings/iCloud/iCloud Drive,Options, there is a setting for "Desktop & Documents Folders" that Apple defaults to be checked. You may well want that to be un-checked. What that does, when checked, is to MOVE the files in your Documents folder and the Desktop folder to the cloud, leaving behind only pointers to where those files are actually stored. Then, when you want/need them, they are downloaded to your machine before opening. If you don't have internet, or if the speeds are slow, that can make using those files difficult/impossible. So, you want to turn that function OFF. But it's not easy to do. It looks easy, just remove the check, but then you have to wait until Apple downloads all of your stuff to put back, which can take a verrrrry long time. In the past, what un-checkiing did was to create new Documents and Desktop folders, download the stuff from the cloud to them, then delete the original Documents and Desktop Folders and put the new ones in place. I couldn't find an Apple article on how it works under Ventura. I did find this:

Inside iCloud Drive: Optimize Storage, and its bugs

How does the ‘Optimize Storage’ feature work? Indeed, does it work? A look at its confusions and a couple of bugs.

eclecticlight.co

and this:

How to Enable or Disable Optimize Mac Storage

In macOS, Apple includes a feature that can optimize the storage on your Mac by reducing the amount of space that data takes up on your Mac's...

www.macrumors.com

 

[IWT]

I know I can copy the photos, but I don't need to - they are already on my devices, which is the problem. I want to delete everything in iCloud, but it seems if I do it will also delete everything from my devices. My Contacts ended up in iCloud Drive too. I didn't have this problem until I set up the new iMac, and I guess the default setting was to use iCloud Drive, and I didn't catch it. Now I'm confused because my email is @icloud.com, and without iCloud Drive I can't use that, and if I close out iCloud Drive (how?) it will delete my Contacts too?

I Think you might be confusing iCloud with iCloud Drive. They are not the same. You could say that iCloud Drive is an option within iCloud.

Here's what I mean. If you go into System Settings > Apple ID > iCloud -

then you have the choice of which things you want to sync between devices eg Photos, Keychain, Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Reminders, Notes, Find My Mac, Siri etc

Also included in the list is: iCloud Drive which is were you share data between devices.............

Just read Jake's post, as I was typing my response, which explains things far better than I and in greater detail. So I stopped..

Ian

 

[rainbowcat]

Thanks, I get it. I think I just should have asked how to I delete photos and contacts on iCloud Drive without losing them? I don't want to store stuff in iCloud Drive, I just want to use iCloud to keep things synced. Does this make sense?

 

[Rod]

rainbowcat, I think, like many people, you are still confused between iCloud and iCloud Drive. Have a look at the Screen Shot below of my iCloud Settings:


Note; Optimise Mac Storage is off.
iCloud Drive is turned on. iCloud Drive is an option in iCloud as are all the other items in the list.

Note; My Photos is turned off. I think yours is turned on. Please check this.
Note; This is not the same as iCloud Photo Library which is a complete backup of all your photos accessible on all devices and stored in iCloud.
By having mine turned off I must manually select what photos I have on each device.
Turning it off (if it's on) will not delete photos, just prevent them from syncing.

All the other items that are turned on like, Contacts, Calendars, Reminders, Notes etc, etc (pretty much all of them) are just synced between devices, not stored on iCloud (or iCloud Drive) like eg. a backup. Most of these should have been on by Default, probably Photos too.

iCloud Drive also has its own options, see below;



Occasionally I will put a document into iCloud drive on my MBP because I want to be able to access it on my iPhone/iPad. On those devices I will see those files in the Files App > iCloud Drive and on
the Apple website cloud.com when I login to my account.
Some 3rd party apps store data and sync across devices via iCloud Drive like my Password Manager. See below;



Note; Desktop & Documents Folder is off. Do not turn this on unless you have a full understanding of the implications.
The other items are effectively backups and stored in iCloud Drive.

I hope that makes things clearer.

So, to answer your questions; if as suspect your Photos item is ticked in the iCloud list you can untick it without loosing any data on your devices (or iCloud).

As for; "I don't want to store stuff in iCloud Drive", you're not, if your settings are essentially like mine then you're just syncing via iCloud.

 

[rainbowcat]

rainbowcat, I think, like many people, you are still confused between iCloud and iCloud Drive. Have a look at the Screen Shot below of my iCloud Settings:

View attachment 37736
Note; Optimise Mac Storage is off.
iCloud Drive is turned on. iCloud Drive is an option in iCloud as are all the other items in the list.

Note; My Photos is turned off. I think yours is turned on. Please check this.
Note; This is not the same as iCloud Photo Library which is a complete backup of all your photos accessible on all devices and stored in iCloud.
By having mine turned off I must manually select what photos I have on each device.
Turning it off (if it's on) will not delete photos, just prevent them from syncing.

All the other items that are turned on like, Contacts, Calendars, Reminders, Notes etc, etc (pretty much all of them) are just synced between devices, not stored on iCloud (or iCloud Drive) like eg. a backup. Most of these should have been on by Default, probably Photos too.

iCloud Drive also has its own options, see below;

View attachment 37737

Occasionally I will put a document into iCloud drive on my MBP because I want to be able to access it on my iPhone/iPad. On those devices I will see those files in the Files App > iCloud Drive and on
the Apple website cloud.com when I login to my account.
Some 3rd party apps store data and sync across devices via iCloud Drive like my Password Manager. See below;

View attachment 37738

Note; Desktop & Documents Folder is off. Do not turn this on unless you have a full understanding of the implications.
The other items are effectively backups and stored in iCloud Drive.

I hope that makes things clearer.

So, to answer your questions; if as suspect your Photos item is ticked in the iCloud list you can untick it without loosing any data on your devices (or iCloud).

As for; "I don't want to store stuff in iCloud Drive", you're not, if your settings are essentially like mine then you're just syncing via iCloud.

Thank you for that wonderful, detailed explanation! I've attached the pic of the setting that is on all of my devices. The only thing I can imagine is the new iMac's Ventura had this turned on by default.