Question on iCloud storage

[CarrollB]

I recently bought an iPad strictly for my teaching notes and checking email when out of country. I using an iMac for 99% of my computing. I've never used iCloud for storage but run time machine several times a month to backup my the drive on my iMac. Recently under "settings/storage" I turned on cloud storage on the iMac thinking I could pick and choose what items would be stored in iCloud. Well it backed up everything on my desktop, all my pictures, music, and everything listed under documents. Needless to say I quickly used up my 5 gig of free storage on iCloud. Can I change the names of the "documents" folder on the iMac and dump all my word and excel files into that? Can I rename music to songs? If I do this can I delete everything on the cloud and then only transfer the specific files I need stored in the cloud? I'm concerned that the next time I turn on my iPad and it syncs to the iCloud I will run out of memory on the iPad. I remember having this problem when I first got my iMac and turned on cloud storage and that is why I use an external HD for backup. Things were uploaded to the cloud not know and if I deleted things I did not want in cloud storage that they were also deleted on the iMac. If this post is not in the correct section please move it.

 

[IWT]

You CAN stipulate what you want stored or synced to the iCloud.

On you Mac Open System Settings by Clicking on the Apple icon top left. As I gather you have a really old iMac, System Settings will probably appear as System Preferences.

Click on iCloud. On the right side, you will see all the things that can be stored or synced via iCloud.

Untick all those you don't want to be stored or synced via iCloud. There's a long list of options. Tick or Untick according to your needs.

BTW, you can do the same on your iPad, the main difference being that you Open Settings > Tap on your name at the top > then Tap on iCloud . Then choose "Saved to iCloud" and again choose what you want/don't want.

Hope that helps a bit.

Ian

 

[Rod]

I believe what you may have done is turned on, Store my Documents an Desktop files in iCloud Drive. Here is a fairly comprehensive page on the topic from Apple describing how to undo it. Please don't try any other methods like renaming.
Add your Desktop and Documents files to iCloud Drive - Apple Support

Ian has described above post #2 how to do what I think you may have been intending to do in the first place.

Essentially all you need to do is turn off what you turned on in Settings/Storage. You will notice your Documents and Desjtop folders reappear in the Finder sidebar but they will be empty.

In your Finder window open iCloud Drive. If it's not there make sure it's ticked in Finder Settings/Preferences > Menu items.
In iCloud Drive locate your Documents Folder an open it.
Select everything in it and drag an drop it into the empty Documents folder.
Now do the same for the Desktop Folder.
It can take a little while for this process to complete. When done everything will be back in Documents and on your Desktop.

Now you can go back to Ian's post and select what you want to sync between your iPad an iMac.

Lastly, be aware that iCloud Drive is a storage area within iCloud, they are not the same thing. iCloud is for syncing (what you change on one device changes on all similarly synced devices). iCloud Drive can be synced too but it doesn't have to be. If it is you will find its contents in the Files App on iPhone an iPad.