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What to do When Moving Documents & Desktop Folders from iCloud but Keeping Them on My Mac without Deleting Them

I optimized thinking it was just a backup. All files went back to my Mac. I have opened each file on my Mac so they are on my Mac now. How do I keep them on my Mac but get them out of iCloud storage (which is almost full).

Best Answered by

iBoysoft author Sherry Song

Sherry Song

Answered on Tuesday, January 27, 2026

It's easy to do, follow these:

  1. Turn off Desktop and Documents. Apple menu > System Settings > Apple ID > iCloud > Apps Using iCloud > iCloud Drive > Turn off Desktop & Document Folders > Done.
  2. Move items from iCloud Drive to your Mac as you need them, or select all of your files and drag them to the place you want to keep them.
  3. If you turn off iCloud Drive or sign out of iCloud, you have the option to keep a local copy of your files that are in iCloud Drive.

Easy right? Just turn off the iCloud settings and hope you can enjoy your digital life.

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