How do I stop iCloud??

Pretty simple- I really don't want iCloud backing up my MacBook.  I didn't ask for that, and it's none of their berkeleying business.

I figured it would be pretty easy to change a setting.  But every time I try, I get the following message:

"If you continue, items will be removed from the Desktop and the Documents folder on this Mac and will remain available in iCloud Drive."

That's the opposite of what I want.  Plus, its pretty scary.  Sounds like it has hijacked my data to the cloud, and I don't have a choice to keep it from happening.  I can wipe the files off my MacBook, but I can't seem to get them out of the cloud.

Help.

I expect the only things that will be removed/retained  are things that were placed there by iCloud. For example, a document backed up off another device and cross-loaded to your Mac. I have Dropbox do that, for example. 

If you don't use iCloud for anything else, you should be good. 

You should be able to confirm what's in your iCloud account once this is done. Of all the big data companies, Apple actually seems to be one of the ones that resists snooping of data. 

In reply to Keith Tanner :

Maybe they used to, but not any more.

This is a brand new machine.  It never offered me an option, but defaulted to backing up all documents and the desktop to the cloud.  That's way too much data, and it immediately filled the iCloud storage capacity, without ever finishing grabbing data off the MacBook.  

I transferred about 300G of data directly from an external hard drive to the MacBook, then it tried backing it all up tho the cloud (which means my phone can't use the cloud, and I want it to)

I have not been able to set up any programs like Dropbox, etc.

First copy the files from iCloud to the local machine manually:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2013/01/26/rob-pegoraro-icloud-mac/1865323/

Then go through this list, disable all kinds of iCloud storage and syncing, and finally delete anything that remains on iCloud:

https://www.imore.com/how-customize-or-disable-optimized-storage-mac

If you didn't want your computer to try to outsmart you, you shouldn't have bought a Mac

GameboyRMH said:

If you didn't want your computer to try to outsmart you, you shouldn't have bought a Mac

I would have agreed with you 20 years ago, but my Windows 10 machine plays a lot more cutesy games than my Mac does these days!

I wouldn't say Win10 tries to outsmart you, but it will take a lot of liberties with your privacy unless you go out of your way to give it very clear and specific instructions not to...

Here's a secure way to use iCloud:

http://bjornruud.net/2015/03/secure-cloud-backup.html

I've had a similar thing happen.  I usually buy outdated phones, as I'm not much of a techie, and I also refuse to pay $700 for a phone that will be outdated in a few  years.   So I purchased a refurbed iPhone and after a bit I get a message saying my iCloud storage is running out--- do I want to purchase more space?  All of the settings were automatically set to push everything to the cloud.  

In the modern economy, information is $$$---- they set things up so  they can gather maximum information.  (puts tin-foil hat on)  

In reply to Joe Gearin :

Or - and bear with me here because this will be wild - phones are small, portable, fragile things that people put their entire digital lives into nowadays, and backing them up is so incredibly important that they made it easy to do so. The days of losing contact info and photos and such when your phone dies are long gone thanks to iCloud. There's nothing they can make money on in there. But it's almost priceless to the person whose data it is.

In reply to dculberson :

+1 Damn those engineers for trying to solve a real problem their users were having and trying to improve interoperability with their other products and services.  I mean, they gave away 5gb of space!  The nerve of those people!

I certainly don't mind the backup, but when I remove something from the phone manually, the phone should be smart enough to know that I've done so. 

Instead, it wants me to export photos and such through it's application, which is far more cumbersome. 

Come on, guys. No reason to get defensive of the engineers. 

I dont really ally care what problem they thought they were solving. I just want a berkeleying "Off"  button. 

They are certainly not solving a problem for me. 

dculberson said:

There's nothing they can make money on in there. 

That's ridiculous. 

Then why do they keep asking me for more money for storage, and fail to give me a simple way to identify files I don't want saved to the cloud?

SVreX said:

Come on, guys. No reason to get defensive of the engineers. 

 

I dont really ally care what problem they thought they were solving. I just want a berkeleying "Off"  button. 

They are certainly not solving a problem for me. 

Great, you have your answers, why are you still ranting?

You will comply!

In reply to Stefan :

Umm, I don't think I've gotten any answer at all. 

SVreX said:

dculberson said:

There's nothing they can make money on in there. 

That's ridiculous. 

Then why do they keep asking me for more money for storage, and fail to give me a simple way to identify files I don't want saved to the cloud?

Oh no, they definitely make money on the iCloud storage. I meant they don't make money off the information backed up on iCloud in the way that Gearin was suggesting. (Ie, mining it for tasty personal tidbits ... they already have absolutely all the tasty personal tidbits, they don't need iCloud for that.)

As far as I can tell, there is only 1 post in this thread that even tries to answer my original question- 
Gameboy's 9:40 AM post.

The problem is, the method described is exactly the method I used before starting this thread, and it doesn't accomplish what I need to.  It gives me the warning message I described in the first post.

So, if there is anyone who can actually help me turn off the iCloud synching, I would greatly appreciate it.  I don't really need info on Win 10, secure cloud storage, old phones, pontificating on the helpfulness of engineers or the altruism of Apple, or the latest cyborg pictures.

I have no need to backup large quantities of data from my MacBook in iCloud.  I know how to use a backup drive.  I would like to use iCloud to back up my contacts from my iPhone.  That's it.  Unfortunately, Apple's "free" 5G of storage (which should be perfectly adequate to back up my contacts) is useless because it is completely overrun with data I don't want to store in the cloud.  I don't see why I should buy 500G of additional storage so I can simply backup my contacts.

Thank you for your support.

The authoritative answer to your question lies with Apple technical support. Is this a new machine? It would have included support for, I think, a year.

The way I believe it is *supposed* to work is, only files put on your machine due to its iCloud connection will be deleted from the machine. Any files put directly on your machine by you then backed up to iCloud automatically should not be removed. However, I am not willing to bet your data on that answer.

In reply to SVreX :

Temporary solution until you get it figured out...

Add apple.com 127.0.0.1 to your /etc/hosts file. Or block it on your router. If it can't call the mothership it can't sync.

Calling tech support or (if close enough) making an Apple store Genius Bar appointment seems like the shortest distance between frustration and solution. 

I appreciate the tech support suggestion.  As silly as this sounds, I had overlooked it.

(But I thought you guys knew everything!!) 

Exactly which action or actions prompts the warning message in your original post?

In reply to GameboyRMH :

Apple> System Preferences> iCloud> iCloud Drive> Options> uncheck Desktop Documents and Folders

Item #5 in your second link under  "How to stop syncing Desktop and Documents folders in iCloud on your Mac"

So it seems that if you turn iCloud off, it will wipe your desktop and documents directories clean for some reason and there's nothing you can do to prevent that. So the only surefire solution is, after making sure you have all the files you want to keep from iCloud on your computer, to first back up the files you want to keep to a safe location outside of these directories (simply moving all contents of these directories to somewhere else would do), then let the OS wipe out everything in your Desktop and Documents folders as iCloud is disabled, then when the correct settings are in place, restore the files to their proper locations in Desktop and Documents.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7823435?start=0&tstart=0

In reply to GameboyRMH :

That's dumb. But I am trying not to "rant".