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desktop syncing under sonoma/sequoia

Y

YodaATmac

macrumors member
Original poster
It drives me crazy. I have two macs. I turned off the sync under apple-ID -> iCloud -> iCloud Drive -> Desktop and Documents Folders on both machines OFF.

They still sync. Ahhhhhhhhrrrrrr.

What am I missing?

Thx a heap 4 your hint in advance.
 
Is this essentially what you see on both Macs?
Screenshot 2024-12-12 at 2.23.45 PM.png
 
If desktop files from one are still appearing on the other - then the settings are wrong. I've seen that happen with various settings. Try toggling the feature on & then back off; that should "Reset" it. Bear in mind it might hide your Desktop files when you do that; if it does you can find them in iCloud Drive > Desktop folder and drag them back.
 
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Well actually it's not the files in the desktop issue but I connect to a NAS at startup and open the finder windows accordingly. The prob is, one mac has a smaller resolution than the other, so on each system start these windows are misplaced. To make it a bit more clear:

Mac A has a 32" 4K screen connected, Mac B has a 2k resolution.

Last time I run Mac B, I organized its desktop to the 2k resolution and shut it down.

If I start Mac A first and organize my desktop accordingly to the big screen and launch the Mac B after - the desktop on mac B is a mess. So I tidy up the 2k desktop again and again.

Fun fact. If I shut Mac A before Mac B down and start Mac A up, the desktop on mac A is a mess 😀 😀. It looks like the Desktop of Mac B with some more overlapping windows.

My conclusion - these macs try to sync the desktop and fail each time, regardless how I organize the desktops. Btw. I had not the problem with Mac A before I connected the Mac B to the network.
 
YodaATmac said:
It drives me crazy. I have two macs. I turned off the sync under apple-ID -> iCloud -> iCloud Drive -> Desktop and Documents Folders on both machines OFF.

They still sync. Ahhhhhhhhrrrrrr.

What am I missing?

Thx a heap 4 your hint in advance.
Click to expand...
Have you actually moved the items in the desktop and documents folders back into their locations in your home folder?

See https://support.apple.com/en-us/109344#turn_off

When you turn off Desktop & Documents Folders, your files stay in iCloud Drive and a new Desktop and Documents folder is created on your Mac in the home folder. You can move files 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.
Click to expand...
 
guys guys guys - it's not about the files on the desktop, its about the layout. both macs seems to sync the desktop layout, the arrangement of the windows.

I have NAS volumes in my login items which shall open at login/start. They do. But the arrangement of the finder windows of the network volumes seems to sync between the two computers. I didn't have any issues until the second mac connected to the network. As the macs have different screen resolution its always a mess at stratup.

it looks like the stage manager is kickin' in, but it is turned off. Save windows positions at shut down is also unchecked.
 
The short answer is, don’t try to share a single Desktop folder between two computers. You can’t have two .DS_Store files in one folder. So if you open the same folder on each, every time you arrange the desktop then that arrangement passes to the other computer.

If you want the same desktop files accessible to each - maybe you SHOULD be using iCloud for it 🤔
 
Well the point is I want exactly the opposite. I want them stop sharing the .DS_Store file. Btw. it sound very very peculiar to me, that this can even happen. It must be something else... The symptom is the same. If I use only the mac A for like two days - at each startup the desktop layout is just fine. As soon as I start mac B (messed up desktop of course) the mac A has a messed up desktop as well the next start. It su...
 
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