Moving Files in Finder

[jparker402]

Am running Catalina on an early 2015 MBA. I have a file titled 8mm Movies in my Desktop which I was wanting to move to Movies. I tried to drag and drop it from Desktop into Movies in Finder, and I get a window that says "Are you sure...? This item will be moved to this Mac and will no longer be available in iCloud Drive or any of your devices." I do not understand what this is trying to tel me! Isn't it already in this Mac? Is moving it going to delete it from iCloud Drive?

 

[0128672]

... I defer to Longkeg's response below. I tried Desktop & Documents when it was first introduced and realized the potential for confusion was more than I wanted to deal with.

 

[Longkeg]

You have iCloud Desktop & Documents turned on. Everything in your desktop is actually in your iCloud Drive. This allows someone with multiple computers to have the same desktop items on all their Macs. By moving the movie from the desktop you’re unwittingly removing it from iCloud Drive and your Mac is reminding you of this. You can turn this feature off if you wish. Learn more about it here:

Add your Desktop and Documents files to iCloud Drive – Apple Support (UK)

Find out how to share your files from your Mac Desktop and Documents folders to all of your devices with iCloud Drive.

support.apple.com

 

[jparker402]

Read the link twice, but am going to have to read it more to make sure it sinks in. I am also trying to figure out how to organize my files in Finder. Interestingly, for some reason, at some point I made the iCloud Drive folder my New Finder window show choice. Is that a wise idea? And my Documents folder in finder has almost nothing in it. Should I somehow populate it?

 

[HDFan]

some point I made the iCloud Drive folder my New Finder window show choice. Is that a wise idea? And my Documents folder in finder has almost nothing in it. Should I somehow populate it?

You mean you added it to the Finder sidebar? If so that's just a personal preference.

The documents folder, shows, er, your documents. If you don't have any documents then there won't be anything in it. If you create some files (Word, Excel, TextEdit) and save them to documents you will see them there.