OT: One Mac; now two

I thought I might ask here for ideas.
I have my old Mac mini in my music room, Nuendo, Logic, Sound libraries. It’s Desktop and folders do not save to iCloud. It is mainly standalone.

I have a MacBook Air as my everyday computer, Dorico, some Logic, and small amounts of FCPX (video) which it does fine for my purposes at the moment, the video files on an SSD.
This I have either connected to a monitor where I stand or anywhere I am as portable.

Now I have a Mac Studio (older model) and want to use it with the monitor so I do not have to constantly unplug the Air from the monitor etc. This means my Air can be wherever I need it to be.
So the question is, how do I set up these two?
The Air’s Desktop etc. is in iCloud. Shall I set up the Studio with the same iCloud folders so they are the same folders (I do not know how to do this), or do I Apple migrate to the Studio and delete what I do not want (unless they now share the same iCloud folders), or do I set it up as a new MAC, (if you do this, do two Desktop etc. folders appear in iCloud, how do you tell the difference between one desktop folder and the other if I am on my iPad and want a file).

My thinking is to have both Desktop etc. folders in iCloud so if I need to, I can get files from the other. Is this possible?

In general the Studio will now be the main FCPX, Dorico, small amounts of Logic, but do not need sound libraries from the mini in my music room (Yet!), and the Air can still do these if required. Both will have the Affinity suites.

Any thoughts in how to organize them? (And how)
Thank you in advance :slight_smile:

If you just sign in to your Apple ID, and set up Desktop & Documents in the same way, then it should populate with all the files from iCloud.

The Desktops of both Mac will be synced. There is no difference!

If I may add my opinion, please refrain from turning on Desktop & Documents in the Cloud. It has been proven to be a source for nightmares.
This because you will end up with the following folders in iCloud Drive:

  • Desktop (from MBA)
  • Documents (from MBA)
  • Desktop (1) (from MM)
  • Documents (1) (from MM)

… you get it, I think.
If you have a main computer, you can turn it on exclusively on that, but I would still strongly suggest not to do that. I have done it in the past and it has been a ruin (plus countless of other horror stories on the web).

Just activate iCloud Drive on all three without turning on Documents & Desktop in the Cloud (or turning it off if it automatically is ON for some reason) and you will see your iCloud Drive files on all three Macs (+other Apple devices).

Feel free to ask about any more doubts you may have.

Thank you Michele, just so I know, this is what you are referring to, and turn it off, right?


Can I just do this now?

I thought I would post my question well before the Studio arrived, but it arrived unexpectedly soon after, so have already set it up without really knowing what I am doing as regards to this (… with the intention of perhaps setting it up again in the light of any answers here).

A couple of questions:
In the Apple setup windows when you first turn it on, it asked for my username for Home, I made it the same as my Air, not knowing if this would cause a complication if both Desktops were in iCloud. How do they list in iCloud if there are two Desktop folders (etc.) otherwise? or can you rename them? or does each folder add a prefix of the name from 'About …" Device name (which are different).

I set it up initially having this setting Desktop and Documents folder OFF, hoping I would then see two Desktops in iCloud on my iPad. but I could not create anything on the Studio desktop other than an untitled folder. Do you have to turn access to local, Desktop ON somewhere or set something up. I could not find any information on this.
After an hour, I decided to turn on Desktop and Documents folder ON, which did populate the desktop, now shared with the Air then at least I could start a tidy up and start getting some Applications in. As I understand it, I can simply turn it off as you have suggested, presumably everything revert so the iCloud Desktop is still there for my Air.
Then what do I do to have the Studio as an independent Desktop, but also accessible in iCloud. There is a Finder or otherwise setting somewhere so it works (just found out for some reason my mouse was not set up for right click after pairing so that might have been an additional problem with the new independent desktop I had originally.

I think I would prefer independent Desktops for both as there are slightly different work projects on each, although would need various files from the other when I need them. If I understand what you are saying, this is the best way too?

Any comments? Thank you

Yes, you can but, just to play it safe, copy-paste to the Downloads (or another local) folder their content before turning it off. These folders should just stop syncing, but I have seen many different behaviours, and not all were nice!

The Home folder is not sync’d with iCloud so you can keep the same name. On iCloud it will be seen as “arco’s Mac Studio” or something like that.

They usually add a suffix at the end. If this is enough for you to distinguish them, and you like it, keep it, but I cannot suggest it.

If you want to see these two specific folders from the Mac Studio in iCloud—and thus, in all your Apple devices—, then yes, you need to keep this option ON. Otherwise, go to the iCloud Drive folder, create a new folder (Cmd-Shift-N), select it, press Return and type to Rename it, then put files inside. They will then sync and appear on all your devices.

If you turn it OFF, those files will be removed from iCloud and thus from all your devices. The originals will be stored in a newly created local folder but the workings of this specific process are a bit obscure to me, so I suggest copying them away before turning things OFF.

If you want the Desktop folder (which contains the files on your desktop view) to be independent (that is, not sync’d), then you need that option switched OFF. The nice thing is that, if you have another Mac where the option is turned ON, you will see that other Mac’s Desktop and Document folders in iCloud Drive on your Mac Studio as well.
The mouse options are in System Settings > scroll down to the bottom > Mouse, and fiddle with those options until you like them!

Here’s how I do it: all my Macs have Desktop and Documents in the Cloud turned off. All my Macs have Optimise Storage turned ON apart from the one with the greatest SSD, allowing all iCloud files to be stored somewhere locally (which also makes them be picked up by Time Machine). Any file I need shared is in iCloud Drive in specifically created folders. If it is a temporary share, you can use AirDrop to just send a file or two between machines. I have a “To Share” folder where I dump things I need to be shared for a short period of time.

Every one has their way to do this, so please take your time to experiment and, most of all, try to enjoy the process!

Thank you Michele, a lot to digest. I might have further questions, thank you for taking the time to help :slight_smile:

Up until recently I was storing all my Dorico projects in my iCloud folder, and it is useful for working on two synced computers, but if you also happen to use Pro Tools and keep all your Dorico and Pro Tools project files in one place, then it is not recommended (due to file relinking problems in PT) and I have now changed my M.O.
I do have my laptop desktop available in the iCloud folder of my Mac Studio and I find this quite useful. I also find my iCloud files are included in Time Machine backups.

Grainger, there was no problem when you turned off the Desktop and Documents for your Studio (if I am understanding what you said). I got confused when I started setting up (with Desktop and Documents unchecked, off) as I could not make anything to appear on the (local) Desktop. It was probably me, because at the time my mouse had paired but not with right-click so nothing was happening.
So I can just uncheck that setting and it will then be an independent Desktop (but not appear in iCloud … or does it, along with my Air Desktop). I think I am still a little confused about this.
Thank you

Yeah, I’m a little confused too,…I’ve never had the desktop of my main studio computer in my iCloud folder…I’m on OS Sonoma 14.6.1 and I can’t find that System setting in your screenshot where I would allow that, but on my laptop, the desktop is basically in my iCloud folder and is also referred to as ‘local’, so there is only one instance of it, and it lives in the iCloud folder where it also shows up on my other Mac, of course.

This is because you can set “things” to show up on your Desktop or not.

I know this may be awkward for everyone who used Windows before macOS (like me!) but for Apple the original right-click has always been Ctrl-click. I believe because the original Apple Mouse had only one button.

The “Desktop” is just another folder (location) in the file system. Then, the macOS shows those files on what you see onscreen and are used to call “desktop” :slight_smile:

@Grainger2001 : if you have something called “Desktop-Local” it means that you have activated Desktop and Documents in the Cloud on some machine and the one called “Local” is the one not being synced to iCloud and which only exists on that Mac.

Be careful with trusting this blindly without knowing what is going on: Time Machine will only pick up files that have currently been downloaded locally.
That is why my main Mac has all iCloud files stored locally (that is, it doesn’t use Optimise Mac Storage).

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@arco Sorry for going OCD, but I had trouble understanding the title to this thread and it reminded me of examples in an amusing book on punctuation called Eats Shoots, and Leaves that I am rereading. If you meant that you had one Mac in the past and now have two, I think “One Mac (comma) now two” would be clearer.

Or "One Mac (semicolon or dash) now (comma) two; but that would probably be overkill for a simple title.

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Fixed.

This was one of the things on which Steve Jobs insisted.

I use 2-finger tap on the trackpad for right-click.

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Gimme five, brother!

PS: after 8 years on a trackpad I almost don’t know how to use a mouse anymore :innocent:

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Hi John, some of my reference books going back a while.


I have that book too!

I left out the comma because the way I had written it would be possibly confusing, so then some might have clicked on it (wondering) then be able to help in the answering.
But now someone has added it in, for everyone except me :slight_smile:
Oddly, I got some answers before it was corrected. I am reasonably sure my title is not the equivalent as “Eats, Shoots and Leaves” but that is just me.

What might have been quite nice instead of the comma, would be a breath mark with a staccato dot (you know, how Finale does them with one click … !!! because its a real professional program)
:slight_smile:
(but in Dorico, its a Breathing technique)

Thank you Michele, my reference to the mouse right-click, I have had Macs for many years, normally you pair it and it just works. This time I paired it and then tried to right-click a folder on the new “Desktop” just after the Studio was set up, and nothing was happening… I could have opened a program like Pages, and saved to Desktop, but I was starting to get confused about this whole thing (Desktop and Documents) so went to iCloud and turned it on, which then gave me my Air desktop contents… it was then that I found the mouse had its right click disabled, do not know how that came about.
Thank you for your replies, still moving in to it, not sure what I will do, but very much appreciate your replies.

A general thank you to all who have helped or answered, and for the comma

I see someone has marked all replies as the solution (even though I have not finished soluting [sic] this as I am still to go through Michele’s answers). Nice to have someone correct punctuation and mark solutions already
(no period comma someone might add it in for me

(You mean like that? That’s your Finale thing, right?)

I moved the comma from after “now” to before “now”.

I’m not sure how you’re seeing all posts marked as solutions, though - I’m certainly not seeing that here.