Missing Documents folder Mac

Haole Boy

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Aloha everyone. Got a phone call today from a customer saying that all her documents have disappeared and also files from her desktop. Went over there and took a look. There is no 'Documents' link in the Finder sidebar, but there is 'iCloud Drive'. When I click on that, I see folders for the Desktop and Documents. Desktop has a few files on it the customer said were created today. The Documents folder is empty.

If I open Finder and navigate to the hard drive / Users / user_name directory, I see the following directories (amongst other stuff):
iCloud Drive (Archive) this has Desktop and Document folders & other stuff
iCloud Drive (Archive) - 1 this has Desktop and Document folders & other stuff
iCloud Drive (Archive) - 2 no other folders or files within
iCloud Drive (Archive) - 3 no other folders or files within

I think someone suggested to the customer that she "needs" to use iCloud Drive so this person guided her in turning it on. When I look at the iCloud Drive options I do see that the Desktop and Documents Folders is enabled. Which is why I think there is no link in Finder to Documents, but there is one to iCloud Drive. (Is my ignorance of Mac stuff showing too badly?).

Why are there (multiple) Archive folders? And no data in the iCloud Drive folder?

So, how do I fix this? Do I just drag and drop the files from the Archive folders noted above to the iCloud Drive folder? Do I turn off the Desktop and Documents Folder stuff in iCloud Drive? I'm assuming which path I take will depend on whether or not the customer needs / wants to use iCloud.

Mahalo in advance,

Harry Z
 
iCloud Drive (Archive)
I believe this folder gets created when a user turns off iCloud drive. Anything that was in the iCloud Desktop and Documents folders gets moved there. The extra copies with 1 2 and 3 at the end are from when they've turned iCloud Drive on and off.

I think you can just drag and drop the files into the current folder.

I'd recommend keeping the customer using iCloud Drive for Desktop and Documents folders. It works pretty well and gives them an added copy of their data in the cloud. That combined with a local Time Machine backup and you've got their backup needs covered very well.
 
I believe this folder gets created when a user turns off iCloud drive. Anything that was in the iCloud Desktop and Documents folders gets moved there. The extra copies with 1 2 and 3 at the end are from when they've turned iCloud Drive on and off.

I think you can just drag and drop the files into the current folder.

I'd recommend keeping the customer using iCloud Drive for Desktop and Documents folders. It works pretty well and gives them an added copy of their data in the cloud. That combined with a local Time Machine backup and you've got their backup needs covered very well.

Thanks for the info. Before trying this, I need to make a backup of the current condition of the hard drive, and I'm having problems doing this. I'll create a new thread for that issue and update here when I can get back to this.

Harry Z
 
Thanx for the replies and suggestions. I have moved everything from the Archive folders to the iCloud Drive folders. Will return machine to customer tomorrow, so let's hope I found everything she's expecting.

Harry Z
 
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