iCloud and cloud storage
iCloud Drive keeps your devices in sync, which means a deletion on one is a deletion on all. To have a real backup, download everything, copy it to an external drive, and check the copy.
Never drag the iCloud Drive folder itself out of Finder, and do not move files out of it to "back them up". Moving removes them from iCloud. See Moving files out of iCloud Drive without losing them for what moving does.
With Optimize Mac Storage on, macOS keeps only a placeholder for some files you haven't opened lately. Download first, so the copy doesn't depend on files arriving partway through and Terminal doesn't copy placeholders instead of files. In Finder, open iCloud Drive, select the folders you need (⌘A selects all), Control-click and choose Download Now. On macOS 15 and later you can choose Keep Downloaded instead, which pins the items so macOS doesn't remove them again before you've copied them. If downloads stall, work through iCloud files not downloading before copying anything.
Check there is room on the Mac first, and on the drive. These two commands are read-only; the first prints the size of the main iCloud Drive folder once it's downloaded, the second the drive's free space:
du -sh ~/Library/Mobile\ Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs
df -h "/Volumes/<DriveName>"In Finder. Open iCloud Drive in one window and the external drive in another. Apple's guide says that dragging files to a different disk copies them; holding ⌘ while you drag would move them instead, so don't. Holding ⌥ as you drop also forces a copy. Drop the items into a new folder you created on the drive, such as iCloud Drive backup. Selecting everything inside iCloud Drive this way includes the folders that apps such as Pages, Numbers and TextEdit keep there.
In Terminal. rsync copies only what changed on later runs, which suits a routine. -n makes it a rehearsal that changes nothing, so run that first. -E keeps tags and other extended attributes, which -a on its own leaves behind. The trailing slash on the source matters: it copies the folder's contents rather than the folder.
rsync -avEn ~/Library/Mobile\ Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/ "/Volumes/<DriveName>/iCloud Drive backup/"Read the list, then run it again without the n (-avE). Files you delete in iCloud Drive later are not removed from the copy by this command, which is what you want from a backup.
That path is the main iCloud Drive folder only. The Pages, Numbers, Keynote and TextEdit folders you see inside iCloud Drive in Finder are stored separately, in folders such as ~/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~Pages/Documents, so copy those in Finder.
The drive needs a format that takes your largest files: exFAT, or APFS or Mac OS Extended for Mac-only use. If a file name doesn't suit the drive's format, the copy may report an error for that file. Read the output or Finder's messages rather than assuming it finished.
Compare the number of files in each place. Terminal can count them:
find ~/Library/Mobile\ Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs -type f | wc -l
find "/Volumes/<DriveName>/iCloud Drive backup" -type f | wc -lAfter an rsync copy the two numbers should match (a Finder copy that included the app folders will count higher on the drive). If the backup is short, run the rehearsal command again: any file it lists still hasn't been copied. Then open a few of the largest and oldest files from the backup, because a count can't tell you a file opens.
Only the part that's on the Mac. An older Apple guide, the Mac mini guide for macOS Big Sur, says files in iCloud Drive are stored in iCloud and "don't need to be part of your backup". It adds that turning off Optimize Mac Storage stores the contents of iCloud Drive on the Mac and includes them in the backup. Apple's current guides don't repeat this, so treat Time Machine as covering downloaded iCloud Drive files and not the ones that exist only in iCloud. A copy on a drive you control doesn't depend on either.
Photos in iCloud Photos are separate from iCloud Drive; for that library, see Moving your Photos library to an external drive. Mail, Notes and Messages are not in iCloud Drive either.
Repeat the rsync run on a schedule that matches how much you change, say monthly, with the drive plugged in only for the copy. Keep a second copy somewhere else for anything irreplaceable.
In Everywhere, choose Catalog… from its menu bar menu while the backup drive is connected. The drive stays searchable by name after you unplug it, with results labelled offline. Type path:backup invoice to look inside it (a path: word matches part of the folder path, so pick one word from the folder name; quotes are taken literally there). The iCloud Drive folder itself is only indexed once Everywhere has Full Disk Access.
Yes. Download the files so they are on the Mac, then copy (do not move) the iCloud Drive contents to a folder on the drive and compare file counts.
Not by itself. It syncs, so deleting or changing a file on one device does it everywhere. A separate copy on a drive gives you something to restore from.
Only the iCloud Drive files that are stored on the Mac. An older Apple guide says turning off Optimize Mac Storage keeps iCloud Drive's contents on the Mac and in the backup. Files that exist only in iCloud aren't on the disk for it to copy.
Use Download Now on the folders, then drag them into a folder on the external drive, or run rsync -avE from ~/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/ to the drive. App folders such as Pages live elsewhere, so copy those in Finder.
Everywhere keeps track of every file on your Mac, including the folders Spotlight hides and drives you have unplugged. Free for a day, then $19 once.
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