Where apps hide your files

Finding the real iCloud Drive folder

Updated 2026-10-28 · 5 min read

The iCloud Drive in your Finder sidebar is a shortcut to a hidden folder inside your Library. Knowing the real path lets you find app folders Finder hides and understand what is stored on the Mac itself.

The real path

~/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/

That folder is what Finder shows as iCloud Drive in the sidebar. Everything you see under iCloud Drive in Finder is stored here, including files that are only downloaded on demand. The parent folder also holds one container per app that keeps its own documents in iCloud:

~/Library/Mobile Documents/

Open it

In Finder choose Go > Go to Folder (⇧⌘G) and paste the path. In Terminal:

open ~/Library/Mobile\ Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs

To see every folder in the parent, run this. It only lists names:

ls ~/Library/Mobile\ Documents

The ~ characters in the names are part of them. Apple replaces the dots in a container identifier with tildes, so com.apple.Pages becomes com~apple~Pages.

What the sibling folders are

Each app with its own iCloud container gets a folder named after that container. These names were listed on a Mac running macOS Sequoia 15.6:

Folder	Belongs to
com~apple~CloudDocs	iCloud Drive itself
com~apple~Pages, com~apple~Numbers, com~apple~Keynote	Apple's iWork apps
com~apple~TextEdit, com~apple~Preview, com~apple~ScriptEditor2	Apple utilities that save to iCloud
iCloud~is~workflow~my~workflows	Shortcuts (its container keeps the old Workflow app's identifier)
F3LWYJ7GM7~com~apple~garageband10	GarageBand, with a team identifier prefix

Third-party apps usually appear as iCloud~ followed by their container identifier with tildes. Some names start with a team identifier instead, so match by app name rather than guessing. For example, this lists any folder with "pages" in its name (swap in part of your app's name):

ls ~/Library/Mobile\ Documents | grep -i pages

Documents saved by the iWork apps and TextEdit also appear inside iCloud Drive in Finder, in a folder named after the app, so you rarely need the raw path for those.

Desktop and Documents sync

If you turned on Desktop & Documents Folders in iCloud Drive settings, Apple moves those two folders into iCloud Drive and shows them under iCloud in the Finder sidebar. Apps still save to ~/Desktop and ~/Documents as usual. With the option off, the two folders stay purely local.

Files that are not downloaded

With Optimize Mac Storage on, macOS can keep only a placeholder for files you have not opened lately, and Finder shows a cloud icon next to them. The name and size are known, so Finder still lists them, but the content is fetched when you open the file.

To force a download, Control-click and choose Download Now. To hand the space back, choose Remove Download; the file stays in iCloud. From macOS Sequoia onwards the same menu also has Keep Downloaded, which pins an item so it is never offloaded. Apple's guide for Sonoma does not list that option.

Placeholders are why a copy of the iCloud folder can look complete and still be missing data. Download first, then copy.

Space and what is safe to delete

The local copy mirrors what is in iCloud, with one exception: changes that have not uploaded yet. Before deleting anything:

1. Open System Settings, click your name, then iCloud, then Drive, and check that Sync this Mac is on.
2. In Finder, look for items whose status icon shows they are still uploading.
3. Delete in Finder, not in Terminal. A deletion in iCloud Drive applies on every device. Apple keeps deleted iCloud Drive files in Recently Deleted (on iCloud.com and in the Files app on iPhone or iPad) for 30 days, after which they are gone.

Never delete or rename com~apple~CloudDocs itself, or the containers of apps you still use, and do not move the Mobile Documents folder: macOS expects it exactly there.

Moving files out of iCloud

Apple's guide warns that dragging an item out of iCloud Drive to another folder moves it: the item is copied to your Mac and removed from iCloud Drive on all your devices. To keep the cloud copy as well, hold ⌥ while you drag so Finder copies instead of moving. Download the files first, as above.

Backups and a new Mac

Signing in to the same Apple Account on a new Mac brings the folder back and shows your files again, downloading them on demand. Time Machine can only copy what is physically on the disk, so a file that exists only as a placeholder is not in your backup. If you want a full local backup of iCloud Drive, download everything first.

Why the path stays hidden

Spotlight does search iCloud Drive. On the Sequoia Mac used for this guide, mdfind returned files from com~apple~CloudDocs and from app folders such as com~apple~Keynote. What you never see is the real location: Finder presents the containers under friendly names like Pages or Keynote, and the Mobile Documents folder sits inside ~/Library, which Finder hides. That is why the raw names in the table above look unfamiliar even though you have been using these folders for years.

Checking sizes before you copy

To see how much space the local copy takes, run du -sh ~/Library/Mobile\ Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs. The figure counts only what is downloaded. For a per-app view, run du -sh ~/Library/Mobile\ Documents/* and read the largest lines first. These commands only report sizes and change nothing.

When the folder looks empty

If iCloud Drive shows fewer files than your iPhone does, check that you are signed in to the same Apple Account, that Sync this Mac is on, and that the first sync has had time to finish. A new Mac may show names well before it has downloaded any content.

Finding these files next time

Everywhere searches file names across the whole Mac, and once you give it Full Disk Access that includes Mobile Documents and every app container inside it, with the real path shown beside each match. Typing CloudDocs or part of a document name lists the files within a moment, and ⌘↵ reveals one in Finder. It matches names only, not the text inside documents.

Common questions

Where is iCloud Drive stored on a Mac?

In ~/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs. Finder's iCloud Drive sidebar item opens that same folder.

Why can't I see the Mobile Documents folder?

It is inside your hidden Library folder. Use Go > Go to Folder (⇧⌘G) in Finder and paste ~/Library/Mobile Documents.

Are iCloud Drive files really on my Mac?

Some are. With Optimize Mac Storage on, files you have not opened recently may be placeholders that download when opened. On macOS Sequoia and later, Keep Downloaded pins an item locally.

Is it safe to delete things in the Mobile Documents folder?

Delete files through Finder in iCloud Drive, because deletions sync to all your devices; Apple keeps them in Recently Deleted for 30 days. Leave the app container folders alone.