Copying user dir

[iwtunx]

To any fanboys out there, back off. I'm not anti-Mac, just anti "Let's change stuff and make it difficult".
I wanted to do a very simple thing, copy my home dir to an external for a backup. I got an error re:
it needs downloaded. So unless I'm wrong, I just need to disable iCloud drive completely and I'll be
able to do what I need to do. Is there a way to just copy from iCloud if it's saving data there?
I did try to disable iCloud but it told me that items would be deleted from the Mac and left in iCloud
where they'd still be available. In other words, I'll LOSE MY DATA instead of being able to back it up.

 

[Mike Boreham]

It sounds like you have "Optimise" on in Settings >your name > iCloud > Optimise Mac Storage. This gives macOS permission to replace full size files with pointers or placeholders. A backup of your user needs the full size files, so would need to be downloaded.

Backup programmes CCC and Chronosync have the ability to recognise pointer files and download the full size version for backup and then evict the local full size file and make it a pointer again.

These links may help

https://bombich.com/kb/ccc6/limitations-online-only-placeholder-files

https://eclecticlight.co/2022/02/21/can-you-back-up-icloud-documents/