Mac Document structure confusion

[Jane Lucas]

Hi.
I’m hoping someone can help with a mess I’ve somehow made of my document folder structure. I have somehow ended up with two of them. They are not identical and stuff sometimes gets saved to one or the other because they are both called ‘Documents’. Sometimes I can’t find things and the only way is to use Spotlight. I’ve tried fixing it and given up. I thought it didn’t matter .. nuisance rather than anything else. But when I went to export a bit of my Tree from FTM as GEDCOM something weird happened. The filepath name in the GEDCOM starts with a folder that has nothing directly to do with the tree, though it does contain  some images that are attached to various people in the tree. (I have that folder showing on my sidebar as a reminder of who has the originals.) but there are plenty of other folders containing images attached to people in FTM. So what is going on? Is this somehow related to my double document folders?
Would it help to merge both folders?

[purlin]

Which OS are you running Jane?

[Jane Lucas]

High Sierra 10.13.6. My MacBook Pro is late 2011 (Vintage!) so I can't update to Mojave. But don't think that is the issue.
Think somewhere along the line I've made a mess of my document structure ..

[Ray T]

It’s a long time since I’ve used High Sierra. Could it simply be that you’ve created two folders with the same name; e.g. Documents? If so, you could drag everything from one of them into the other and delete the empty one. Thie might however confuse an application looking for the deleted folder.

[Jane Lucas]

Thanks for that.. I created a second folder on purpose at some point when I thought I could do that without it synching with iCloud. I didn't want my documents in iCloud. But then I realised that didn't work and I couldn't 'undo' it Now I have two folders, both with documents in, but not the same documents. I could move them then delete one, but as you say, that might create a bigger problem. I'm looking the the 'merge' option, which might solve the problem. But I thought I'd tried that before and made it worse!

[purlin]

 Maybe iCloud is the issue, if you don't want to use it i should disable it and see how you stand then.
 
 Choose Apple menu > System Preferences
Click iCloud
Deselect Find My Mac

The advice also seems to be then to remove your iCloud account from your device:  (you should do that if you are thinking of getting a new Mac as the account follows you around like glue)

Choose Apple menu > System Preferences
Click iCloud
Click Sign Out

[Jane Lucas]

Thanks.. I've already disabled it for Documents.. did it ages ago. Don't think that's the problem here .. I think it is FTM 2017 somehow linking to a folder on my desktop that it shouldn't do before linking to the FTM Media File folder. In trying to figure out why, I am targeting the muddle with the main document folder structure the as culprit....
I should be able to sort it, even though I'm not that good with software.. how hard can it be? 
Just wondered if anyone might have come across similar issue with FTM.. because it might not be my structure.

[purlin]

Probably right about FTM, scanning through the forums people are having many problems with syncing.  So perhaps as you say, try combining the two document folders into one. I suppose the way forward is to backup both folders.  Then >command drag and drop the contents of one into the other and keep your fingers crossed! Good luck.

[Jane Lucas]

Thank. Good point about backup. I always back up to an external hard drive (linked to time machine) but have no idea how restore.. , but they will be there somewhere.

I can syncs FTM fine. It’s exporting a GEDCOM that’s a problem because it is picking up a weird filepath. I could well have deleted the folder it is ‘pointing’ at if I hadn’t checked on the GEDCOM detail.