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Problem description: I have recently bought an M1 Macbook Air, with the base model memory and storage (8GB, 256GB), and overall I am having a great time. The problem is, I have about 120GB of files from my old PC (basically, the 'Documents' and 'Downloads' folders from my old Windows laptop) that I have uploaded to iCloud Drive using the Windows iCloud app. My issue is that these files have decided to download to my Mac SSD, and I can't work out how to stop that happening. On Windows, I could right click anything in the iCloud Drive folder and click 'Free Up Space', and it would immediately delete the locally-stored copy leaving only the copy in the cloud, which I could re-download if and when I needed it. I am unable to find a similar function on my Mac, which leaves me in a difficult position:   I didn't actually realise how much it was putting on the drive until I went to download Xcode and was told there was not enough space to do so (!) on my 4-day-old laptop. Attempted fixes: What have you tried to do to resolve the problem? I have had a look online and googled my arse off, but am struggling to find a solution. I have tried both using and not using 'Optimise Mac Storage':  This doesn't seem to help either way; I understand that iCloud has to download files to use them and that it makes sense to keep them on local storage as I might use them again soon, but how do I stop it just trying to download the whole thing? I wouldn't even mind it downloading the whole thing as long as it was smart enough to make space when I ask it to do something like "Download Xcode", rather than just telling me "Sorry mate, no room". I have a 2TB external drive, and I can keep my old files/folders there, but am I correct in thinking that having another copy of them on iCloud Drive for backup reasons is just going to cause more problems than it solves? tl;dr I want my cloud storage to stay in the cloud instead of instantly clogging my new MacBook's storage, as I was easily able to do on the Windows implementation of iCloud Recent changes: Have you made any changes to your system/configuration recently that might have caused the problem? The MacBook is less than a week old, so the issue is as old as the computer. Operating system: macOS Monterey v12.4 System specs: MacBook Air (M1, 2020), 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD (Model no.: A2337) Location: United Kingdom I have Googled and read the FAQ: Yes
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Jun 21, 2022 09:14
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You've checked the options I would recommend. I'm curious if it's a matter of what you have stored in iCloud Drive though. Do you have any idea where the 80GB or so are from? If you can figure that out, you could try the "Remove Download" option on the offending files or directory that comes up when you control-click on either in iCloud Drive.
nitsuga fucked around with this message at 17:27 on Jun 21, 2022 |
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Jun 21, 2022 17:24
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You're a loving lifesaver, and I'm an idiot. Thank you so much for your help, I was beginning to lose hope. edit: Ah, much better 
Diorama fucked around with this message at 22:48 on Jun 21, 2022 |
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Jun 21, 2022 22:44
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Cheers! It was new to me too, but I figured they had to have some option like that.
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Jun 21, 2022 23:52
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