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Zebulon Sola Author

Level 3

572 points

Optimize Mac Storage randomly offloads EVERYTHING to iCloud

I have Optimize Mac Storage turned on and sometimes I open up my computer and literally every single file in my Documents & Desktop folders (the two folders that can sync with iCloud drive) will be removed from my Mac and turned into a cloud-only file.

This happened once when I had reached around 30-40 GB left on my mac (but still, not sure why it offloaded EVERY file).

This time, I have plenty of storage space free:

Why would it do this? And is the only solution to just turn this feature off? I like to make some large folders that I rarely use into cloud-only folders, which is why I have this feature turned on. But it's very jarring and, frankly, annoying to have to re-download all of my files.

MacBook Pro 14″, macOS 15.0

Posted on Sep 30, 2024 4:59 PM

Top-ranking reply

6x6

Level 6

15,464 points

Posted on Sep 30, 2024 5:14 PM

There is a new feature in macOS Sequoia: you can ask for items to stay downloaded to your Mac.

If you turned on Optimize Mac Storage, older documents are stored in iCloud when space is needed. However, you can choose to keep certain files or folders downloaded on your Mac no matter what.

On your Mac, click in the Dock to open a Finder window, then click iCloud Drive in the sidebar.
Control-click the items, then choose Keep Downloaded.
appears next to the item’s name.

If you no longer want to keep an item downloaded, Control-click it, then choose Keep Downloaded (so the checkmark disappears).

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Optimize Mac Storage randomly offloads EVERYTHING to iCloud

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