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Booster___ Author

Level 1

7 points

Storage on iCloud Drive, iCloud and Mac hard drive

When I go to System Preferences on my Mac Air and click iCloud, I see a checkbox that says "Optimize Mac Storage" and that "the full contents of iCloud Drive will be stored on this Mac if you have enough space. Older Documents will be stored only in iCloud when space is needed".

So that would be the prevailing process if I check the box.

My question is - what happens if I do not check the box?

Will -

a) iCloud Drive not move files to iCloud even if I begin to run out of space, or

b) the contents of iCloud Drive no longer be stored on this Mac or

c) something else?

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 11.4

Posted on Jun 3, 2021 12:47 AM

Top-ranking reply

chuck_3rd

Community Specialist

Posted on Jun 3, 2021 6:55 PM

Hey there Booster+,

We'd like to help answer your question about this option in your Apple ID preferences as best we can.

As explained underneath the option, enabling it would store full versions of files in iCloud Drive on your Mac provided you have enough available built-in storage. Enabling this option would essentially store full versions of files in iCloud Drive within iCloud and your Mac's built-in storage.

Not enabling this option would instead not store full versions of those files in your Mac's storage, but they'd only store in iCloud.

Take care!

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Storage on iCloud Drive, iCloud and Mac hard drive

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