can152

Q: Does icloud use space locally?

Hi guys, here is my question since I do not get the logic yet.

 

If I upload my documents (photos, musics etc.) using icloud drive folder on Yosemite, they gonna still use space from my local hard drive? I mean I have a 200 GB plan, however I have 126 GB of hard drive, so if I upload my files from desktop to icloud drive, and then delete the files from the desktop after uploading process is completed, my files will be available on drive without using local hard drive?

 

Or do I get it all wrong?

MacBook Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10)

Posted on Oct 21, 2014 1:33 PM

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Q: Does icloud use space locally?

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  • by léonie,Solvedanswer

    léonie léonie Oct 21, 2014 1:59 PM in response to can152
    Level 10 (107,801 points)
    iCloud
    Oct 21, 2014 1:59 PM in response to can152
    so if I upload my files from desktop to icloud drive, and then delete the files from the desktop after uploading process is completed, my files will be available on drive without using local hard drive?

    No, sorry, each document in iCloud Drive will have a local copy on your Mac.

    iCloud Drive will keep the content of all synced devices identical.

     

     

    See:  iCloud Drive FAQ

     

     

    With iCloud Drive, you can safely store all your presentations, spreadsheets, PDFs, images, and any other kind of document in iCloud. Documents you store in iCloud Drive will be kept up to date across all of your devices, and you can access them from your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, or PC.

     

    Here's what you can do with iCloud Drive:

    • Store and access all of your documents in one place from any of your devices
    • Keep files and folders up to date across all your devices
    • Create new files and folders from iCloud-enabled apps
    • Work on the same file across multiple apps
  • by PatrickDotStar,Helpful

    PatrickDotStar PatrickDotStar Oct 21, 2014 1:57 PM in response to can152
    Level 1 (25 points)
    Oct 21, 2014 1:57 PM in response to can152

    If you delete the files in the iCloud Drive folder they get also deleted on icloud. So yes they have to be stored locally too. But the icloud drive folder on yosemite seems not to work now so the files get not uploaded to icloud. You can look on icloud.com to see which files are in icloud drive.

  • by can152,

    can152 can152 Oct 21, 2014 2:07 PM in response to can152
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 21, 2014 2:07 PM in response to can152

    So I can not use icloud drive as an online external hard drive.. That was my plan actually Thanks anyway guys!

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Oct 21, 2014 2:40 PM in response to can152
    Level 10 (107,801 points)
    iCloud
    Oct 21, 2014 2:40 PM in response to can152
    So I can not use icloud drive as an online external hard drive.. That was my plan actually

    You can use the 200 GB space for backups of your mobile devices, for your iCloud Mail, iMovie theater in addition to your iCloud Drive documents.

     

    But not as an external drive, that's right.

  • by Pitiger,

    Pitiger Pitiger Dec 8, 2014 8:56 AM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Mac OS X
    Dec 8, 2014 8:56 AM in response to léonie

    Leonie, what do you mean that one cannot use iCloud as an external drive? You can simply drag and drop all your folders and files into the "iCloud Drive" in Finder in Yosemite and they will be kept online, although as well as on your local hard drive. So yes, one can use iCloud Drive as an external hard drive. Or what do you mean?

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Dec 8, 2014 9:16 AM in response to Pitiger
    Level 10 (107,801 points)
    iCloud
    Dec 8, 2014 9:16 AM in response to Pitiger
    You can simply drag and drop all your folders and files into the "iCloud Drive" in Finder in Yosemite and they will be kept online, although as well as on your local hard drive.

     

    What I meant is, that iCloud Drive may look like an external drive and we use it like in external drive in the Finder, but it acts differently.  All documents we upload to iCloud Drive will be updated across all devices and mirrored as shadow copies. There may be long periods of time, when we cannot edit or access some documents, while they are still being updated. And we cannot create deeply nested folders in all subfolders of iCloud drive. The document specific folders are limited ad controlled by the respective applications. Packages  we store on iCloud Drive may become corrupted by the updating, for example iPhoto libraries or Aperture libraries.

  • by Pitiger,

    Pitiger Pitiger Dec 8, 2014 9:30 AM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Mac OS X
    Dec 8, 2014 9:30 AM in response to léonie

    And we cannot create deeply nested folders in all subfolders of iCloud drive.

     

    Why? I have deeply nested folders and they seem to be kept on iCloud.com with no problems. Let me stress however that these are my own personal folders which have nothing to do with any app. So could you be more specific about what you mean here?

    The document specific folders are limited ad controlled by the respective applications.

     

    This might explain what you mean by that we cannot create deeply nested folders. Could you please confirm just o avoid misunderstandings?

    Packages we store on iCloud Drive may become corrupted by the updating, for example iPhoto libraries or Aperture libraries.

     

    Yes but the assumption is they they do not become corrupt. If they do, then there is a bug that needs to be fixed. And this does not mean that one cannot use iCloud Drive as an external hard drive. If I am not mistaken, the idea behind storage provision and advertising (these storage plans you pay for every month) is exactly to give people the chance to keep all their folders and files in the iCloud Drive so that they can access it from any computer as well as that they can store files on the Cloud as a back up. Please correct me if I am mistaken. 

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Dec 8, 2014 4:34 PM in response to Pitiger
    Level 10 (107,801 points)
    iCloud
    Dec 8, 2014 4:34 PM in response to Pitiger
    This might explain what you mean by that we cannot create deeply nested folders. Could you please confirm just o avoid misunderstandings?

    That is what I meant by "we cannot create deeply nested folders in all subfolders of iCloud drive."

    Yes but the assumption is they they do not become corrupt. If they do, then there is a bug that needs to be fixed.

    It is not a bug. Apple requires photo libraries to be on locally mounted volumes. Photo libraries are database packages and not documents. iCloud Drive is meant for documents, files, and folders.

     

    Have a look at what Apple says:

    iCloud Drive FAQ - Apple Support

    Here's what you can do with iCloud Drive:

    • Store and access all of your documents in one place from any of your devices
    • Keep files and folders up to date across all your devices
    • Create new files and folders from iCloud-enabled apps
    • Work on the same file across multiple apps
  • by TopHatMan,

    TopHatMan TopHatMan Dec 17, 2015 12:13 PM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 17, 2015 12:13 PM in response to léonie

    Thanks. Your post solved my issue. I had put my Photo Library into my iCloud folder, and it was hanging an not uploading to the Cloud. In addition, no other files were uploading and/or syncing.

     

    So as Photo libraries cannot be stored on iCloud; they were just stopping the whole sync process. Once I took them out of the iCloud folder, everything started to sync again.

     

    So Thanks!