Does (or can) a copy of files in iCloud Drive remain on my Mac hard drive?

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Does (or can) a copy of files in iCloud Drive remain on my Mac hard drive?

If I move a file into the iCloud Drive area within Finder, does (or can) a copy remain on my Mac's hard drive?

If so, what is the path to the iCloud Drive folder area? I've looked in Terminal under /Users/myname, but don't see anything.

The reason I ask is that I'd like to use iCloud Drive to replace Dropbox. Currently I have a Dropbox folder tree on my Mac hard drive, and I use that like any other file folder area to hold copies I work with on a daily basis. When I change a file, Dropbox uploads or updates the file in its cloud service. I can then reference it from another computer or my iPhone, etc.

Will this work under iCloud Drive in 2019?

MacBook Pro 15", macOS 10.14

Posted on Jun 20, 2019 10:11 AM

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Answer 1

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Eric Root

Level 10

684,219 points

Jun 20, 2019 10:49 AM in response to FrankO23

Unless you have Optimization on, all files stored in iCloud remain on your hard drive. To access files in iCloud Drive, go to the Finder Sidebar, and under Favorites, you should see iCloud Drive. If it doesn't show there, go to Finder/Preferences/Sidebar/Favorites and check iCloud Drive.

The files are stored in your user Library/Mobile Documents. Go to Finder and select your user/home folder. With that Finder window as the front window, either select Finder/View/Show View options or go command - J. When the View options opens, check ’Show Library Folder’.

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Answer 2

FrankO23 Author

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54 points

Jun 20, 2019 10:56 AM in response to Eric Root

Thanks, good to know. I already had Show Library Folder turned on, so that wasn't an issue.

However, I'm still having trouble find an absolute path in Terminal. Under /Library I'm not seeing a directory "Mobile Documents," even though it shows up in the Finder app. Is it referenced some other way?

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Answer 3

FrankO23 Author

Level 1

54 points

Jun 20, 2019 7:05 PM in response to Eric Root

I dug around and found that the path for files stored in iCloud Drive is actually:

/Users/[myname]/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs

I tested saving a text file in iCloud Drive on one Mac, then opening it on my other Mac, making edits and saving them, then opening the file again on the first Mac. It seems to replicate the way that Dropbox manages files. So pending a little further testing I'll probably move everything to iCloud Drive and let Dropbox go. It's a non-trivial move for me as I have about 1.5 TB of stuff currently in Dropbox.

Thanks again for the help.

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