iCloud Files Taking up Hard Drive Space

Hey Dan!

iCloud Drive is always working to upload and download your files to and from iCloud.

So they are either in one location or both, if your Mac storage is totally full, and you have the Optimize Storage option enabled, some may not be fully downloaded or uploaded.

From my experience, it’s been totally safe to select the option to “Stop uploading and turn off”.

When you choose to keep a copy of your iCloud Drive data when disabling it, or by signing out, it creates a new folder on your Mac in Finder > Go > Home, called iCloud Drive Archive, with all of your data as a backup. However, your backup remains in iCloud if you have other devices syncing the documents, and even if you don’t, it will remain there for an addition 30 days I believe for you to download them if needed.

If you want to be extra careful, and that process just stalls forever, you can:

Open Finder > iCloud Drive in the Finder window, select all the contents, copy them and paste them into another folder on your hard drive, it May ask you if you want to move the data from iCloud, select yes, (Just as signing out, the data is still safe in iCloud),

Doing this, is similar to just signing out and choosing to keep a copy of the data, only difference is you choose the location to store it and it doesn’t automatically download to your Home folder.

Note, you can also, if you need to even download your documents from iCloud.com any time, which is usually in necessary, as they are typically available in Finder > iCloyd Drive or in that Archive folder, (Once you’ve signed out and kept a copy).

Once signed out, if you wanted to, could just move that data from iCloud Drive Archive, to whatever location you need to.

If Desktop and Documents were syncing with iCloud, you can easily open iCloud Drive Archive > Desktop or Documents, select the files and drag them back to the local Desktop or Documents folders, where they may have been before using iCloud Drive.

Hope any of that makes sense! Here’s an article that may explain better than myself:

Archive or make copies of the information you store in iCloud:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204055

Even if you accidentally delete them from iCloud and empty the trash, you may be able to retrieve them afterwards:

Recover deleted files at iCloud.com:

https://support.apple.com/guide/icloud/recover-deleted-files-mmae56ea1ca5/icloud

Also, setting up Time Machine is a life saver!:

Back up your Mac with Time Machine:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201250

So there’s lots of backup and recovery options, but in my experience, if signing out lags due to saying iCloud is still uploading data, telling it to stop and turn off is safe, and typically all that data will be in the iCloud Drive Archive folder as well as at iCloud.com, (And your other devices if you are using iCloud Drive with them).

Hope that helps!

Hey again! I see, I believe the optimize storage option (If not in System Preferences > Apple ID > iCloud, scroll to the bottom and check it), isn’t there, you can also go to:

About This Mac > Storage > Manage > Storage > Recommendations, you’ll have a few options in there actually:

How to free up storage space on your Mac:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206996

So maybe the inconsistencies lay on how those settings are configured on each.

So on a side note, if you decide to “Keep a copy” of that data, it can even take up more storage on your Mac, so it may be a good idea to move the data directly from Finder > iCloud Drive directly to an external hard drive for storage, (Or just move the iCloud Drive Archive folder to the external hard drive, then delete it from your a Mac, (Then Trash).

I have, however seen Spotlight reporting the storage wrong at times, so it may be a good idea to check exactly what your Mac says iCloud Drive is using, compared to how much iCloud Storage it’s using as it maybe incorrect.

I’ve also seen the ~/Cache folder fill up dramatically when a sign out stalls, in which case, the cache just need to be removed afterwards.

Also, sometimes, if the storage IS reading incorrectly, the Spotlight index needs to be restarted.

Typically that’s not the case and the storage is all accounted for though, so I’d rely on moving data to an external drive as an extra backup for sure, all the best! Let me know if you have any questions, or anyone here, cheers!

Okay, Yosemite, apologize, so it definitely won’t be in Manage Storage, but can’t recall if Optimize Storage was in iCloud Preferences, but don’t believe so, so that maybe another issue/cause for storage. External storage would be the way to go, even if it’s reading it incorrectly and you need to erase the startup disk (Mac). Best!