Mac Migration Issue

Question

Level 1

4 points

Mac Migration Issue

My Old Mac hard drive was nearly full.

I bought a new Mac and put the contents of the old Mac on hard drives

I deleted most of the files from my old mac, emptied the trash and migrated the old mac to the new mac so I would have all the sam applications.

Problem: The new mac now has all the content that my old mac had so I am no further ahead in storage space.

My old mac was backing up to iCloud. Did iCloud simply load everything onto my new mac?

How do I solve this storage space?

Posted on Jan 7, 2022 6:16 AM

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Answer 1

Chris_C1

Community Specialist

Jan 8, 2022 9:18 AM in response to DNSailor

Greetings DNSailor,

It sounds as though you used Migration Assistant to set up your new Mac, and the content from your old Mac transferred over, including content that was previously deleted.

Apple Support Communities is a great place for help! Depending on the type of content, it is possible the information did return via iCloud. You can manage the iCloud settings in System Preferences > Apple ID > iCloud on your new Mac. You can also find helpful information for managing iCloud storage and device storage via the following links.

Manage your iCloud storage

Free up storage space on your Mac

You can also find more information about iCloud via the following article.

What you can do with iCloud storage

Take care!

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Answer 2

DNSailor Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 9, 2022 11:36 AM in response to Chris_C1

Hi Chris,

This is not really the answer I was looking for.

Here is what I want to do.

store less on my computer - only recent files I am running a business and I only need access to about 2% of the files on my computer, the rest need to be stored indefinitely. I am a lawyer and I am not really allowed to delete old files.
I want to store these old files on a detachable hard drive, which I have done and will keep in the office. I occasionally will look at these documents if I need a precedent but mainly I just have to keep them until I die :(
I want all my old files on the Cloud so that if my office burned down I would still have all the old files. I want to use iCloud for this pupose

The old files take up about 400/ 500 GB available on my macbook Air. This is ridiculous.

It appears to me that iCloud automatically repopulated my new computer with all the files stored on iCloud (98% of which I want to be stored securely and indefinitely but only rarely access.) This plugged up my HD with 400 GB of crap I don't want on my device.

What should I do?

Ideally there is s setting in iCloud that I can tell it what to put on my machine and what just stays on the cloud. This is essentially my question. Can I use iCloud to store things without them getting synced to my device but still have other files (the new ones I am currently working on) synced to i Cloud and my device?

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Answer 3

DNSailor Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 9, 2022 11:44 AM in response to Chris_C1

Another way to put it is this.

Can I set up iCloud to sync with my device for some folders but not others?

some word documents but not others?

some pdf's but not others?

some powerpoint documents but not others?

some excel files but not others?

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Answer 4

Todd0213

Community Specialist

Jan 11, 2022 6:46 AM in response to DNSailor

We apologize for any confusion DNSailor,

We know how important it is to optimize the storage on your Mac. The previously linked article Free up storage space on your Mac provides the best information for doing so.

That article would also provide helpful information for saving content to iCloud to help prevent a large amount of storage from being used on the Mac. This wouldn't prevent you from having access to the information stored to iCloud via the Mac, and you may notice storage usage continuing to be used by some content sync with iCloud. You can also use iCloud Drive to help with document storage: Optimize storage space on your Mac

Apple does appreciate our feedback regarding their products, services, and features. If you would like to provide feedback about iCloud you can do so online via the Product Feedback website.

We hope you have a great rest of your week!

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Mac Migration Issue

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