I've bought an SSD to take some of the storage pressure off of my Mac Mini. I've moved my Photos library to it, and looking for the next candidate I see that Mobile Documents is using a lot of space. Can I move it to an external drive, or will that stop it working with iCloud?
thanks
Mac mini, OS X 10.11
That's correct that MobileDocuments in ~/Library/MobileDocuments = iCloud Drive
I wouldn't personally do anything in ~/Library/ as it could break things...
It probably won't delete the files from iCloud by moving the directory locally, but it may just end up re-filling the hard drive unless you have Optimize Storage enabled in iCloud Settings.
See: https://support.apple.com/en-ca/guide/system-information/sysp4ee93ca4/mac
You would have to ensure that the external SSD is always connected and mounted, before you sign into your user account. It would be risky.
"Optimize Mac Storage" is only available with macOS 10.12 Sierra or later. Is the system version given below your question "OS X 10.11" still current?
I am getting usually the current system version below my questions, when I select the device from the list of my own devices.
On previous system versions it has been easy to move the complete user home folder to an external volume; that would be safer than moving only the Library folder or a subfolder of the library.
But I have not yet found the old "Advanced Options " in the System Preferences > Users & Groups, where we could specify the user home folder: How do I make my macOS Monterey store the… - Apple Community
Yeah, I’ve already (in effect) committed to not unplugging this drive (as it has my Photos Library on it), but I get your point about risky! So I’ll look for other things to move that are less critical.
(And no, I’m on the latest OS (12.0.1). I can’t see where to change that, unless I have to do it when I first create a post?)
Thanks.
I’ve found a few large databases that I can easily move, and my internal SSD is now down to a more useful size, so I think I’m ok for now. I’ll leave the system alone!
Good Luck, Davide! 😊
:-))). Thanks for the help léonie!
Can I move the Mobile Documents folder to an external drive?
