Is it possible to store ALL documents in iCloud? If so, how shall I tell the system to do that?

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ZedVal Author

Level 1

8 points

Is it possible to store ALL documents in iCloud? If so, how shall I tell the system to do that?

iMac 21.5″, macOS 12.4

Posted on Jul 14, 2022 10:10 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Camelot

Level 9

55,281 points

Jul 14, 2022 10:20 AM in response to ZedVal

Yes, and no.

The devil is in the details.

It's trivial to setup iCloud Drive to store all the files in your Documents folder.

System Preferences -> Apple ID -> iCloud Drive -> Options -> Desktop and Documents Folder

In this way, anything you save in your Documents folder are synched to the cloud - note that the key is synched - a local copy is maintained so that you can work on the document offline, and changes are asynchronously copied to iCloud.

However, this does not guarantee all files... if you save a document outside of the Documents folder then it won't be copied. Hence, as I said above, the devil is in the details.

If you're diligent about saving all your documents within your Documents folder, then you're all set, but there is no mechanism for making sure you do that - that one is on you.

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Answer 2

ZedVal Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 15, 2022 2:04 AM in response to Camelot

Many thanks for your kind reply. I wish to free-up maximum space on my local hard drive and have ALL the docs in the Documents folder available online only (i.e. accessed via iCloud). How can I force the Mac OS X system to do that? Currently the Mac OS X system says it stores files online only when there is a lack of space on local hard drive. However, I am encountering problems on my iMac with Fusion HD which is having HD space problems despite the fact that I use 2TB iCloud for the Documents and they could be all be easily (in theory) stored there.

The is a functionality of Dropbox plus, for instance, but there are some known limitations for the apps which would attempt to load local files of size of 0 bytes (due to their being stored online).

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