Robin Cravey Author

Level 1

39 points

Will Time Machine back up files in iCloud Drive to an external drive?

If I store my Documents folder in iCloud Drive, can I back it up to an external drive with Time Machine?

Thanks,

Robin

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 13.3

Posted on Apr 17, 2023 2:32 PM

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Level 9

77,227 points

Posted on Apr 17, 2023 4:16 PM

Provided you have not optimized your iCloud Drive files, they all remain on your computer and will backup through Time Machine. If you have optimized, and if files have been offloaded to iCloud only, those files offloaded to iCloud will not backup as they are not resident on your Mac.

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Level 9

77,227 points

Apr 17, 2023 4:16 PM in response to Robin Cravey

Provided you have not optimized your iCloud Drive files, they all remain on your computer and will backup through Time Machine. If you have optimized, and if files have been offloaded to iCloud only, those files offloaded to iCloud will not backup as they are not resident on your Mac.

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Robin Cravey Author

Level 1

39 points

Apr 20, 2023 5:53 AM in response to muguy

I appreciate your answer. I haven't looked at optimizing. Is it possible to optimize on one Mac but not another? Or to optimize on the iPad but not the Macs?

(Optimizing used to mean reorganizing storage on your drive so that each individual file was written in contiguous space. Also called defragmenting.)

Robin

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Will Time Machine back up files in iCloud Drive to an external drive?

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