time machine and "optimize storage"

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time machine and "optimize storage"

It's come to my attention, belatedly, that my time machine backups are not backing up the documents that "optimize storage" is keeping in the cloud, nor my photos that are in the cloud. In an earlier thread I found on this subject, the "apple support community" response said that in order to do a full backup of everything, everything that "optimize storage" keeps in the cloud would all need to be downloaded to the computer being backed up.

But doesn't that make both Time Machine and iCloud work at cross purposes? And essentially make Time Machine useless??

Most of us are using "optimize storage" with iCloud accounts because our drives are not big enough to keep everything on the computer to begin with. And how are we supposed to back up our data and photographs with Time Machine if it doesn't catch what "optimize storage" is keeping in iCloud?

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 14.4

Posted on May 15, 2024 1:09 PM

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FoxFifth

Level 10

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May 15, 2024 1:33 PM in response to davidrabbit

Time Machine will only backup files that you are storing locally. If you have optimization turned on for iCloud Drive files or for iCloud Photos then any files or photos that are optimized will not be backed up by Time Machine.

That is one of the reasons that I do not have optimization turned on -- but I don't have more data and photos than I can store on my drive.

If I did (and I haven't spent a lot of time thinking about this because I haven't had to) I would probably move files or photos that I don't need to frequently access to an external drive so that I could use iCloud and have a local copy of all of the files in iCloud and also have a local backup of data on my main drive. One way that I might do that would be to completely move my Photos to an external disk. See: Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support

There is only one backup software for Macs that I am aware of that has the ability to backup files that only have a copy on iCloud or other cloud services. It does that by temporarily downloading those files, backing them up, then removing them from your Mac. See information in the "Backing up cloud-only content" section of https://bombich.com/en/kb/ccc/6/limitations-online-only-placeholder-files

I have not personally used that option in Carbon Copy Cloner.

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time machine and "optimize storage"

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