iCloud not working as advertised

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Level 1

12 points

iCloud not working as advertised

According to apple, if I use iCloud and put most files there, I can free up some memory on my MacBook Air. So, I moved most items to iCloud. Space savings? Nil. Also, according to Apple, iCloud leaves "recent" files on my Air. This doesn't work for me. I work on a file at home, go to a meeting. An hour has passed and the file is available only on iCloud (=find out network password, stop whole meeting while I fish out my file). Is there some setting Apple didn't mention that would actually leave, say, files that have been accessed over the last week on my Air?

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 12.7

Posted on May 25, 2024 8:58 PM

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Answer 1

muguy

Level 10

95,034 points

May 25, 2024 10:24 PM in response to Johnro

Anything in iCloud is also on your Mac. If you optimize files then files may be offloaded to iCloud only but only if space is needed on your Mac. The user has no control over this process. If you wish files to remain on your Mac, turn off optimize. If you wish some space savings, turn on optimize.

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Answer 2

Johnro Author

Level 1

12 points

May 26, 2024 8:51 PM in response to muguy

Thanks much. Apple should consider hiring you for plain English explanations. Appreciate it. Simplifies things: If my storage is getting full, I just have to move to an off board drive or Google Drive or some such.

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Answer 3

Johnro Author

Level 1

12 points

May 27, 2024 4:29 PM in response to Johnro

Ahhh, the second slap. I turned off optimize and my Air memory is now full. I would like to dump a lot of stuff off Drive onto off board storage. Apple tells me that I can't move files because they must be (I'm guessing here, message was written by Apple techs and is obscure) on my computer to be transferred. I will try turning on optimize again, then downloading. I really need to get away from using Drive, which I thought would be a backup system but isn't working out that way. Has anyone run into this problem and—better yet—come up with a solution?

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iCloud not working as advertised

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