marcoafg
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Q: iCloud Drive "steals" space from my Mac Mini

I have the new Mac Mini with 1 TB HD, 200GB in iCloud Drive and an external 2TB HD. Whenever I copy files to iCloud Drive, Finder indicates that the space available on the Mini decreases at the same rate, as if I'm duplicating the files in the Mini itself. For example, I currently have 650GB available in Mini, if I copy 10GB of files (photos, films, documents etc) to iCloud Drive, the free space on the Mini will drop to 640GB. The same thing happens with Google Drive, but that doesn't happen when I copy files to the external HD. Why is that? Am I doing anything wrong? It is a "bug" of Finder or OSX?

Mac mini, OS X Yosemite (10.10.1)

Posted on Dec 4, 2014 3:38 PM

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marcoafg

Q: iCloud Drive "steals" space from my Mac Mini

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  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Dec 6, 2014 2:05 AM in response to marcoafg
    Level 10 (108,955 points)
    iCloud
    Dec 6, 2014 2:05 AM in response to marcoafg
    Why is that? Am I doing anything wrong? It is a "bug" of Finder or OSX?

    It is working as intended.

     

    For every document on iCloud Drive in OS X Yosemite (10.10.1) your Mac will create a local "Shadow" copy of the document in your user library. You need as much local storage on your Mac for iCloud drive documents as you are using in iCloud.

    The Mac will work with the Shadow copy and update it, if the version in iCloud changes.

     

    iCloud Drive FAQ

  • by marcoafg,

    marcoafg marcoafg Dec 6, 2014 7:41 AM in response to léonie
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 6, 2014 7:41 AM in response to léonie

    Thank you very much for your information. But I still think there is something wrong. I thought that in addition to synchronize some files on all my devices, I could use icloud as a virtual drive to store other files that I do not want to be synchronized across devices. It does not make sense to me to have two copies on my mac for each file that I cut and paste in icloud drive. The support of the apple in Brazil said that this is one of Yosimite problems that will be fixed in the next update. I'll wait for this update and also test other storage services. Thanks!

  • by Old Toad,

    Old Toad Old Toad Dec 6, 2014 2:38 PM in response to marcoafg
    Level 10 (141,721 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Dec 6, 2014 2:38 PM in response to marcoafg

    When you add a file to the iCloud Drive on your Mac

    Screen Shot 2014-12-06 at 2.30.41 PM.jpg

     

    It's moved from it's original location on your hard drive to the iCloud Drive folder on your hard drive which is an invisible folder inside your Home/Library/Mobile Documents folder:

     

    Screen Shot 2014-12-06 at 2.33.45 PM.jpg

     

    You still have only one version on your hard drive only it is located in that invisible folder.  Also it is copied into in the online iCloud Drive:

     

    Screen Shot 2014-12-06 at 2.35.47 PM.jpg

     

    If you delete the file from the local iCloud Drive  it will be removed on the online drive. 

    SantaToad.png

  • by marcoafg,

    marcoafg marcoafg Dec 7, 2014 1:12 PM in response to Old Toad
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 7, 2014 1:12 PM in response to Old Toad

    Thanks, O.T., but I don`t want to move files to iCloud Drive, but just keep extra copies there. Google Drive, for this function, works much better, despite the slow upload. Their support told me to uninstall Google Drive and upload the files directly to the website. It performs way better than iCloud Drive, it does not crash (I have been trying to delete a folder from iCloud.com for days now and i keep getting the message to try again later), I can drag and drop folder/files to the website (but only using Chrome) and I can view icons of the photos before opening them. Perfect! By the way, is it possible to uninstall iCloud Drive from my Mac Mini and upload files directly to iCloud.com without affecting the space on my Mini?

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Dec 9, 2014 11:09 AM in response to marcoafg
    Level 10 (108,955 points)
    iCloud
    Dec 9, 2014 11:09 AM in response to marcoafg
    Thanks, O.T., but I don`t want to move files to iCloud Drive, but just keep extra copies there.

    Then copy to iCloud Drive. Hold down the alt/options key ⌥ while dragging the files to iCloud Drive. This will create a copy there (with an additional shadow copy in your user library).