Does iCloud drive use up hard drive storage space?

Optimized storage will reduce the space used on your Mac, maybe enough to squeeze 2tb into a size small enough to fit. But it will be at the cost of deleting rarely used files from your Mac (they will still be stored in iCloud and thus remain available)

Really? Advertised as a sync service? .... from Apple's site:

iCloud Storage

Start with 5GB free. Add more or share a plan with your family.

You get 5GB of free iCloud storage to get started. If you have larger collections of photos, videos, or documents and more devices to back up, you can easily upgrade your storage plan — up to 2TB. And now you can share a 200GB or 2TB iCloud storage plan with the whole family, so each family member won’t need to buy separate plans.

Now, colour me stupid, but that doesn't leap out as a sync plan but does look like a storage plan.....

They have really messed up the iCloud Drive system.... who on earth is going to buy 2TB storage with a 256GB SSD in their laptop and the stored data has to sit on the laptop too??

They are not deleted from your Mac, they are optimised.

They may not be usable in an optimised condition, but they are not deleted. The important difference being that they remain listed in the finder so you maintain the same file hierarchy that you are used to using, you just click on them as you always do to open them.

You don't need to have an internet connection to see them in your finder, you would if they were deleted.

They are deleted from the Mac, under the following conditions.

Only in iCloud means not on your Mac.

liviu118 wrote:

In Win7 all iCloud Drive capacity is count against C drive.

How can we fix this?

Must be a fix on the registry on Windows7...

This is the iCloud for Mac forum - you probably will get faster and more accurate answers if you post in the iCloud for PC forum

LN

Oh gosh this is such a pain right now.

I own an old 27” iMac that I used for all my work. A few years ago I bought a top of the line MBP to work remotely with a considerably smaller drive. Recently the display broke on the iMac so I considered a replacement. In the end I opted for a 13“ MBP and felt happy because I subscribed to a 2tb iCloud Drive... with “optimise Mac storage“ enabled I thought it‘d keep a record of files on the system and if you load them up then they download from the cloud and upload when finished.

Nope!

I sit here absolutely stuck over my work situation now. It’s looking like I’m going to return the 13” MBP and get a new iMac instead. I’d rather not! I’d like to work portably but I guess Apple has other ideas (and incorrect advertising and misleading settings)

On top of all this my boot camp partition won’t sync with iCloud either. I guess it’s because there’s not enough storage again. However there are no error messages, no options. It just sits there doing nothing. Not a happy customer. I’ll be phoning support to confirm all this and log a complaint/suggestion. Because I mean what’s the point in selling both iCloud storage and selling full blown computers with just 256gb of storage under a “pro” moniker? Bah.

Hello, I’ve seen your posts here. I’m uninterested in arguing. The wording is such as it is on their website, the settings option is confusing (optimise Mac storage), and furthermore when I bought the system I was told I could do this by the sales clerk (genius? I’m unsure of their titles). Thats all I’m going to reply to you with. Cheerio!

Funny actually, I never thought I’d buy a windows machine again but I just realised it might suit me better at this stage. Hmm. i will miss that brilliant touch bar though.

[this forum is dreadful to write on with an iPad. Random capitalisation, auto spelling wildly jumping ahead, quote marks facing the wrong way. You’d think this place would be suited for these machines!]

I prefer to believe what Apple says about the drive, which is,

Documents will only be stored in iCloud, which seems to be very clear.

It makes no difference to me because I always buy machines that have sufficient storage for my needs, so I have not had to test it.

I will accept that Apple are quite wrong in their explanation, but only because of your war record 🙂

But I would like a better explanation, how are they optimized, what form does this optimization take, is it a compression method, and if so which one?

I don't even think that there is any documentation out there about the 'Mobile Documents' folder ? ?

This is true. The exact location of the local files is not documented. A Spotlight search for a file in your iCloud Drive will not reveal the location on your HD.

At the same time, there is no documentation stating your content is "moved" to iCloud and that space is cleared on your local HD.

This is the assumption many make, leading to the confusion.

Only a certain feature on macOS Sierra does this and in a somewhat limited way.

Add your Desktop and Documents files to iCloud Drive - Apple Support

at least let people know that you're bound to lose a significant amount of disk space in your boot drive if you're to put a lot of stuff to the icloud . . .

They do this. Is your Mac not one of your devices?

I found this thread and indeed it seems that iCloud does take up hard drive space, which wasn't made clear at all, but is 24GB reasonable?

iCloud *Drive* has a synced hidden folder on the system drive.

Your question is about the Photo Library and I am assuming, the iCloud Photo Library. That is a different iCloud service.

Where is your library stored?

Photos > preferences > general

(And fyi, it is not wise to tinker with the folders within your Photos database. Look but don't touch is safest. It's in a package for a reason.)

I don't see why Apple can't include an option to store files only on iCloud if that's what we want.

Apple must see a market for their implementation.

Apple feedback goes here >>> http://www.apple.com/feedback/

In Win7 all iCloud Drive capacity is count against C drive.

How can we fix this?

Must be a fix on the registry on Windows7...

When I uploaded to the iCloud my photos it took away my storage on my computer. Is this correct, or a way around that.