Does iCloud drive use up hard drive storage space?

Why don't you tell Apple to "reconsider its marketing and branding"

I already understand so telling me is a waste, both of your time, and mine

Tell Apple to reconsider here:

I have no idea what your complaint over Apple's advertising is about. iCloud is clearly (and advertised as) a synchronization system, not a storage solution. Pretending it is a storage system is your take on what it is, not Apples. But there are alternatives that actually are storage systems, it would be wiser to use one of them.

Buying a computer that does not have enough storage for what it is wanted for is a consumer decision, as well as a very bad one.

Because iCloud does indeed sync to a hidden location on your hard drive - otherwise you would lose all access to your files if you had no internet service. All cloud document services work this way - Dropbox, Google Drive etc. Also, the online iCloud is not itself backed up by Apple, so you absolutely need a local backup system (eg Time Machine) to back up that local copy in case of disaster.

Matt

How could one possibly hope to sync a 200 GB (or more) iCloud account to an iPad or iPhone if the files must reside on the device?

The files must reside on a Mac that uses iCloud Drive, not on an iOS device.

Matt

So one can or cannot access the iCloud docs from an iDevice?

Absolutely you can. In the appropriate application on the iDevice (eg, Pages), you open your file from iCloud, just as you did with the old "iCloud documents" model. The difference now is that you can create and manage folders on a computer, and store different types of file. You still need an app on the iPad that can open your documents, though.

Matt

Seems like the right approach would be for the files to reside, at the users option, on the web, locally, or both.

Alright, I'm understanding the iOS Device thing but, quick question.

So I'm looking to get a new Pro. I would think 128GB would be enough for me since everyone tells me I could just store a bunch of things on the cloud. Alright, I can do that. BUT, if what you're saying is true, that everything would physically be on my Mac for safekeeping since I don't always have an internet connection, then what's the point? If I'm going to fill all of my 200GB of iCloud with music or documents and such (or even OneDrive or Good Drive or whatever), and that's stored on my computer, then how does it work?

Thanks, kind of new at this..

You are essentially getting online backup which is accessible from other devices. It’s not much use to you while you aren’t on the internet except for file storage.

You can store your iTunes library in the cloud for $25/year and just stream what you need. At sometime later this sprint the Photos app will be released and with it the ability to store your photos in the iCloud Photo Library. However, that will also cost extra depending on how big your library is. It's also slow uploading.

The iCloud Drive can't be used for cloud storage as it also keeps a copy on the Mac. Nothing gained there.

Therefore, go with as much storage as your budget allows. You'll never be sorry you did.

Hi FlyFalcon,

I am writing to say that I am having the problem you are worried about. I have a 121 GB MacBook with flash storage, and I am running out of room.

This is my work computer so I don't have any personal photos/music/movies stored on here. My iCloud drive has over 100 GB on it and it's driving this computer nuts! I am constantly getting the "your startup disk is full" message. As you can see from the screen shot below, it's saying I have 58.61 GB of photos on this computer, 25.84GB of movies etc...but all these files live on my personal MacBook at home.

I am paying for the $3.99 a month for 200 GB but I didn't get that iCloud would use up my HD space. So as a warning, 128 GB may not be enough for you.

Here's my question: why do icloud files stored on my iMac take up space on my 13" Air (150 GB)?

My Air hardrive is almost full, even though I keep very little on it (and consequently sync little from this machine to iCloud). But when I look at what fills up the Air hard drive I see that 50 gigs stored on my iMac (also synced with iCloud) comes out of my Air storage.

What gives? How can I fix it?

In the event you haven't gotten it yet (or for others wondering who this may help), I would definitely invest in the largest possible SSD hard drive, if you deal often with photos &/or videos, professionally or otherwise. In fact, I found this discussion while in the midst of having to "thin out" the drive on this rMBP, which is 500 GB. It's the Achilles heel for me, storage, and simply on principle (and with so much of my own local storage capacity in my office) I'm not going to pay monthly fees forever to store my own things elsewhere *and* have it continue to eat up all my Macs' drive space, even if I send very little to "the cloud". As others described accurately (and helpfully, without contradiction by Apple I note), the cloud drive organizes shared things one opts into - for example, I sync calendars and email so I have what my desktop and laptop have while traveling with only an iPhone (it would be the same w/iPad). The things I want to sync are "in the cloud" AND on the local devices. I have several Terabytes of photos, about a TB of them on my Mac, and nearly 500 GB on my rMBP. I'd need a 2nd mortgage were I to "rent space" for all of that. So each device is synced for what I need for work while each device handles the huge doses of photo and video images I feed them, on their own hard drives. (I don't auto-cloud the massive-sized video/photo stream from the iPhone.) So now I've gotten another new huge storage drive, but my local Macs still are full of iCloud AND Dropbox files which I'd hoped to temporarily leave "in the clouds" (what a misnomer!). But true, they're actually taking up local space, which is why I'm here weeding out photos. That all works great for the iPhone fan, but my life (old fogey that I am) has me doing work at a big hi-res screen, with big images - and large files. I'd go with the solution someone suggested of more options, by device, whether to store locally or only on the cloud, or both - especially if you're incurring monthly parking fees. As they say, YMMV and this is only me, but I know I'm not the only person who is a longtime user of Apple *computers* and who would rather not save the same humongous image/video collection twice, both on the computer and in the "hidden" (but real) storage space set up on local (Mac) devices. So in this day of "trending" You-tubing, selfies, and raw-image mega files: think storage!

Short version: "Cloud" drives are your drives, but backed on a server farm your various devices can access, for free or (new-improved) rental costs, the way of the trends set by Adobe and MS. Aimed at the mobile market, all. For serious photographers, videographers, and others who can't see renting space while not gaining any drive space, I'd say, do what works for you. But know the realities, and if possible, as with screen size, memory is better bigger!

Thanks for your detailed reply. I was mistaken thinking that I can store stuff only in iCloud and not using limited space on my Air. You are absolutely right, I use a 2 TB Western Digital external hard drive but the reason I am subscribing for Apple's iCloud service is that I want to access certain files remotely.