Does iCloud drive use up hard drive storage space?

sorry to reply to specifically to the original post in this thread - i just wanted to join the discussion generally and wasn't sure how to add my question/comment in that way.

i've tried reading through this thread and i'm still a bit confused - thank you fellow Apple users for your assistance ;O

keeping it simple - i just deleted 175 GB of iTunes TV Show purchases from my iMac in an effort to reclaim that space - they indeed still exist (i want to keep them i guess) as hidden purchases in my Apple account - the "cloud" i presume.

the process that i used to delete them was first in iTunes, deleting and hiding them i think, and then since they still "existed" (haha) in the TV Shows in my iTunes Music folder, "physically" (haha) deleted that too and "emptied the trash" (haha) (sorry ;O)

ok - no increase in disk capacity or in the "size" () of the iTunes Music folder - however when i went back into that folder to see if somehow the TV Shows Folder had in fact been trashed...it had - and the "size" of the folder actually decreased before my eyes from 223 GB to 43 GB.

ok - but my HD capacity remained the same - not reflecting the 175 GB deletion in any way. all disk analysis software and finder displays reflected the decrease of 175 GB in the iTunes Music folder (from 223 to 43) yet not from my HD. what now?

simple question (haha) - how can I lose that 175 GB off my hard drive? would purchasing that much from iCloud do the trick? if i de-authorize my computer will it go away? where is that 175 gig if it doesn't show up in any graphical or finder information on my drive? did it get "moved" to hidden folders?

thanks 'O'

Well I just found out the hard way that if you copy files from an external hard drive (not your Mac hard drive) to iCloud Drive, not only does iCloud put a copy "in the Cloud", it also puts a copy in a folder called Mobile Documents in the Library folder in your User account on your Mac hard drive. Even if those files did not originate from your Mac hard drive. If you look in that folder you will see that all of your iCloud Drive files are located there on your Mac. In my case, because I was moving files from an external hard drive to make more space on it, I unknowingly filled up my Mac hard drive overnight, when I thought I was only moving the files to the Cloud. When I logged in this morning, the first thing I was greeted with was the fact that my start up drive was full. iCloud Drive would not sync properly and my Mac was rendered unusable for hours with constant spinning wheels due to lack of disk space. This is so frustrating. Why am I paying Apple for a 1TB iCloud Drive data plan when all it is doing is storing the data on my own computer? If I had enough space on my Mac hard drive to store the data there, then I would be doing that already. When I called Apple Support to find out why my Mac hard drive had suddenly filled up, he started telling me to reset my SMC controller, have Spotlight re-index etc. etc., and when I finally discovered the Mobile Documents folder in my User Library and saw how large it had gotten overnight and I asked him point blank if that was, indeed, a copy of iCloud Drive on my Mac, he admitted that yes it was. When I asked him what would happen if I removed items from the Mobile Documents folder, he told me those items would be removed from iCloud Drive.

So be careful about storing data in iCloud Drive. You are not getting extra storage. You are using the storage that you already have on your Mac. And if the files that you copy to iCloud Drive did not originate on your Mac, they will be copied there as soon as you move them to iCloud Drive.

I think this is highly misleading and should be properly explained.

I totally agree. I was installing parallels and was noticing that I was using 31 GB for music and didn't have any on my MBA. I had that much on iCloud drive but then found the same problem as you. I had duplicates on my MBA. I pay for the 200GB iCloud to use it as off site storage, not to have it create a copy on my MBA. I think Apple is very misleading on this because it really isn't adding any storage at all if it copies to all your devices. What is the point of having cloud storage when it doesn't really store it in the cloud only.

Agreed KC7GNM. Per Apple Support, Apple needs to keep a copy on your hard drive for sharing to all of your devices. Excuse me??? Isn't that what iCloud does? Of course it is, because when you erase your hard drive and reinstall your operating system the files can be reinstated on your Mac. So the truth is, I suspect, what a previous person stated ... that Apple does not back up iCloud storage, and so you have to have a copy of what is in the Cloud on your Mac so that you can back it up yourself. Which again leads me to the question, why am I bothering with iCloud storage, when I can share everything from my Mac already and I am backing it up already. To me it seems as if this is designed to make you either have to upgrade your hard drive to create more storage or to upgrade your Mac for the same reason. No other.

alp1116 wrote:

Agreed KC7GNM. Per Apple Support, Apple needs to keep a copy on your hard drive for sharing to all of your devices. Excuse me??? Isn't that what iCloud does? Of course it is, because when you erase your hard drive and reinstall your operating system the files can be reinstated on your Mac. So the truth is, I suspect, what a previous person stated ... that Apple does not back up iCloud storage, and so you have to have a copy of what is in the Cloud on your Mac so that you can back it up yourself. Which again leads me to the question, why am I bothering with iCloud storage, when I can share everything from my Mac already and I am backing it up already. To me it seems as if this is designed to make you either have to upgrade your hard drive to create more storage or to upgrade your Mac for the same reason. No other.

???

Are you serious? Apple, who does not make hard drives, "designed" iCloud to make you buy more hard drives?

Apple most certainly backs up their part of the iCloud service. This assures you it will always be there for you.

Isn't that what iCloud does?

No. iCloud syncs content between your devices. It's in both places at any given time. On your device and on iCloud. Delete from one, it deletes from the other. Just like Dropbox and every other syncing service out there.

If you want off-device storage, iCloud isn't it.

And from your previous post.

So be careful about storing data in iCloud Drive. You are not getting extra storage. You are using the storage that you already have on your Mac. And if the files that you copy to iCloud Drive did not originate on your Mac, they will be copied there as soon as you move them to iCloud Drive.

I think this is highly misleading and should be properly explained.

Show us where you were promised extra space on your hard drive by using iCloud.

The point you are missing LACAllen is that files that I was storing on an external hard drive were copied to my internal hard drive and placed in the Mobile Documents folder in my User Library when I copied those files directly to iCloud Drive. There was no need for those files to also be placed on my internal hard drive. They were already on an external hard drive attached to my Mac. Nowhere that I have found is it explained that this will happen. Even when I called Apple Support they, at first, could not (or would not) tell me why my internal hard drive had filled up overnight. I believe that Apple should make it very clear what you are getting with iCloud Drive and where files are stored. I would not have copied those files to iCloud Drive if I had known that they would also be copied to my internal hard drive. They were not on my internal hard drive because I did not have space for them. I thought that I was getting an additional 1TB of storage with iCloud Drive and instead I am getting a mirror copy of files already on my internal hard drive. And even though the files I placed in iCloud Drive did not originate on my internal hard drive, they were placed there anyway, without my prior knowledge. If iCloud Drive needs a local copy to sync to, why can't it sync to files on an external hard drive attached to my Mac? Why does it have to copy them to my User Library? I'm sorry if you don't like my questions, but they are valid questions nonetheless, and they deserve an honest answer. I will never make this mistake again. Of that you can be sure. But I think people need to understand what they are and are not getting with iCloud Drive.

I thought that I was getting an additional 1TB of storage with iCloud Drive and instead I am getting a mirror copy of files already on my internal hard drive.

'm sorry if you don't like my questions, but they are valid questions nonetheless, and they deserve an honest answer. I will never make this mistake again. Of that you can be sure. But I think people need to understand what they are and are not getting with iCloud Drive.

Your questions have nothing to do with my post. I actually answered one of your questions.

It's more your suggestion this was done to sell hard drive space. That it's misleading.

iCloud is not what you mistakenly believed it to be. That's all. It's not a conspiracy. It's not misleading.

when I thought I was only moving the files to the Cloud

You clearly thought you were moving files to the cloud. No. You are copying them. I will agree it is not documented that files on an external drive are first copied to your system drive before syncing with iCloud. OK. When you think about it however, this makes perfect sense. Your system drive is always available to iCloud when powered on and signed in. Your external USB drive may not be. There is no data integrity in this. A 10 file simple test would have saved you hours of grief.

IMO, it is absurd for you to come here and make such statements that Apple does not back up data, is designing their products to promote hard drive sales and is misleading.

Apple does not back up iCloud storage

To me it seems as if this is designed to make you either have to upgrade your hard drive to create more storage or to upgrade your Mac for the same reason. No other.

I think this is highly misleading

Clearly you are deliberately taking excerpts out of context for your own skewed reasons. My aim was to actually get help in the Apple Support Community and to actually get my valid questions answered by someone who might a) know the answer and b) be willing to answer the question. Your aggressive responses (Methinks you doth protest too much) tell me that you have ulterior motives. I love my Apple iMac mid-2011, my Apple iPhone 5 and my Apple iPad Air2, but when Apple offers a service and there is no decent documentation for what is provided with that service, and when that service does unexpected things that no one can explain, and even Apple's own Technical Support staff cannot answer, and when there is nowhere else for a loyal Apple customer to turn except to the Apple Support Community for help, it would be nice to think that there are actually people in the Apple Support Community who are willing, able, and trying to help each other. Clearly you are not. You should not be here. And I am done here on this topic. Thanks to you. If that was your goal, you have succeeded. Congratulations. And Apple you need to fix this.

Hear, hear.......CLEARLY us long standing Loyal Apple product users 'feel' something is 'just not right' with regards to how Apple now 'just not do it' as against what I told hundreds of converts 'Apple just does it' I have Pro Lap, Pro Mac, iPhone6+ , 27" Retina iMac etc etc etc as I am sure lots of others do ....why has Apple NOT responded directly to any of the current concerns or put out a Company statement? Surely WE deserve at least this ..... on my current holiday, my phone was stating my storage was full so I couldn't take photos. I have no physical pictures on my phone or music or video... the Storage used doesn't give me information relevant to what is using the data plus the data it shows taking up space other than messages I have no way of releasing space. To add I have a 1TB monthly contract that paradoxically is of no use to me, plus I subscribe to My Music in iTunes. I do understand the 'rants' from the rude people who have 'agendas' that want to make us 'Black & White' people look stupid. If I upload to the cloud in iCloud or iTunes I am trusting my treasures in data form to Apple so that I can leave my mobile devices with enough free space so they are useable on a daily basis, is this unreasonable Apple #AppleGetYourActTogether Grammar Police stay out of this, nobody cares.

"Show us where you were promised extra space on your hard drive by using iCloud."

"Clearly you are deliberately taking excerpts out of context for your own skewed reasons."

it is indeed misleading for Apple to use the word "storage" in regards to iCloud (if they do), as well as as not being transparent and informative regarding using YOUR hard drive for additional storage - and clearly documenting where those files are stored and how to manipulate them

you'd almost think that Apple was trying to mislead people for some extra cash

nah...

cheers 'o'

<Edited by Host>

I agree with the user who said we should have the option to save files only in the iCloud, or both the iCloud and the local drive. Not all other cloud services work like this. First of all, Apple doesn't make it clear that this is how it functions. I spent a great deal of time confused, annoyed, and frustrated because of hard drive issues.

Second, this makes iCloud useful ONLY to people who want to have a duplicate backup of the files on their computer, NOT to people who wish to use the service as additional offline storage. That's the reason I have been paying for more storage with iCloud. I needed to be able to offload files from my hard drive. Instead, I've been paying for nothing more than what I have with my external Time Machine drive. Duh.

I remember the time when Apple was brilliant with their development of interface and usability issues. Now they're becoming like Microsoft was during the years when they were under fire for monopolizing the industry and forcing customers to use their products. I'm even more annoyed with this because of the amount of time I have spent being frustrated and confused about how iCloud was working.

Another issue with iCloud is that when you copy files from the computer to the iCloud, it doesn't make it clear that it's first moving them to that hidden local drive, then copying them to the iCloud. I understand that can only go as fast as your connection speed allows, but it's not clear. Two issues arise from this. One is that you can get an error message that there is not enough room to copy the files to the iCloud. It's the space on your computer that's filled up, not the iCloud. Two, your files are not readily available from another computer (on or off the same LAN) until they're all copied. And if the originating computer goes to sleep, the files stop copying. Not knowing this, I had a disaster during an important client meeting when my files were not available and there was nothing I could do until I got back to my studio.

I'll be cancelling my monthly subscription to iCloud. Perhaps if Apple shows some foresight and changes how the iCloud works, I may renew my subscription, but not until then. For a fraction of the cost I pay over several months, I can get a huge external drive and set up my own "cloud". I should have done that in the beginning!

"If you want off-device storage, iCloud isn't it."

what do you say about this???

when you double click on it, it starts to download, without warning, and you cant even stop it from downloading then....

i have no idea how it moved to cloud, but it is not on my hard drive, it is in cloud only.

hmmm?????

Using web-based iCloud wouldn’t be so bad if it had search capability, which seems like an obviously lacking necessity.

To allow me to reactivate iCloud on my Macbook Air I’ve added a Samsung 128GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive Fit for about $35. It is compact and can be left in place in in my backpack, unlike a memory stick. It doubles the Air’s storage capacity. SanDisk makes a similar product, but users report that it suffers from heat problems while the Samsung does not. The photo shows the form factor

(I have no connection with Samsung or any wholesaler or retailer of its products.)

I’ve been a Mac user since it hit the shelves in 1984. I agree with you that it ain’t what it used to be. I haven’t experienced so many delays, often including the spinning wheel, since the first earliest Macs, which had no hard drives. The train has derailed.

When one goes to purchase a new mac online and is given the question of how much internal storage to purchase, why doesn't Apple enlighten the potential purchaser by informing them of how much space iCloud and Mail will consume and why it might be a good idea to buy enough? I thought I only needed enough for my apps and some 'workspace' for active projects as I use an external hard drive for everything else. Now I know different. Wasn't Apple's slogan early on, "Think Different"?