Deleting docs from iCloud Drive using Finder does not free local space ?

Hello Old Toad

thank you for your answer but it did not help 😟

I run the test again with a 4.76GB folder containing 5'426 items and I had the same problem.

I copied the folder from the memory stick into iCloudDrive on the iMac and it took about 5GB of space on the local disk.

It synchronised down from iCloud to the MacBookPro, taking about 5 GB of space on the local disk.

I deleted the folder from the iCloud Drive on the iMac, emptied the Trash and immediately the 5GB of space has been freed on the iMac local disk.

The folder deletion synchronised down from iCloud to the MacBook Pro but again, the 5GB of local disk space on the MacBook Pro has not been freed.

I rebooted and also shut down and restart the MacBookPro but the space has not been freed.

This worries me because I suspect that every file deleted on the iCloud Drive on the iMac will be correctly deleted also on the MacBookPro however without freeing the space on the MacBook Pro's local disk, which will waste a lot of space on the disk as I am creating and deleting many files. Bit by bit the disk will be full of "deleted" files.

KInd regards

Luigi

Hello Old Toad

I copied a new file from the memory stick to the iCloud Drive on the iMac using FInder.

It synchronised down correctly to my MacBook Pro.

I accessed icloud.com using Safari on the iMac and deleted the file as you suggested.

As soon as I clicked on the delete symbol, I got the message that the element will be deleted from iCloud and from all my devices.

Clicking "yes" the folder disappeared immediately from iCloud.com. However, after about one minute a message appeared saying tha a problem happened during the deletion and I should try later. I tried different times but always with the sam result.

By the way, the problem of not freeing space happens on both directions:

Deleting the files from the iCloud Drive on the iMac using Finder, deletes also the files on the MacBook Pro but does not free the local space on the MacBook Pro.

Deleting the files from the iCloud Drive on the MacBook Pro using Finder, deletes also the files on the iMac but does not free the local space on the iMac.

This looks to me a software bug and is just eating up space on the hard drives.

Just doing this few testing yesterday and today has taken about 11GB from both my devices. Imagine during a long period of work, creating and deleting hundred of small files like PDFs, Word, Excel etc. how much space will be wasted on the local disks.

Kind regards

Luigi

Hello Old Toad

copying the folder first from the memory stick to the desktop and then copying it using Finder to the iCloud Drive does not help.

I still cannot delete the folder from iCloud.com, it seems to be deleted but it comes back after about one minute wit the message saying that a problem happened during the deletion and I should try later.

All the above has been tested using a folder containing many files and subfolders.

I tested also with a single zipped file of about 5GB uploading it into the root of iCloud Drive. In this case I can delete it from iCloud.com and it disappears on both the iMac and the MacBook Pro. However, in this case the space is not freed on both devices now.

What I noticed is that when deleting the folder on one device using Finder, it puts the files into the Trash and when I empty the Trash the space is freed.

However, on the second device, where the deletion are synchronised down from iCloud, the files disappears but are not put into the Trash and also the space is not freed.

Kind regards

Luigi