Why am I not getting more hard drive space when I move large files to iCloud Drive?

Question

Level 1

14 points

Why am I not getting more hard drive space when I move large files to iCloud Drive?

I'm in a tight squeeze as far as hard disk space goes on my MBP. I have very little space left and I need to finish some important work, so I decided to move some of my larger files/folders (5Gig+) over to my iCloud Drive in order to free up space on my MacBook Pro (mid-2010 6,1 ssd). The only problem is that even after I'm done moving my files to iCloud Drive, and then I delete the same files on my hard drive to free up space, there is virtually no increase in space. In fact, I'm actually losing a little bit more space. This has me somewhat confused.

ie. I just copied about 5Gig worth of video files from my MBP to iCloud Drive. I then deleted those same video files on my MBP permanently (they were from the Photos app). But it did not free up 5Gigs on my hard drive. I ran Disk Utility and did the First Aid verify/repair on my HD hoping that would do the trick (I know, I'm not a Mac wiz, please don't judge). I then shut down my computer for a minute and booted it back up. No luck. Still the same amount of hard drive space, unchanged. I then moved a folder, about 10Gigs to my iCloud Drive. Again, there is no change... no freed up space. 😕 (and yes the trash bin is empty)

Can someone please help me out? Why am I not freeing up space on my hard drive? Your help is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

MacBook Pro Mid-2010 17-inch-OTHER, OS X El Capitan (10.11.1), Solid State Drive

Posted on Nov 11, 2015 1:53 AM

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Answer 1

léonie

Level 10

194,733 points

Nov 11, 2015 4:36 AM in response to AutoSketcher

Moving files to iCloud Drive will not free storage on your mac.

iCloud drive is meant for keeping documents updated across all your devices. If you store a file on icloud drive, your Mac will keep a shadow copy, that will be updated if you change the document on another device. The shadow copy will allow you to work with the document, if your mac is offline.

To free storage move large media files to an external drive, but not iCloud Drive.

Or use iCloud Photo Library for photos and videos. The "Optimise Mac Storage" option will move the original image files to iCloud and only keep optimised, smaller versions on the Mac.

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Answer 2

AutoSketcher Author

Level 1

14 points

Nov 12, 2015 3:03 PM in response to léonie

iCloud is ambiguous as best. Apple needs to be clearer on what exactly it does. Thank you for responding but what you said is not entirely true. I figured out that the reason my hard drive was not freeing up space is because even though I was moving all my video files from my MBP to iCloud Drive and then deleted those files when the transfer was complete, I deleted them from the Photos app. Oddly, the Photos app will warn you with a prompt saying if you delete these items they will be deleted forever. That is not true as I found those same video files were still on my hard drive in Finder in the Photos folder. So I had to manually delete those video files via Finder, rather than the Photos app, and only then did I notice a chunk of space free up on my hard drive.

There is also a weird thing going on with iPhoto which I didn't even know still existed since it was automatically replaced by Photos in the dock after all these updates. Apparently iPhoto keeps the same copy of all your files in your Photos folder. When deleting your Photos files, you must also delete those same files in your iPhoto folder and only then will it be fully deleted and you can see space free up.

I also had another large folder full of files but they were not in Photos or iPhoto. After doing a simple drag and drop to iCloud Drive, and then deleting that folder when transfer was complete, I simply emptied trash and saw more space free up on my hard drive.

iCloud can be used as a regular external hard drive for storage and to free up space. It just gets complicated when you want to delete files from the Photos app.

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Answer 3

léonie

Level 10

194,733 points

Nov 12, 2015 11:00 PM in response to AutoSketcher

iCloud Drive and then deleted those files when the transfer was complete, I deleted them from the Photos app.

You are mixing two different types of iCloud Storage - iCloud Drive and iCloud Photo Library. These two iCloud areas are using the same iCloud data plan, but otherwise separate. Deleting from iCloud drive does not affect iCloud Photo Library and vice versa.

If you delete from your Photos Library and empty the Recently deleted album, your photos will be removed from the Mac and iCloud Photo Library. The sync may need some time, occasionally hours, if the internet is slow.

There are four situations, where you may still be seeing photos or videos in the Finder, after you deleted them from your Photos Library:

If you imported the items referenced - with "Copy to the Photos Library" disabled, Photos will not delete the originals outside the Photos library.
If your Photos library has a corruption and needs repairing.
If your Photos Library is a migrated iPhoto or Aperture library. Then a search in the Finder may reveal the originals in the migrated library.
If you edited your photo or video and created a duplicate, for example by editing in an external editor. The external editor may have created a second original Master file.

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