iCloud confusion!

[henrybarnett]

Hi,

I’d like to have some clarification and help on how iCloud works.

I have an iMac with 1tb of storage and 2 MacBooks with 256gb of storage. If Optimise is ON all my files on iCloud are downloaded to the 2 MacBooks and run out of storage. My aim is to NOT OPTIMISE the 2 MacBooks and just go to iCloud Drive for the folders but let the iMac be OPTIMISED and thus have a cache in Mobile Documents that I can back up locally with Carbon Copy Cleaner.

If I have my iMac with 1tb of storage with Optimise ON I can back up iCloud Drive with Carbon Copy Cleaner (The cache is in "Volume_Name/Users/USER_NAME/Library/Mobile Documents/“.)

I can’t back up iCloud Drive with Carbon Copy Cleaner if Optimise is OFF.

Optimise: Click the button, which turns blue, means that Optimise is ON and:

1. That your iCloud Drive folders; Documents, Desktop, Numbers, Pages, and any folders that you create on iCloud Drive are downloaded to your computer until it’s nearly full.
2. They can be accessed directly Finder/Go/iCloud Drive or Finder /go/Macintosh HD/user me/
3. That the files thus downloaded are synced with the iCloud Drive folders downloaded in 1 above and across any devices logged into iCloud with the same Apple ID. i.e

Optimise: If you do not click the button, which remains white, does that mean Optimise is OFF and :

1. That your iCloud Drive folders; Documents, Desktop, Numbers, Pages, and any folders that you create on iCloud Drive are NOT downloaded to your computer.
2. That all device are still synced with the iCloud folders
3. That all local folders i.e. Documents/local are not the same as Documents/iCloud and do not sync.

I was advised by an Apple Store near me to restore my MacBooks and have OPTIMISE OFF. I signed out of iCloud Drive and restored to factory settings on one MacBook. The result was that the process finished with OPTIMISE ON and my hard disk on that Macbook was again full!

How do I prevent the MacBook(s) from downloading the iCloud folders. Can I delete Mobile documents without doing any harm to my iCloud Drive.

Any help would be gratefully appreciated.

All the best,

Henry