I have a 2015 13" MBP with a 256 GB SSD. I also have a 2019 iMac with a 2 TB Fusion drive, which replaced a 2012 Mac mini with a 2.12 TB Fusion drive. I have Apple's 2 TB iCloud storage plan, and I have about 850 GB of files in my iCloud Documents folder. Everything is available on my iMac. Since those files obviously won't fit on my MBP's internal SSD, a couple years ago, I got a 1 TB external SSD and made that my boot drive. I kept my MBP's internal and external boot drives up to date with macOS, but I used the external drive as my primary boot drive.
All was well until macOS 10.15.3. When I updated the 256 GB internal drive to 10.15.3, Catalina attempted to download all of my iCloud Documents files until it told me the drive was full -- before it had finished updating my apps. I posted about this, and someone told me, to free up space, to right-click on folders or files and select "Delete downloaded file." Unfortunately, I couldn't find anything that had been downloaded so I could delete it: every folder has the cloud-with-down-arrow icon, indicating that it hasn't been downloaded. When 10.15.4 became available, and I tried to update the 256 GB internal drive, I was told that there wasn't enough free disk space for the update.
So I decided to forget about the internal drive and just use the external 1 TB SSD. Unfortunately, when I try to update to 10.15.4, and I restart, it boots to the internal 256 GB SSD. The external 1 TB SSD doesn't appear as a connected drive. I unplug it and replug it. It reappears. I select it as the boot drive. I reboot to it. I'm told that there's an update to 10.15.4 available. I try to update, and it reboots to the internal 256 GB SSD, which also tells me that there's an update to 10.15.4 available -- except the disk is full, and there's not enough room to update.
So I'm caught in a loop. This hasn't happened with any previous macOS update. I think I'm going to break down and buy the OWC 1 TB internal Aura SSD upgrade, just to avoid this hassle. But has anyone else encountered this problem and found a solution?
All was well until macOS 10.15.3. When I updated the 256 GB internal drive to 10.15.3, Catalina attempted to download all of my iCloud Documents files until it told me the drive was full -- before it had finished updating my apps. I posted about this, and someone told me, to free up space, to right-click on folders or files and select "Delete downloaded file." Unfortunately, I couldn't find anything that had been downloaded so I could delete it: every folder has the cloud-with-down-arrow icon, indicating that it hasn't been downloaded. When 10.15.4 became available, and I tried to update the 256 GB internal drive, I was told that there wasn't enough free disk space for the update.
So I decided to forget about the internal drive and just use the external 1 TB SSD. Unfortunately, when I try to update to 10.15.4, and I restart, it boots to the internal 256 GB SSD. The external 1 TB SSD doesn't appear as a connected drive. I unplug it and replug it. It reappears. I select it as the boot drive. I reboot to it. I'm told that there's an update to 10.15.4 available. I try to update, and it reboots to the internal 256 GB SSD, which also tells me that there's an update to 10.15.4 available -- except the disk is full, and there's not enough room to update.
So I'm caught in a loop. This hasn't happened with any previous macOS update. I think I'm going to break down and buy the OWC 1 TB internal Aura SSD upgrade, just to avoid this hassle. But has anyone else encountered this problem and found a solution?