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iCloud only storage?

N

NStocks

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Apr 3, 2008
1,569
18
England
I'm starting to struggle with storage on my MBP and although I have iCloud, the 256GB HD is almost full. I have 'optimise my Mac' turned on along with documents and data stored in the cloud.

Is it possible to store files only in iCloud like an online storage solution similar to Mega? That is, I have no need for certain 100GB of data to be store or even accessible on my Mac and I'd be happy going to iCloud.com to see these files.

Also, does anyone backup iCloud storage? Worse case iCloud files went missing and they were not store locally, I'd lose a lot!
 
Couldn't you just turn off iCloud Drive for that computer? System Preferences > iCloud > uncheck iCloud Drive

That should remove all the iCloud Drive files from the MBP but they remain in iCloud and any other devices synced to iCloud Drive.
 
This is true, but some files are quite large that I access daily and often need to be re-downloaded. Does iCloud offer selective sync like Dropbox?
 
NStocks said:
This is true, but some files are quite large that I access daily and often need to be re-downloaded. Does iCloud offer selective sync like Dropbox?
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, I don't believe this is possible with iCloud Drive. I switched to OneDrive a few years ago because iCloud was giving me issues with showing inaccurate free space and also not syncing consistently. No issues with OneDrive (and it also has selective sync). 1TB was already included with my Office 365 (now Microsoft 365) subscription, so it was a no-brainer.

Now, you could work with those files locally and manually upload them to iCloud Drive on the web after every save, but that would get old quickly if you have to do this daily.
 
Is this feature suppose to be coming to iCloud Drive? I recall reading something about that earlier this year?

I guess there is always dropbox which works similar to One drive
 
NStocks said:
Is this feature suppose to be coming to iCloud Drive? I recall reading something about that earlier this year?

I guess there is always dropbox which works similar to One drive
Click to expand...

I'm honestly not sure. It would sure be nice, though. Always better to give users options...
 
Guess I am confused. Thought that one could send data to be stored in iCloud so that it would keep more of your Mac drive free, or even empty out some of your Mac drive to iCloud Drive. Is that not true? Must admit that I don't know how to do that (and would like to).
 
jparker402 said:
Guess I am confused. Thought that one could send data to be stored in iCloud so that it would keep more of your Mac drive free, or even empty out some of your Mac drive to iCloud Drive. Is that not true? Must admit that I don't know how to do that (and would like to).
Click to expand...

It's very much true. HOWEVER, if you have iCloud drive selected to sync on your Mac (System Preferences > iCloud ... or on Catalina: System Preferences > Apple ID [or Internet Accounts]), all those files will also be stored locally on your Mac.

If you want to store ONLY in the cloud, then you'd have to upload files using icloud.com and then delete them from your Mac. Obviously this would only be practical for files you don't need frequent access to, since it would be a pain to have to constantly download, edit, re-upload, delete, etc. But the problem is, you can't currently select only certain files/folders to sync if you have iCloud synced to your Mac, so either ALL your iCloud files have to be synced to your computer, or none.
 
usagora said:
It's very much true. HOWEVER, if you have iCloud drive selected to sync on your Mac (System Preferences > iCloud ... or on Catalina: System Preferences > Apple ID [or Internet Accounts]), all those files will also be stored locally on your Mac.

If you want to store ONLY in the cloud, then you'd have to upload files using icloud.com and then delete them from your Mac. Obviously this would only be practical for files you don't need frequent access to, since it would be a pain to have to constantly download, edit, re-upload, delete, etc. But the problem is, you can't currently select only certain files/folders to sync if you have iCloud synced to your Mac, so either ALL your iCloud files have to be synced to your computer, or none.
Click to expand...
I do have iCloud drive selected to synch on my Mac. And I thought I had read not long ago that these files were also still stored locally on my Mac. So now I guess the only thing iCloud is doing is being a total backup instead of a repository when I want to free up room on my Mac. Hmm. Was thinking that because I could send things for storage in iCloud that I wouldn't need as bigger drive on my computer. Looking like I will need a bigger drive on my computer.
 
jparker402 said:
I do have iCloud drive selected to synch on my Mac. And I thought I had read not long ago that these files were also still stored locally on my Mac. So now I guess the only thing iCloud is doing is being a total backup instead of a repository when I want to free up room on my Mac. Hmm. Was thinking that because I could send things for storage in iCloud that I wouldn't need as bigger drive on my computer. Looking like I will need a bigger drive on my computer.
Click to expand...

Correct - until they decide to let you choose which folders to sync and which not to, they're all going to be stored on your Mac, at least until it detects you're running low on storage, at which point apparently it offloads larger (less frequently used?) files - but I'm not sure what those parameters are and I don't believe you can control them.

Do you happen to be a Microsoft (Office) 365 subscriber? If you are, you have 1TB of OneDrive storage that would be an option to offload files.
 
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usagora said:
Correct - until they decide to let you choose which folders to sync and which not to, they're all going to be stored on your Mac, at least until it detects you're running low on storage, at which point apparently it offloads larger (less frequently used?) files - but I'm not sure what those parameters are and I don't believe you can control them.

Do you happen to be a Microsoft (Office) 365 subscriber? If you are, you have 1TB of OneDrive storage that would be an option to offload files.
Click to expand...
Don't have Office but do subscribe to OneDrive (left over from when I used Windows). What I have on OneDrive are all my old Windows files. Maybe I should look into how that works.
 
OneDrive has selective sync. I highly recommend it (and I use it for all my cloud storage). I only use iCloud for photos.
 
BigMcGuire said:
OneDrive has selective sync. I highly recommend it (and I use it for all my cloud storage). I only use iCloud for photos.
Click to expand...
Yep. Unfortunately iCloud is really only useful for photos. It is a piss poor backup as it really is only a syncing tool and for many new users it is difficult to really understand what it does, what it doesn't do and the ramifications if you stumble into the wrong choice. For a company which used to have products which were easy to understand and intuitive, iCloud is a complete change of direction.
 
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I have now installed OneDrive on my MacBook Air. Do not see anything about synching or any instructions/operating guide so far. If anyone has a suggestion for a tutorial, please let me know. Also, someone earlier mentioned that this would be a Microsoft supported app. Does that mean that somewhere there is a phone number for assistance by Microsoft? Sort of like AppleCare?
 
Very few companies today offer telephone support (that’s worth spending your time using). Apple is very unique in the help that it provides in store.

Sync files with OneDrive in Windows - Microsoft Support

Learn how to install and use OneDrive to sync files between your Windows device and the cloud.
support.microsoft.com support.microsoft.com

Youtube has some videos on OneDrive operation. That’s how people usually teach themselves today.

Choose which OneDrive folders to sync to your computer - Microsoft Support

Learn how to choose which OneDrive files and folders you want to sync to your computer.
support.office.com support.office.com

^ This is selective syncing. You can choose to leave stuff in the cloud only and sync only certain folders to your computer. This is useful if you have a ton of data you don’t want on every device, or in my case, I have a work folder I only sync to my work computer, and my home computer syncs everything.
 
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Apple really do need to up their game with iCloud as the One Drive selective syncing is great for people who can balance their files in the Cloud and on their devices. I think they have hired some folks to potentially enhance their Cloud services - let's just hope that they can introduce an iCloud Pro offering.
 
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NStocks said:
I'm starting to struggle with storage on my MBP and although I have iCloud, the 256GB HD is almost full. I have 'optimise my Mac' turned on along with documents and data stored in the cloud.

Is it possible to store files only in iCloud like an online storage solution similar to Mega? That is, I have no need for certain 100GB of data to be store or even accessible on my Mac and I'd be happy going to iCloud.com to see these files.

Also, does anyone backup iCloud storage? Worse case iCloud files went missing and they were not store locally, I'd lose a lot!
Click to expand...

Ya, but i guess people don't really learn by it easier... They two or three online backup services its still a backup..

Well they won't be if you can't access all of them.. (ie internet outage, fiber cable cut somewhere) etc..

local backup always saves you. I do use iCloud storage, but only for non-important stuff. I would never use someting i could not control myself for critical stuff, even if its for convenience.
 
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