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macOS Sierra: Save Disk Space With the New 'Optimize Storage' Option

How can I turn this first option "store in iCloud" OFF again?

Edit: turned it off, you can find it under iCloud preferences. But DON'T turn it off again! The documents from my Desktop and Documents folders were still uploading, and turning off this option has DELETED everything from my local desktop and documents folder. Since the upload to iCloud wasn't finished yet, all my files are GONE. Well done Apple, well done.

2nd Edit: Was able to recover my files via Time Machine Backup. But even though I turned the option off again, iCloud keeps creating this Desktop and Documents folder in iCloud over and over again...what the heck? How buggy can this feature be?
 
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Great, now we're never getting >256GB default or >512GB BTO in laptops.
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MacsRgr8 said:
Cool this.

But, can someone explain what this "Purgeable Storage" is...?
I understand what it means literally, but what does macOS Sierra believe is "Purgeable"?
Click to expand...

Presumably things like log files, temporary caches, and the like.
 
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gim said:
How can I turn this first option "store in iCloud" OFF again?

Edit: turned it off, you can find it under iCloud preferences. But DON'T turn it off again! The documents from my Desktop and Documents folders were still uploading, and turning off this option has DELETED everything from my local desktop and documents folder. Since the upload to iCloud wasn't finished yet, all my files are GONE. Well done Apple, well done.

2nd Edit: Was able to recover my files via Time Machine Backup. But even though I turned the option off again, iCloud keeps creating this Desktop and Documents folder in iCloud over and over again...what the heck? How buggy can this feature be?
Click to expand...

oh the horror :eek:
 
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Can we manually create a folder to be shared with iCloud, just like DropBox ?
Some apps would store large amount of files in Documents folder by default, such as Micro$oft, and there is no known method to move these files to other place.
 
Paradoxally said:
It's a dollar a month for 10x that capacity. Don't be cheap.
Click to expand...

Microsoft gives me 40 GB per month for "free" and Google gives me 19 GB per month for "free". So why should I give Apple money because they're too stingy to give more than 5 GB? Especially since I own an Apple Watch. A MacBook Pro. An iPhone 6s and a 6s plus. An iPad Pro. I've paid premium prices on each of these products over the years. I've never bought a google product before and I've only owned xboxes. So yeah. I'm not giving Apple anymore for storage. I'm choosing to vote with my wallet.
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BlandUsername said:
Local NAS is a better solution. Those really require that you aren't cheap :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:
Click to expand...

And I actually have a 12 TB NAS. So yeah. Not giving apple a penny more for cloud storage. ;)
 
Nice idea! I'm hoping to see this evolve into full user Home directory sync in the future. This would allow your Mac environment be the same across all your Macs as well as making it super easy to go from an Out-of-Box state to fully setup right over the air.
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MacsRgr8 said:
Cool this.

But, can someone explain what this "Purgeable Storage" is...?
I understand what it means literally, but what does macOS Sierra believe is "Purgeable"?
Click to expand...

Mine shows 118GB purgeable. That's about the size of my Photo Library so I assume this is the space I would save the next time macOS does it's cleanup routine after ensuring the files are on iCloud. The photos are already are on iCloud via iCloud Photo Library. I also imagine it'll only bother to purge when nearing a certain threshold of used drive space.
 
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Garageband is showing as taking up 9 GB, but I don't even have garageband anymore. Are there hidden files that I can't see?
 
CrystalQuest76 said:
Its a great feature for Apple executives to charge fees for additional storage space. Since its a cloud service this slice of Apple business is registered in Ireland and where all the fees go.

As we know Apple pays very little taxes there and the executives are unwilling to bring those profits back into the United States since they want to get the bigger bonus by not paying US taxes.
Click to expand...
The European Commission has ruled the tax arrangements with Ireland are illegal and have asked Apple to repay €11b in back taxes. Both Ireland's government and Apple will fight the ruling.
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ulyssesric said:
Can we manually create a folder to be shared with iCloud, just like DropBox ?
Some apps would store large amount of files in Documents folder by default, such as Micro$oft, and there is no known method to move these files to other place.
Click to expand...
iCloud Drive???
 
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robbysibrahim said:
Nice idea! I'm hoping to see this evolve into full user Home directory sync in the future. This would allow your Mac environment be the same across all your Macs as well as making it super easy to go from an Out-of-Box state to fully setup right over the air.
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Mine shows 118GB purgeable. That's about the size of my Photo Library so I assume this is the space I would save the next time macOS does it's cleanup routine after ensuring the files are on iCloud. The photos are already are on iCloud via iCloud Photo Library. I also imagine it'll only bother to purge when nearing a certain threshold of used drive space.
Click to expand...
On my iMac I can agree with the iCloud Photos - storage explanation (seems pretty much the same here).

But:
On my MacBook Air (128 GB SSD) two things have occurred after upgrading to macOS Sierra:

1. went from 15 GB free (before upgrading) to 45 GB free...
2. and another 25 GB is "purgeable"... (so, a total of 70 "free + purgeable")...!

... and I have not enabled iCloud Drive nor iCloud Photos.

My extra space on my MacBook Air is welcome, but I cannot figure out what macOS Sierra had done to free it all up...??
 
MacsRgr8 said:
Cool this.

But, can someone explain what this "Purgeable Storage" is...?
I understand what it means literally, but what does macOS Sierra believe is "Purgeable"?
Click to expand...
I don't know it exactly but I think this is data that CAN be deleted in case storage space is getting short. On the iPhone e.g. I turned on "optimize iPhone storage" in "Photos & Camera". When I downloaded a large movie from the iTunes Store iOS automatically and dramatically reduced the storage used for saved photos on the iPhone.

I turned this on recently on my MacBook as well; previously I kept all the photos locally. So if this is similar on the Mac then IF you turn on the option in Photos on the Mac they will be automatically deleted when you fall short of storage space. This is just one example and how it might work.

Your thoughts?
 
SteveJobs2.0 said:
There already is, sort of. My iPhone keeps old, full resolution photos in the cloud and only low quality version on the phone. When I click on a picture it downloads the full version. Granted, this is a very specific implementation of the memory management feature, but it helps those with many photos and more so the "16 gigers".
Click to expand...
If only they offered this for iMessage attachments.
 
2010mini said:
Why do you only have 5gb of iCloud storage?
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Why would I have more? I'm only using 400MB of that 5GB. I have absolutely no desire to keep most of my stuff on somebody else's hardware.

This is going to be one of those "features" that causes a lot of trouble for a lot of people. And by trouble, I mean data loss.
 
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Is there a way to use optimized storage option on another disk? I have a 2tb ssd on a thunderbolt dock that I'm using as my start up disk in my 27inch 5k 4.0 ghz 2016 iMac. I would like to use the feature on this disk if possible.
 
gsmornot said:
The real savings will be (next year?) when we see Apple File System.
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I'd rather Apple adopt a tried and tested next generation file system, i.e., ZFS, at least on desktop computers.
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robbysibrahim said:
Nice idea! I'm hoping to see this evolve into full user Home directory sync in the future. This would allow your Mac environment be the same across all your Macs as well as making it super easy to go from an Out-of-Box state to fully setup right over the air.
Click to expand...

To do that, Apple just need to un-forget their UNIX roots. The feature you seek is at least a couple of decades old and is called NFS.
 
Any way to get the Macintosh HD icon on my desktop to stop lying to me by including this "purgeable" free space in the total it says is "free" on my HDD? Jesus, what a "feature."
 
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