MacOS – configure the Mac to store documents and pictures on iCloud only

icloudmacos

I am using the latest macOS Mojave, and I have a Mac which only has 250 GB of storage space. Due to the nature of my work, I need as much of this space available at all times.

I will sporadically need 100+ GB for a short duration of time for example. The problem with iCloud is that it optimises so to store as much as possible on the Mac at anytime and this causes me problems. Yes it will delete some local content when I am short on space but it takes too long.

I want iCloud switched on and accessible from my Mac, I just want it to keep everything on iCloud. Why does this not seem to be a feature or am I missing something?

It seems to leave me with 25 GB, which is 10% available so maybe this is a setting?

Best Answer

You can buy additional storage, but this will not help you in your case. Documents in iCloud are always synced with your Mac, so anything you remove on your Mac will also be removed from iCloud.

You need to look into other cloud storage solutions (eg Dropbox with selective syncing) if you want to temporarily want to offload something into the cloud. Or buy an external drive (which may be simpler).

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