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User profile for user: kimefa
kimefa Author
User level: Level 1
9 points

Folders from external hd, copied to iCloud Drive, duplicated in Mobile Documents

I have copied a number of folders from my externals HDs to iCloud Drive, and they appear duplicated in Mobile Documents in my Macintosh SSD disk, taking valuable and expensive espace. My objective is to have a backup of important stuff from my external HD to iCloud Drive.

How could I avoid these folders and files from external HDs being duplicated in Mobile Documents?


In summary, I copy folders and files from external HDs to iCloud Drive, and the iCloud copies these folders to Mobile Documents.


(I'm using a MacBook Air 2021 with Apple M1 chip, and macOS Monterey)

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 10.12

Posted on Mar 6, 2022 3:53 AM

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User profile for user: léonie
léonie
User level: Level 10
197,321 points

Posted on Mar 6, 2022 4:08 AM

All documents you stored on iCloud Drive will be downloaded to your Mac, so you can access them, when your Mac is off-line. And the local shadow copies will be stored in Mobile Documents, where you found them.

iCloud will remove automatically some of the local shadow copies, if you enable "Optimise Mac Storage" for iCloud Drive in the System Preferences for iCloud Drive. This is fully automatic and will happen, whenever you need more free storage.

If you are running macOS 11 or newer you can give iCloud a hint, which downloads you want to be removed. Ctrl-clic a document or folder on iCloud Drive and use the command "Remove Download".




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User profile for user: léonie
léonie
User level: Level 10
197,321 points

Mar 6, 2022 4:08 AM in response to kimefa

All documents you stored on iCloud Drive will be downloaded to your Mac, so you can access them, when your Mac is off-line. And the local shadow copies will be stored in Mobile Documents, where you found them.

iCloud will remove automatically some of the local shadow copies, if you enable "Optimise Mac Storage" for iCloud Drive in the System Preferences for iCloud Drive. This is fully automatic and will happen, whenever you need more free storage.

If you are running macOS 11 or newer you can give iCloud a hint, which downloads you want to be removed. Ctrl-clic a document or folder on iCloud Drive and use the command "Remove Download".




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User profile for user: kimefa
kimefa Author
User level: Level 1
9 points

Mar 6, 2022 10:33 AM in response to léonie

Thank you, Léonie,

I have two external HDs. Some folders of each one are uploaded to iCloud Drive. I have succeeded in finding the command Remove Download in only one of the two (screenshot 1Blue), and not in the other (screenshot 2 Gold).

In the first on, it works partially, as it give me the option to download any of its folders or files, but these still take a lot of space in Mobile Documents/iCloud Drive. In the second one, the options are different and don't include teh command Remove Download.

Am I doing something wrong? Should I enable Optimise Mac Storage, or this would be redundant and have no effect?

Your comments are and will continue to be very welcome!

Many thanks again.

Joaquim (Kimefa)

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Folders from external hd, copied to iCloud Drive, duplicated in Mobile Documents

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