iCloud Drive lets you may have the most effective of each worlds: deep storage that gives a type of backup and syncs throughout all of your gadgets. For those who allow optimized storage in macOS in System Settings > Account Identify > iCloud > iCloud Drive, your Mac mechanically removes information in reverse order of the frequency you employ them if it must filter house to keep away from your startup quantity from turning into too full. It leaves a placeholder file in the identical location that you may entry as if it had been downloaded, and iCloud Drive automagically retrieves it while you attempt to preview or edit it.
Earlier than macOS Sequoia, if a file wasn’t domestically downloaded, you can navigate to it within the Finder through iCloud Drive and Management-click/right-click to pick Obtain Now from the contextual menu. This instantly retrieves the file or a set of information. This may be useful when an app doesn’t work together appropriately with an iCloud Drive saved file otherwise you need to copy or transfer the information to different storage.
Foundry
Beginning in Sequoia, nonetheless, Apple added an choice already out there in different file-sync utilities, like Dropbox. A brand new choice within the contextual menu reads Maintain Downloaded. This technique of pinning ensures the file received’t be purged even when house runs low–different information might be eliminated if want be. (And, keep in mind, these “purged” information stay saved in your iCloud storage at Apple’s storage.)
That is significantly useful when you’ve got a low-bandwidth Web connection or are planning to journey and have to be positive the information you want are on the Mac you’re bringing with out counting on an Web connection.
Maintain Downloaded supplies a center floor between minimizing using your startup quantity with unneeded information and continually battling with a virtually full drive.
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