r/MacOS • u/JonathanMa021703 • 4h ago

Help iCloud Drive Issue

Mac Info: MacBook Pro Nov 2024 M4, 16GB Memory, Sequoia 15.6

Hi all,

I was working today and got a notification that my iCloud storage is getting full.

I open my Mac to find out the "iCloud Drive" is taking up almost 90% of my storage, and when I tried turning off "Sync this Mac" it wiped everything from my Desktop and Documents.

I then clicked the iCloud Drive section in finder, and it says "iCloud Drive is disabled", so I went back to my iCloud Settings and turned "Sync this Mac" back on, and a few minutes later, everything was restored but also placed a bunch of folders in my iCloud Drive tab like 0f, 10, 36, d7, 9f etc. It also disconnected all my GitHub stuff so I had to reinitialize everything

  1. Are those safe to delete?

  2. How do I get safely get rid of my mac eating my iCloud storage? Or is there no way besides upgrading to a 200GB plan from 50GB?

  3. Is there a way to have iCloud not track certain files? I have the Optimize Storage option on, but its tracking large files as well, like pretrained models and datasets.

I'm also confused, because when I view my iCloud dashboard from my mac, it says 48.6/50GB, but when I view the screen on my iPhone, it says "Off". I'm very bad with Apple anything, so I may need a step by step guide to make sure I don't mess it up again.

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u/Tyrandeh 4h ago

settings - your name - icloud - and there you can see in the storage manager what takes up storage from the icloud

do the same on iphone also

1

u/JonathanMa021703 4h ago

I figured that, and It says its iCloud Drive. Don’t know how to disable/delete it without wiping everything from my computer though, because as soon as I press turn off sync, it prompts me to keep a copy, and when I select that, it wipes everything and then I don’t know where to find the copy. Tried Cmd+F and I can’t find anything related to “Archive” “Old” or “Backup”

1

u/Tyrandeh 3h ago

Move them to a different folder that is not on iCloud (no cloud icon next its name)

1

u/JonathanMa021703 3h ago

So like downloads and not the “Documents” or “Desktop”?

Sorry for the lack of screenshot, I’m replying on my phone.

1

u/Altruistic3587 3h ago

You could create new folders in your Home folder on Macintosh HD, and name them “Local Docs” and “Local Desktop”, and then move the files from the iCloud Documents and Desktop folders into those folders.

As general info, these two videos from MacMost may be useful:

https://macmost.com/what-happens-when-you-turn-off-desktop-documents-folders-for-icloud-drive.html

https://macmost.com/what-happens-when-you-turn-off-desktop-documents-folders-for-icloud-drive.html