Do files in iCloud Drive take up desktop drive space

[gavroche]

I've been looking for the answer to this question but i'm just getting frustrated. Do files you move into the iCloud Drive still reside and take up space on the desktop? I was hoping to clear up some space on my computer, but it looks like it still uses space.

 

[posguy99]

I've been looking for the answer to this question but i'm just getting frustrated. Do files you move into the iCloud Drive still reside and take up space on the desktop?

Of course.

 

[gavroche]

Of course.

Disappointing if true. Not a lot of benefit to purchasing large storage options, if you still have to store everything locally.
But i don't think its so obvious a question to warrant an "of course" answer. Prior to updating to Yosemite..... if you wanted to store something, say an excel document, in the cloud... you selected the option to "move to.. cloud" from the menu.... and the file disappeared from the computer. This very much suggested that the file was no longer stored locally.

 

[TechGod]

Disappointing if true. Not a lot of benefit to purchasing large storage options, if you still have to store everything locally.
But i don't think its so obvious a question to warrant an "of course" answer. Prior to updating to Yosemite..... if you wanted to store something, say an excel document, in the cloud... you selected the option to "move to.. cloud" from the menu.... and the file disappeared from the computer. This very much suggested that the file was no longer stored locally.

Well what if you don't have internet access and you need access to the file huh? It's a a smart implementation imo.

 

[gavroche]

Well what if you don't have internet access and you need access to the file huh? It's a a smart implementation imo.

Well, ideally both options being available would be great. But this is the exact same argument about having your music collection all being in the cloud (iTunes Match anyone?). No internet collection, no music collection, right? Photo collection? Movies?
Do like Dropbox does: Mark anything that you are worried about having a copy available regardless of internet connections as a favorite. It then stores a local copy on your device. Best of both worlds guys.

If your goal is to free up a lot of storage space.... your primary option is to move it all to an external drive. If I am somewhere that has no internet connection, i'm not much more likely to have access to my external drive. There are lots of stuff that i'd prefer to move to external cloud storage options... but which i really don't worry about having access to if i happen to be somewhere with no internet access. When i'm hiking in Sequoia National Park, i really don't care if i have access to my iCloud Drive account.

 

[smokesletsgo]

iCloud Drive just doesn't make sense - uses disk space, can't share files using links. What's the point of it then? Who would use it instead of google drive or dropbox? I though it was going to be similar to those, but it's just useless for the most part.

 

[AllergyDoc]

Here's what I did. I turned off WiFi on my iMac, created a one-slide presentation in Keynote on my iPhone, opened Finder on the iMac and looked at the iCloud drive. The presentation obviously wasn't there. When I turned WiFi back on the file shows up, with the little cloud with the arrow under it. A few seconds later, the cloud and arrow disappear. I turn WiFi back off and loaded the file into Keynote on the iMac.

Looks like it works the same as Dropbox. Except for photos, which don't count against your storage and are stored locally in resolutions specific for the device.

 

[gavroche]

iCloud Drive just doesn't make sense - uses disk space, can't share files using links. What's the point of it then? Who would use it instead of google drive or dropbox? I though it was going to be similar to those, but it's just useless for the most part.

Yes, this is exactly what its starting to look like. I can't think of any reason at all to use this instead of dropbox at this point (aside from certain application specific documents like numbers, pages, etc).

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I guess i'm just in the minority, judging from peoples comments on here. I like the idea of iTunes match not needing to store local copies.. something that can save you many gigabytes of space. I like the idea of iCloud photo libraries, that don't need to use up tons of local storage space. I like the idea of keeping copies of movies in a cloud storage solution.... to save me tons of space.
My MBA is maxed out on space. I had to delete stuff just to install Yosemite. I could literally cute the space consumption in half just by moving music, movies, and photos off to the cloud. Doing this is far more important to me than those very very infrequent times that I do not have internet connection (and which at those times am not even likely to want access to those things).

 

[Monique1]

Yes, this is exactly what its starting to look like. I can't think of any reason at all to use this instead of dropbox at this point (aside from certain application specific documents like numbers, pages, etc).

I just dumped iCloud Drive, and all the iWork apps.

Signed up for MS Office at $70/year. Office on my mac and iPad. Plus 1TB of cloud space that works on my iPad just like it does on the mac.

I saw this coming. Lot's of people were misled by iCloud Drive.