It seems that the "remove download" option has been removed in Sonoma which is annoying, anyone know of another way to do this? I sometimes remove large files locally to save space.
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No longer possible to remove downloaded icloud files
- Thread starter m4rkw
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Hmm.... I've just found this problem too!
Downloaded Sonoma yesterday and it's annoying as I don't want all my files downloaded on my laptop (256GB SSD), when the originals are kept on my desktop (with a 2TB SSD).
But I want to choose which files to remove, and I want the security of having them on iCloud.
Come on Apple - sort it out! (Unless I'm being thick and someone can tell me what I'm missing 🤪)
Downloaded Sonoma yesterday and it's annoying as I don't want all my files downloaded on my laptop (256GB SSD), when the originals are kept on my desktop (with a 2TB SSD).
But I want to choose which files to remove, and I want the security of having them on iCloud.
Come on Apple - sort it out! (Unless I'm being thick and someone can tell me what I'm missing 🤪)
Strange they remove one of the best feature of last year release. Hope its just a bug... Again, all the youtubers don't mention anything on this and all they said is OMG best update ever!!11!!1...
Same thing happened with iOS 17 and videos swapping gestures for Rewind and forwarding.
Same thing happened with iOS 17 and videos swapping gestures for Rewind and forwarding.
I've got a substantial amount of media stored on my iCloud, which I've downloaded to my Mac for easy access. The "Remove Download" feature used to be a lifesaver by letting me free up space on my Mac while keeping everything stored in the cloud to re-download later.
I REALLY HOPE THIS IS A BUG.
I hope someone on the Apple team realizes just how valuable this feature is to users like us and considers bringing it back (if it was intentionally removed).
I REALLY HOPE THIS IS A BUG.
I hope someone on the Apple team realizes just how valuable this feature is to users like us and considers bringing it back (if it was intentionally removed).
This angers me greatly. I haven't upgraded to Sonoma yet and this is going to make it more difficult.
Apple "fixing" this "bug" reduces the utility of both iCloud and my Macs.
My wife already despises storage optimization for music and photos. Being forced to use it for files or upgrade to a device with more storage isn't going to go over well. I'm not happy about it, but Apple has put me in the position of being the bearer of bad news.
Apple keeps doing things that have me looking for the exits, but I haven't left, yet. The fact that the alternatives are worse doesn't make me feel better about Apple, it makes me feel worse. I used to be happy to be an Apple customer, now I resent it.
Apple "fixing" this "bug" reduces the utility of both iCloud and my Macs.
My wife already despises storage optimization for music and photos. Being forced to use it for files or upgrade to a device with more storage isn't going to go over well. I'm not happy about it, but Apple has put me in the position of being the bearer of bad news.
I expect they know the value and are looking forward to the increased revenue in hardware upgrades they'll get in exchange for destroying 100x as much value for the users who took advantage of the old behavior.
Apple keeps doing things that have me looking for the exits, but I haven't left, yet. The fact that the alternatives are worse doesn't make me feel better about Apple, it makes me feel worse. I used to be happy to be an Apple customer, now I resent it.
No need to panic or feel angered. Turned out Mr Howard from The Eclectic Light Company was right, just turn on “Optimize Mac Storage” and the “Remove Download” command would once again function. I have experimented with this myself and then everything worked as expected.
Cheers for the info. Confirmed for me that turning on “Optimize Mac Storage” reinstated the “Remove Download” option.
ok but can I feel angered about the fact that there's literally no way to permanently delete data stored in iCloud "ubiquity containers" (those funny named folders like ~/Library/Mobile Documents/iCloud~com~waze~iphone where synced app data is stored)
They are not visible in Finder and if deleted from Terminal, they simply come back seconds later. With Sonoma, both of my Macs are choking on some corrupt data in several of those containers, and it's messing up my iCloud sync ("bird") process (I can see it by running "brctl status" and there are hundreds of items listed under "Client Truth Unclean Items"
iCloud is such a mess.
If I turn it on, will all of my iCloud files have to download to my Mac the first time?
With optimized storage turned on, no, your files will not all download to the computer at once.
For me it hasn't. But it's a bit quirky. I see that it's downloading something but cannot see what file exactly it's sporadically downloading. A bit confusing with this optimize mac storage feature.
The thing is, I don't want to turn on this feature. I don't want to have random files uploaded to iCloud. This is a truly stupid decision.
It's not that random files get uploaded. All your files in iCloud Drive are uploaded. Only some would be downloaded locally. If you have enough space, they'd all be downloaded.
I've turned "Optimize Mac Storage" on, returning the "Removed Download "feature BUT... now every time I connect to the internet, my iCloud downloads data I didn't request it to. I also can't see what data is being downloaded.
Could this be a Sonoma bug?
Could this be a Sonoma bug?
I’m having significant problems with this. I “lost” lots of books from the book app on my 2018 mini which are stored in iCloud. Now they aren’t showing up within books. When I turned on optimise because I wanted to delete local downloads I couldnt see the delete option and iCloud basically went crazy and started filling up my 256gb SSD. The result was that I couldn’t even boot the Mac. I had to create an external bootable osx drive to interrogate my onboard SSD and see that I only had 7gb of free space…
I managed to free up about 40gbs and turned off optimise. Then I deleted the hidden files and freed up another 90gb or so. But as of today I’m down to less than 40gb free and have over 50 showing as “purgeable”. Also my books aren’t syncing correctly to one iPad Pro but they are to another. All extremely confusing
I’ve been onto Apple support for about 4 hours over the course of 2 calls and whilst they are (as ever) polite and helpful they seem baffled as to what is going on. There seems to be a fundamental sync problem somewhere.
BTW when I turned off optimise the slider kept moving back on by itself. Took more than 5 attempts to get it to stay off.
can anyone please clarify why when you optimise it decides to fill your mac to the brim with iCloud files that you simply don’t need locally. It seems to do the opposite of what it claims it’s trying to do?
I managed to free up about 40gbs and turned off optimise. Then I deleted the hidden files and freed up another 90gb or so. But as of today I’m down to less than 40gb free and have over 50 showing as “purgeable”. Also my books aren’t syncing correctly to one iPad Pro but they are to another. All extremely confusing
I’ve been onto Apple support for about 4 hours over the course of 2 calls and whilst they are (as ever) polite and helpful they seem baffled as to what is going on. There seems to be a fundamental sync problem somewhere.
BTW when I turned off optimise the slider kept moving back on by itself. Took more than 5 attempts to get it to stay off.
can anyone please clarify why when you optimise it decides to fill your mac to the brim with iCloud files that you simply don’t need locally. It seems to do the opposite of what it claims it’s trying to do?
That worked for me too! But after a while the remove download button is missing again...
Hello everyone
I've just upgraded to sonoma and the "remove download" is missing yet. (I've just downloaded the last update 14.2.1 )
I read all the messages here, and I don't want to turn on the "optimize" function.
Every time I tried to use the optimize function, my mac made a big mess and downloaded a lot of files that I didn't want to download. I want to choose which files will stay on my computer and which files will stay on ICloud.
The last message above is from october
Did someone find a solution for this problem, please?
Thank you!
I've just upgraded to sonoma and the "remove download" is missing yet. (I've just downloaded the last update 14.2.1 )
I read all the messages here, and I don't want to turn on the "optimize" function.
Every time I tried to use the optimize function, my mac made a big mess and downloaded a lot of files that I didn't want to download. I want to choose which files will stay on my computer and which files will stay on ICloud.
The last message above is from october
Did someone find a solution for this problem, please?
Thank you!
The underpinnings of iCloud Drive have changed in Sonoma. You should enable Optimise Mac Storage. Then "Remove Download" (to make a folder/file cloud only) and "Download Now" (to make file/folder always local) can be used in the Finder context menu. It is no longer a big mess and will do what you want.
Yes, Apple did.
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