iCloud Drive taking up space on local drive?

My computer seems to be keeping a local copy of my iCloud Drive folder. Is there any way to disable this?

I know this because in my "Library" folder, there is another folder called "Mobile Documents" that links to the contents in my iCloud Drive folder.

Also, when I click on "About This Mac", under "Storage", it includes the iCloud Drive folder's contents.

Is there a way for me to not keep a local copy of the iCloud Drive folder? I don't want it taking up space on my hard drive...

dfg

Posted 2014-12-15T21:26:05.920

Reputation: 93

1iCloud does not support having only online files. Google Drive doesn't either. OneDrive currently does but requires Windows 8.1 but that is going away in Windows 10. – Ramhound – 2014-12-15T21:29:14.707

Answers

Uninstall iCloud drive.
Upload via web to your iCloud Drive.

By doing this you lose all the benefits of automatic syncing to iCloud, but that apparently is your choice.

Sun

Posted 2014-12-15T21:26:05.920

Reputation: 5 198

It sounds like it is already installed (too late for "don't install"), and Ramhound's comment on the question indicates that it may not work without a local installation. Can you clarify your answer with what should be done now to solve the problem? – fixer1234 – 2014-12-16T01:51:20.730

Could you clarify how you intend iCloud Drive to be 'uninstalled'? Are you simply referring to disabling the iCloud Drive service in System Preferences or are you talking about uninstalling iCloud for Windows (OP is on OS X)? – grg – 2015-01-05T19:09:51.717

My advice was for Windows 7, my apologies. – Sun – 2015-01-05T19:28:46.313

@grgarside With macOS, you can disable iCloud Drive in System Preferences. – Sun – 2016-09-29T20:38:52.233

Almost all "cloud storage" (such as iCloud, dropbox, google drive, etc) is really cloud backup. i.e. it duplicates a copy from your computer. You can get online storage that works similar to an external drive by using ftp, sshfs, or other network protocols. This can be a bit tougher to set up though...

user200575

Posted 2014-12-15T21:26:05.920

Reputation: 11

iCloud uses space on your computer, but makes that data accessible from other devices.
Google Drive, Dropbox and one Drive have the option of not retaining files on your computer, but you then must download them if they need to be opened, ---an easy task. You can find instructions to implement that on the web. Too lengthy to list here.

Arrow

Posted 2014-12-15T21:26:05.920

Reputation: 11