How to Save iCloud Drive Files Downloaded to Your Mac

When you buy a Mac, you need to determine how much local disk space you might need. Once you make your decision, there is no going back because Apple Silicon Mac doesn’t allow you to upgrade the internal hard drive. The problem is that the space provided as standard is limited: you’re looking at 256GB of storage, and if you want to upgrade it can be expensive.

One way to get around this problem is to buy an external drive or make good use of iCloud Drive when space is low. There’s nothing wrong with that – some of them best external hard drives have a large capacity, and iCloud Drive is among best free cloud storage options around. With decent file management, these measures can work well.

With iCloud Drive in particular, you have the advantage of having files available on your other devices, and with Optimize Mac Storage, you can be sure that when your Mac gets low on space, you’ll still have access to everything your files – they will be deleted on iCloud Drive if you have enough space.

But what if there are files that you always want to keep on your Mac—files that you need access to at all times, including when you don’t have access to iCloud Drive? You can now pin files that iCloud Drive shouldn’t delete, ensuring they’ll always be downloaded to your Mac. Here’s how it’s done.

1. Enable storage optimization.

How to Save iCloud Drive Files Downloaded to Your Mac

(Image: © Future)

If you’ve turned on Optimize Mac Storage, files in your Desktop and Documents folders will be removed from your computer’s local storage whenever space is needed. In this case, the stub file remains on your computer, but its data is saved in iCloud Drive.

If you need access to these files, you can click on them in Finder and they will be downloaded to your computer. This provides a convenient experience and is generally recommended to use this feature.

Just select Apple menu And click “System Settings”. Then click “General” And select Storage. You will find a list of recommendations – simply click Optimize next to Save to iCloud.

You’ll also be able to activate (and deactivate) Mac Storage Optimization if you go to system settings, click your apple account, select iCloud And select Drive.

2. Pin the file to iCloud Drive.

How to Save iCloud Drive Files Downloaded to Your Mac

(Image: © Future)

If there are files that you don’t want your Mac to delete on iCloud Drive, you can pin them. This means they won’t need to be downloaded to your computer before you can open them—they’ll already be there and you won’t need to connect to iCloud.

For this launch Finder app And select iCloud Drive from the sidebar (you can also select Documents or click Desktop). Identify the item you want to keep on your Mac and Control-click the file then select “Save Download”.

If you change your mind and want to allow this file to be removed from iCloud Drive in the future, Control-click the file again And uncheck “Save boot”.

3. Working with multiple files

How to Save iCloud Drive Files Downloaded to Your Mac

You will find that you are capable select up to 10 files at once – If you select more, you won’t see the Save Download option. This is a strange feature, but it means you’ll have to work in batches of 10 if you have a lot of files you want to save.

One way to work around this issue is to pin the folder containing the files you want to keep downloaded: Control-click a folder And select “Save Download”. However, then you will not be able to go into this folder and unpin individual files.

And so. Now you know how to save iCloud Drive files downloaded to your Mac. But why study now? 5 Tips to Get the Most Out of Your New Macbook, how to password protect a folder on MacAnd how to encrypt files on Mac.