I keep getting your disk is almost full. Save space by optimizing storage. message. I have done that. All my files are in icloud storage.
I do have icloud drive (archive) 1-3 & 4 in my house icon. They are all my files. I am afraid to delete even though everything is in the cloud.
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Paula Ross
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How Do I Free Up Storage Space On My 2013 Mac Pro?
Comments: 5 Responses to “How Do I Free Up Storage Space On My 2013 Mac Pro?”
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Just putting your files on iCloud Drive doesn't free up any space on your hard drive. It just means they are shared between all of your devices. They are on your drive AND in iCloud. You need to turn on the option to optimize storage. Did you do that? See:
MacMostUnderstanding iCloud Drive and the Optimize Mac Storage Option
If you have that turned on, then the next thing to do is to try to delete files you may not need, or to consider that maybe it isn't your files that are taking up the space. It could be you have some large apps or system libraries.
Choose the Apple Menu, then About This Mac, then click Storage at the top. Then click the Manage Button. Look carefully at what you have there. Take the time to look at the numbers and play detective. What is using the storage on your Mac. Are they things you can get rid of?
If it turns out you simply do have a lot of files on your Mac, then maybe consider getting an external drive and archiving some old files to it.
I have optimized Storage. My Mac HD says 5.29 GB available of 250.79GB. When I try to drag and drop files or folders to 500GB FreeAgent Drive it will not transfer.
I was able to transfer one archive folder last night to a thumb drive. Do I need to save all 3 archive icloud folders?
Paula: Is "FreeAgent" the brand of external hard drive that you have? What happens when you try to transfer files to it? Is there an error message?
I'm not sure what you mean by "one archive folder" -- have you created several folders of files to archive? What do you mean by "all 3 archive iCloud folders?" Are these just folders you have created?
Have you determined that the 245GB of space is mostly your files? Have you figured out which of your files use that space? I see people spending time on all of this like you do only to find out that their files take up little space and it is system resources, caches, or maybe photos and videos using the space, not their files.
I think the real problem is the 3 archived files folders. It is everything in my icloud folders. Not sure why there is 3 of them. It was done automatically.
I have Apple's Time Machine. I have deleted all info except for this years trying to open up storage, I have deleted pictures and documents. Nothing makes a real difference.
When I try to use the external drive it wasn't letting me drag and drop into it. These are large files.
I'm worried about those three folders. So you didn't create them? I would take a careful inventory of what is in them and try to figure out how they got there. How big are they? Do they contain the same files? Do you have those files elsewhere as well?
These sound like folders that may have been created in the past when you may have turned off iCloud Drive and opted to archive all of the files in them. In that case it makes copies of everything, assuming that you are leaving iCloud Drive permanently. It asks you first, though. If you do that repeatedly, you could end up with multiple archive folders with copies of all of your files. But I would be very sure that they are duplicates and that you have everything before deleting them.
Perhaps it is time to call in an expert to take a look at what you have and give you advice as to what to do next.