I just want to read the replies to existing comments.

Thank you,
Vince Wiseman

This could also apply to photos storage?

Hi Tristan,

We agree iCloud Drive is wildly confusing!

Unfortunately, iCloud Drive does not offer the same option as DropBox to pick and choose which files are stored in the cloud and which are stored locally (as you describe)

Thank you so much for this post. I unfortunately am still highly confused with this process.

here is my question and I’m REALLY hoping you can help me with it.

On dropbox there is an option where when you right click on the file it will ask you if you would like it to be stored locally on your machine or only online.

I can’t seem to find anything like this on my icloud drive. I would basically like to throw all the files I am not currently using, but thats taking up space on my harddrive into icloud drive. My question is, does it remove the files automatically from my local drive and keep a copy on the cloud after a period of time, or is there a way like in dropbox, where I can set it that once I’ve put it into the icloud drive folder, it immediately uploads it to icloud and removes the file from my local drive and just leaves that “cloud with the little down arrow” next to it so that I know what i need to redownload to use it. And then once again allow me to throw it back onto the cloud once I’m done with it and remove it from my local drive?

I hope this makes sense and in some way is possible, because I don’t need ALL the information I have stored locally all the time, but i do need access to it at random times and I would much rather prefer not lugging external harddrives around when I can easily access it from the cloud. But i also need to be able to throw it back onto the cloud immediately without it clogging up my local drive.

Please could you help me with this. I would greatly appreciate it.

Hi Gary,

It really sounds like Excel recents is indeed pulling from your iCloud Drive, even if the path it lists is different.

Hi Elizabeth,

The path listed below for the file on the HD *only* shows when I pull up the file under “Open Recents” in Excel.
The Documents folder does not show up on the HD in Finder.
I can retrieve the file from the Recents in Excel, modify it, save it and then go the the same file in the iCloud and the modified version is there.
I can also retrieve the file in Finder by going to the iCloud/Documents etc. and pull the file down there. When I save that file and then go back to the Recents in Excel the path it shows is the HD path not the iCloud path I pulled the file from and saved it to.
It looks like the Documents folder is on the HD, that it doesn’t show up in Finder, but otherwise operates as if it was there normally.

Hi Gary,

It is indeed possible that your HD is just pointing to your iCloud Drive’s files.

To check, open your User (Gary) Documents folder: you listed this as

HD location:
/Users/gary*****/Documents/zzzGary/REI Tech Info/Analysis

With that folder open in Finder, go to the View menu at the top and select Show Path Bar.

Then look at the bottom of that Finder window and see what the path is. If it’s pointing to the files on iCloud, you should see something like iCloud Drive > Documents > (and then the list of subfolders)

Elizabeth, thank you for your detailed response. I apologize for being so dense, but I’m still confused.
I seem to have files that are “working” as they used to, that is they live on the HD and sync to the cloud. But, they live in the nonexistent Documents folder on the HD.
Here are the location info for a file that seems to be living in two places that I copied from the document’s Properties after opening each location from the “Open Recents” drop down in Excel:

HD location:
/Users/gary*****/Documents/zzzGary/REI Tech Info/Analysis

Cloud location
/Users/gary*****/Library/Mobile Documents/com-apple-CloudDocs/Documents/zzzGary/REI Tech Info/Analysis

I cannot pull the HD copy from Finder, but, as indicated, it does come up under recents in excel. I can pull the file from either location and it is the same updated data, it has synced no matter which file I make the changes to.
It sure looks by the location info like these are two distinct files, one on the hd and one in the cloud.
If I do a search in Finder for the RLAV file on “This Mac Macintosh HD” it brings up the file and when I open it it has the HD string above.
This is not the only file that behaves this way, just an example.
Is this an alias file at work?
Thank you. Again, I apologize for being so dense.

Hi Phil.

iCloud Drive stores all your documents in a folder inside your user library called Mobile Documents–but Apple recommends leaving this folder “as-is.” It is not intended to be used on a regular basis.

Regarding the empty iCloud Drive (Archive) folder, is it possible you previously cleaned this folder out? Or you might have turned iCloud Desktop & Documents off, chosen to Keep files, but then turned iCloud Desktop & Documents back on before iCloud started downloading those files to that folder…

If you keep backups of your Mac via Time Machine or another backup option, you can check those backups to see if that folder’s contents exist and then restore them.

Regarding the videos, to get those to Sync with iCloud you have a couple of options.

1) Copy (import) the videos into your Mac’s Photos app File > Import, As long as you enable Photos in iCloud settings on your devices, the videos should be available on all devices signed in with the same Apple ID

2) Create a folder in your iCloud Drive for your videos and copy the videos you want to that folder. To do this, use Finder and select iCloud Drive from the sidebar. Then right-click and choose New Folder. Rename the folder to videos (or whatever) and then drag/drop your videos into this folder. Once uploaded to iCloud, find these videos using the Files app for iOS and iPadOS or iCloud Drive for Mac and Windows.

Of course, make sure your iCloud Storage plan has sufficient space for all your videos before you start uploading.

Hope this answers your questions!

Liz