How to remove file without downloading icloud mac

Gary, just wondering where you are getting your information from that the local files will be deleted and space managed behind the scenes by iCloud and the Files app? I talked with Apple who escalated the issue to the engineers and was told currently the files will not be deleted and to submit feedback for Apple. So to me it looks like there is no way to recover the space after downloading the files other than deleting the file from iCloud.

Thanks Gary. Yes it seems a little confusing. Looks like that is specifically talking about MacOS and the settings specifically for photos and desktop documents with iCloud turned on for those items. They varied in size from KB to 72MB. I was running low on storage on the iPad. I set a reminder to check them today. In the meantime, I used my iPad normally, including downloading a movie. All Rights Reserved. MacOS Todd Mavis. It's not designed to allow you to put a file there and then delete it from your device.

If you need an actual backup solution, you should look to Google, Dropbox, or OneDrive. They'll allow you to do the file backups you need. All files are removed from your Mac.

Now I assume you like Some current files -you're currently working on. When you enable iCloud Drive and enable "Storage Optimisation" file are only synced to your Mac after you downloaded then.

Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. Deleting files from mac but not from iCloud Ask Question. Asked 4 years, 6 months ago.

Active 1 year, 2 months ago. Nov 26, PM. Sorry, that's not it. I have no trouble accessing my iCloud data on my other devices. No problem there: not my question. Nothing to do with other devices, or iCloud, just my iPhone.

When I try to open new large documents on my iPhone it tells me I have too much already downloaded and will not open them. This is despite the fact that when I check my iPhone storage Simply put I believe I need to remove local iCloud files from iPhone.

They and they alone are preventing me from accessing other files on iPhone. I know how to turn off iCloud Drive on my iPhone. Pretty simple, easy to find.

I do not see the "On My Phone" data in the Files app. I conclude this is the iCloud data stored locally on iPhone preventing me from accessing additional files. I want that gone, a fresh start. I only see how many GB are used by iCloud Drive: When iCloud Drive is on, and Files app is available, there is no distinction between which files are currently downloaded on my iPhone and which are not.

I cannot make a determination which to erase, or how to do that just on the phone and not disturb them in iCloud storage. I do not see "On My iPhone" anywhere. AND will the large data used locally on iPhone be removed successfully, freeing space and allowing new documents to be opened on iPhone downloaded? I don't not want to remove files from iPhone, turn Drive on, and have the synch function work backwards and remove them from iCloud itself, or any other mishap with my data.

I could store a copy of my iCloud data on my Mac, erase the whole thing on the cloud, delete Files on my iPhone, then put the cloud files back on iCloud, then download Files app again on iPhone, then let iCloud synch again with Files, leaving no iCloud data on iPhone.

Again, I would like guidance before screwing all my data up forever. They also will be present in the iCloud servers. So, yes, if you want a local copy of any of your files back again in your iOS device, you will need to download again, but at least you will have recovered a lot of the space in you iOS device that has been taken by files you do not need any longer as local copies on your iOS device.

As a side note, this procedure also removes the iOS devices' local copies of Keynote, Numbers and Pages files. I mention this because iOS seems to deal a little differently with those kinds of files than with the vidoes and pdfs which are access from inside the iCloud app. But again, no worries, those original Keynote, Numbers and Pages files will not be deleted from your originating Mac or from the iCloud servers.

Now in the case of Keynote, Numbers and Pages you can configure them on your iOS device so they download all the files in their corresponding iCloud folder automatically, as opposed to in a case by case fashion, which could be ir could not be of convinience to you, but I wanted to let you know in case you don't know about it and you find it usefull.

If you turn that off, all of your removed files will be downloaded automatically, but just for those three applications. Well, very long answer, sorry about that, I hope this helps you and other somehow, because honestly, Apple's documentation for this situation and others is almost nonexistent, at least in my experience. Posted on Oct 8, AM. I could not find a way to do so after googling and looking all over the different option in my iPad. Hi, I do definitely believe that Apple should offer an option to delete the local copy of files downloaded from iCloud Drive to an iOS device like Dropbox does.

Nonetheless I found a workaround to recover the space used by videos and pdf files, etc downloaded from iClould drive to my iPad. Unfortunately this workaround removes everything that has been downloaded altogether, but at least I was able to recover the space. If in the future if for some reason I need a local copy of a file I had previously downloaded , I will have to download it again, which in my case does not seem to be a great deal.

So, in the iCloud Drive app, look for a video or pdf file that when opening it does not ask you to download it. That is a file that has already been downloaded and resides as a local copy on your iOS devices. Take note of the location and name of that file. I hope this helps, although again, this is by no means the way things should work in the first place, but for me it was better that being stuck with a bunch of files I did not need on my iPad anymore. Oct 8, AM.

Page content loaded. Sep 27, AM. Sep 27, AM in response to zinacef In response to zinacef. That is precisely the issue - I want to delete the local copy from my iOS device, but keep the copy on the iCloud drive.