WARNING - macOS Sierra - iCloud Drive Users

[25ghosts]

This goes to anyone who uses iCloud Drive in their iCloud Settings inside of System Preferences.

In System Preferences->iCloud->iCloud Drive->Options

Make Sure you De-Select the bottom-left Check Box of the window called

"Optimize Mac Storage".

This is checked by default and once your storage gets low or macOS Sierra decides it is time, it will delete those files (Appears to be a random instead of intelligent choice) from your drive and store them in iCloud.

So if you suddenly cannot find your files where you thought they should be -> chances are that they are in the cloud. This is especially true for those who were brave enough to enable the extremely hazardous feature of iCloud called Desktop & Documents Folder.

[fourthtunz]

Originally Posted by 25ghosts

This goes to anyone who uses iCloud Drive in their iCloud Settings inside of System Preferences.

In System Preferences->iCloud->iCloud Drive->Options

Make Sure you De-Select the bottom-left Check Box of the window called

"Optimize Mac Storage".

This is checked by default and once your storage gets low or macOS Sierra decides it is time, it will delete those files (Appears to be a random instead of intelligent choice) from your drive and store them in iCloud.

So if you suddenly cannot find your files where you thought they should be -> chances are that they are in the cloud. This is especially true for those who were brave enough to enable the extremely hazardous feature of iCloud called Desktop & Documents Folder.

Thanks for taking the time to warn about this! I had no idea!
I really dislike Apple deciding to make some of this enabled when you update the OS! Peace!

[john1192]

thank you for posting for us ..

i did the upgrade last night, on my macbook pro mid 2014, to 10.12.4 ... i saw the Desktop & Documents option - did not choose, obviously.

Apple has always seemed to want to drive your usage behavior in a certain direction - ALL TOYS LOADED AND RUNNING !!!

ALSO: i made sure that icloud was not chosen at all in the icloud Pane of system prefs .. the Options option does not appear if you do not turn icloud on at all ...

i am lucky, as i turn everything off as soon as i get a new Operating System, notifications, and all that crap, but i know there are some peeps that just do it without any thought - i know i get called from some people like that - HELP i have fallen and i can't remember how to use my own computer !!!

they forget to do all this optimizing as they had not done it for many many years in some cases ..

thx again .. john