Hey,
I’m using iCloud Desktop and Documents on my Mac. I’m sporadically editing a large .wav file for a podcast but every time I come back to it, iCloud has moved it offline again and it takes a frustratingly long time to redownload.
Is there anyway to mark a file or folder so it doesn’t get automatically offlined?
Many thanks for any advice.
Adam.
It’s either on or it’s not… for the folders it watches: Desktop and Documents. Put a file you want to remain local anywhere outside that folder. Like the Home folder (or any folders you make there).
Hi Adam. Welcome to the forum.
Unfortunately iCloud does not have a way to indicate that a file should always be kept locally (at least none that I’ve ever seen or heard about).
That’s one of the many reasons why it falls short of what Dropbox has to offer (although Dropbox is doing their best to annoy their own customers, but that’s another story).
Apple wants you to “just trust the system”, but the “system” assumes that you have always-on, fast, unlimited Wi-Fi, which isn’t a safe assumption outside of the California Tech Bubble.
Sorry to not have better news for you.
Damn. I was afraid that was the case. Thanks for the confirmation.
As I noted, you can avoid having any file being uploaded to the cloud simply by not putting it in Documents or the Desktop. Very simple. Not a problem.
Check out Bailiff. I am not sure whether it will solve your problem but it is worth a try. https://eclecticlight.co/cirrus-bailiff/
I think Bailiff and iCloud Control (on GitHub) can tell iCloud to “evict” a file (make it online only but NOT local) but not the other way around.
iCloud Control can download a file but not make it stay downloaded.
Bailiff v1.4 can download also but I don’t know if it’ll stay downloaded.
Every Mac power user should know https://eclecticlight.co and https://objective-see.com.
(The guys behind each site would be great MPU guests. /cc @ismh @MacSparky.)
Awesome, thanks! Checking it out now …