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Dropbox, OneDrive or Google Drive taking up space?

By Grant and Brad, who make Pangalin's apps · Updated

Cloud drives can keep a full copy of your files on your Mac as well as online. Each provider lets you keep files online-only instead: they stay in the cloud, show in Finder as usual, and download when you open them.

Online-only is not deleting. Moving a file to the Trash from a cloud folder does delete it from the cloud and your other devices. And dragging a file out of a cloud folder moves it out of the cloud. Use the commands below instead.

Dropbox

  1. In Finder, open your Dropbox folder (under Locations in the sidebar on current macOS).
  2. Right-click a file or folder and choose Make online-only. To keep something on your Mac, choose Make available offline.

To do many at once, Dropbox's desktop app has a screen for managing hard drive space. In the menu-bar icon's account menu, look under Sync & storage or Preferences; the name varies by version. On current macOS, macOS can also make Dropbox files online-only by itself when space is low, unless they're marked available offline.

OneDrive

  1. In Finder, open your OneDrive folder.
  2. Right-click a file or folder and choose Free up space. To keep it on your Mac, choose Always keep on this device.

On current macOS, OneDrive's Files On-Demand is always on, and macOS can free downloaded files by itself when space is short.

Google Drive

  1. Click the Drive for desktop icon in the menu bar and open Settings › Preferences.
  2. Under Folders from Drive, choose Stream files rather than Mirror files. Streaming keeps files in the cloud and uses space only for files you open or mark for offline use. Let syncing finish before you switch; Google says the old mirrored folder stays behind for you to delete.
  3. When streaming, right-click files you need offline and choose Available offline. Unticking it lets them go back to cloud-only.

iCloud Drive

Control-click and choose Remove Download, or turn on Optimise Mac Storage. See iCloud Drive taking up space.

See which cloud files are using your disk.

Pangalin Space Manager lists the biggest fully downloaded files (50 MB and up) in iCloud Drive, OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox and Box folders. It makes iCloud Drive, OneDrive and Google Drive files online-only for you. For Dropbox and Box, macOS lets only Finder do it, so Pangalin Space Manager opens the folder in Finder with the steps. It never deletes anything from your cloud.

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