What is Optimized Storage on macOS?

iMore ^ | Tuesday, Jun 21, 2016 at 10:00 am EDT | BY LORY GIL

[roadcat]

So why not just move the files to the actual HDD then?

Most people have a single drive in their MacBook, and it is either an HDD or a SSD. One or the other. They aren't moving their files internally if they have only one drive. I recommend having an SSD as a boot drive, and using an external HDD. Have your essential files on the boot drive so they can easily go where you go. Not a big deal to also carry a small external HDD case around for the larger file storage. My daughter has a Macbook Air and complains her drive is full, yet ignores me when I tell her to simply move files to an external and carry it too. So be it.

I keep the majority of my files on external drives, and only the basic system stuff on the internal drive. That way, I have about external 12 TB always accessible and the internal SSD drive is fast and nimble. (6TB RAID array, and several 2TB or 3TB drives available externally). I don't like my stuff in the cloud not totally under my control. Desktop and tower machines are easier for having multiple internal drives, but a lot of people want portability.

[Moltke]

What you say makes a lot of sense. Pretty much what I do as well. But FWIW I understood the article to reference Apple desktop “PCs”, not Laptops or Notebooks. Who would keep 1000s of GB on a portable device, after all?

Still interested in learning what the upload (and then again download when you need to use it!) bandwidth is for *the cloud*.

[Swordmaker]

PS: I said MOST of the listed file types. Like epubs or docs. Or other insignificant kB size files (unless you're the Library of Congress running a sole Mac, LOL.). Just out of interest, how long does it take to move, say, 500 GB worth of video files to *the cloud*? Takes a while to move that kind of bytes to an extra internal/external HDD - so how long to *the cloud*?! What's the realistic upload bandwidth? Anywhere close to the 100 MB/s I get with an external HDD?

If it works in the background, or while the system is idle, the time it takes doesn't matter. If you are doing by hand, and selecting each file one-at-a-time, it does. Bandwidth is another matter entirely if you are on a metered or limited connection.

[Swordmaker]

So why not just move the files to the actual HDD then? There is one, isn't there? Something about 3 TB for the price, right?

Not if you don't need one. The vast majority of people don't need one.

[cynwoody]

Sounds like a solution in search of a problem.

[roadcat]

But FWIW I understood the article to reference Apple desktop “PCs”, not Laptops or Notebooks.

I didn't catch that, but then again I skimmed over the article and didn't read it much. Regarding the article, people just hate to do housecleaning, meaning cleaning out old files. When I was a systems admin overseeing hundreds of servers, I was often asked to help out smaller departments having problems. At one place, the LAN was dead. One look at the server and I laughed - it was 100 percent full, as were most of the desktop workstation PCs. Their admin had quit, and they neglected to refill the position for almost a year. I had to train the workers to routinely purge and delete files. No one knew how to delete files!

That was maybe 20 years ago, and folks are more computer savvy nowadays. Except a few of my neighbors who I help because their computers are out of space. For those I definitely recommend buying as many external drives as they can afford.