Posted on 06/21/2016 10:49:12 AM PDT by Swordmaker
When your Mac's storage is almost full, macOS Sierra will help you make some space.
You might have come across that dreaded message: "Your startup disk is almost full." The computer wants more space, and the only way to make that happen is by deleting files. But, how do we know what files to delete? In OS X El Capitan, we have to manually dig through old files and delete them as we find them, like some kind of animal. With macOS Sierra, Apple is making it easier to make space by allowing us to set up Optimized Storage, which features automatic iCloud storage for older files and the ability to review and delete files we don't use on our Macs anymore.
With Optimized Storage, you can make room for new files by keeping older ones in the cloud. When your storage gets low, only recently opened files will be kept on your Mac. Below is a list of files that will be automatically stored in iCloud when you enable to storage-saving featue.
With Optimized Storage, you can get rid of files you'll never need again. Items like redundant Mail data and Safari Web Cache will automatically be removed from your Mac. Items that have been in your trash for more than 30 days will automatically be deleted. You'll also be able to reduce clutter by reviewing and deleting recommended older documents stored on your Mac. Below is a list of the file types that can be deleted and removed from your Mac with Optimized Storage.
With Optimized Storage on macOS Sierra, it will be a lot harder to get to that point when you receive that dreaded message, "Your disc space is getting full." When you do, Apple's storage-saving features will make it easier to keep your Mac clear of useless caches and older files that you just don't need anymore but forgot you had.
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.
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*.
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.
Not if you don't need one. The vast majority of people don't need one.
Sounds like a solution in search of a problem.
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.
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