iCloud Drive on Mac is taking up space on HD

I am trying to clear space on my hard drive. I scan a lot of negatives that come in as super high res tiff files that take up a ton of space. I'm trying to move all of the negative scans to my iCloud Drive to clear space on my HD. But it's not clearing any space on my HD and seems to be taking even more space away from my HD. I've read that by optimizing iCloud it will keep recently opened files on my HD, and all of my negative scans have been opened within the last few months. Is it not possible to clear space on my HD by transferring the files to my iCloud? Is iCloud useless for making room on my HD? Here is a screen shot to show what's happening. Thanks! enter image description here


You need to enable Optimize Mac Storage in iCloud Drive settings. After enabling this, you may have to speed it up by right clicking on large folders or files and clicking Remove Download.

  1. Open System Preferences > iCloud and check the box labeled Optimize Mac Storage.
  2. To speed the process, find a folder you wish to remove from your local storage and right click it. Choose "Remove Download."

Right Click and Remove Download