iCloud Drive taking up space on local drive?

My computer seems to be keeping a local copy of my iCloud Drive folder. Is there any way to disable this?

I know this because in my "Library" folder, there is another folder called "Mobile Documents" that links to the contents in my iCloud Drive folder.

Also, when I click on "About This Mac", under "Storage", it includes the iCloud Drive folder's contents.

Is there a way for me to not keep a local copy of the iCloud Drive folder? I don't want it taking up space on my hard drive...

Solution 1:

• Uninstall iCloud drive.
• Upload via web to your iCloud Drive.

By doing this you lose all the benefits of automatic syncing to iCloud, but that apparently is your choice.

Solution 2:

Almost all "cloud storage" (such as iCloud, dropbox, google drive, etc) is really cloud backup. i.e. it duplicates a copy from your computer. You can get online storage that works similar to an external drive by using ftp, sshfs, or other network protocols. This can be a bit tougher to set up though...

Solution 3:

• iCloud uses space on your computer, but makes that data accessible from other devices.
• Google Drive, Dropbox and one Drive have the option of not retaining files on your computer, but you then must download them if they need to be opened, ---an easy task. You can find instructions to implement that on the web. Too lengthy to list here.