iCloud and cloud storage

Making iCloud Drive keep files on your Mac

Updated 2026-10-30 · 4 min read

Control-click a file in iCloud Drive and choose Keep Downloaded, and macOS stops removing it. Here is how that differs from Download Now, and how to pull down a whole folder.

The quick version

To make a file or folder stay on your Mac, open iCloud Drive in the Finder sidebar, Control-click the item and choose Keep Downloaded. A marker appears next to its name. Apple's guide says that to undo it, you Control-click the item again and choose Keep Downloaded to clear the tick.

The three related commands on the Control-click menu do different jobs:

Command	What it does
Download Now	Downloads the item once. Later, macOS may remove it again if space runs low and Optimize Mac Storage is on.
Keep Downloaded	Downloads it and keeps it on the Mac "no matter what", in Apple's words, even when space gets tight.
Remove Download	Frees the space by removing the local copy. The file stays in iCloud.

Keep Downloaded arrived with macOS 15 Sequoia. Apple's guide lists it from macOS 15 onwards, and the Ventura and Sonoma editions don't have it. On macOS 13 or 14, use Download Now and turn off Optimize Mac Storage, described below.

Download a whole folder

Click the folder in iCloud Drive, Control-click it and choose Download Now. Do the same for several folders by selecting them together first. To grab everything in a folder you've opened, press ⌘A to select all, then Control-click one of the selected items. Downloads run in the background, so the items may take a while to finish if they're large or your connection is slow.

Check free space first. The files you download count against your Mac's disk as well as your iCloud storage. Choose Apple menu > System Settings, click General, then Storage to see how much room is left.

Download everything in iCloud Drive

The setting behind all this is Optimize Mac Storage. When it's on, Apple says older documents are stored in iCloud when space is needed. If you want everything local, turn it off:

1. Open System Settings and click your name at the top of the sidebar.
2. Click iCloud, then Drive.
3. Switch off Optimize Mac Storage, then click Done.

That is the path in Apple's guide for macOS 15 and later. On macOS 13 and 14 the switch can sit at the bottom of the iCloud pane instead of behind Drive, so if you can't see it, type "iCloud" in the System Settings search field. An older Apple guide spells out the effect: with the option off, "the contents of your iCloud Drive will be stored on your Mac". Only do it if your disk can hold everything in iCloud Drive, or the Mac will fill up. The Optimize Mac Storage explainer covers what it removes and when.

Don't confuse it with the recommendations under General > Storage. Store in iCloud there turns on the space-saving behaviour you're trying to avoid, and Optimize Storage is about Apple TV videos and Mail attachments, not iCloud Drive.

Getting the space back later

Keeping everything local is a trade. When the disk starts to fill, Control-click the biggest folders in iCloud Drive and choose Remove Download (the Finder text shows Remove Downloads when you've selected more than one item). The files stay in iCloud and come back with Download Now whenever you need them. If you also ticked Keep Downloaded on an item, clear that tick as well, so macOS is free to manage the item again.

Keep Downloaded isn't doing anything

Work down this list.

• The command isn't on the menu. The Mac is on macOS 13 or 14, or the item isn't in iCloud Drive. Dropbox, Google Drive and OneDrive folders have their own offline commands.
• It looks like it worked but the file is still a cloud item. The download may be in progress. Large items can take time, and nothing finishes while the Mac is offline.
• You're not signed in, or iCloud Drive is off. Check the iCloud pane as above.
• iCloud or disk storage is full. Apple says that if you can't save to iCloud Drive, your iCloud storage may be full. A full Mac disk can block downloads for the same reason.
• The item is still uploading from another device. Wait until the other device finishes syncing.

If a download sits there for hours, follow iCloud files not downloading. There is also a plain-English page on cloud placeholder files, which explains what you're looking at before a download.

Finding a file before you download it

You don't need to download a whole folder to find out whether one file is in it. In Everywhere, type a word from the file's name, such as lease, and each result shows the iCloud Drive folder it's in, downloaded or not. Select it, press ⌘↵ to reveal it in Finder, and choose Keep Downloaded on just that item. iCloud Drive is only indexed once Everywhere has Full Disk Access.

Common questions

What does Keep Downloaded mean in iCloud Drive on a Mac?

It keeps a local copy of that file or folder on your Mac, so macOS won't remove it to save space. The option arrived in macOS 15 Sequoia. To undo it, Control-click the item and choose Keep Downloaded again to clear the tick.

What is the difference between Download Now and Keep Downloaded?

Download Now fetches the item once, and macOS may remove it later if space runs low. Keep Downloaded also stops it being removed. Remove Download frees the space.

How do I download all my iCloud Drive files to my Mac?

Turn off Optimize Mac Storage in System Settings under your name, then iCloud > Drive (on macOS 13 and 14, look in the iCloud pane). Or select folders in iCloud Drive and choose Download Now. Check you have enough free disk space first.

How do I download an entire folder from iCloud Drive?

Open iCloud Drive in Finder, Control-click the folder and choose Download Now. The folder's contents download in the background.