Freeing up space · Storage Profile, charts and Home
What does the Free up button next to a cloud file in Biggest space-users do?
Short answer: It frees a downloaded cloud file's local space without deleting it: iCloud files become online-only in place; for Google Drive, Dropbox and OneDrive it opens Finder at the provider's Remove Download control.
It reclaims the space a downloaded cloud file is using on your Mac, without deleting it.
- For iCloud files, it makes the file online-only right there: it stays in iCloud and downloads again the moment you open it.
- For Google Drive, Dropbox and OneDrive, macOS doesn't let one app free another provider's downloads, so Storage Studio opens the file in Finder and points you to the provider's own Remove Download control. Google Drive can also be switched to Stream files so it stops keeping local copies.
It's never a delete. More on online-only files: iCloud FAQ.