Online-only file
An online-only file lives in a cloud account, with only a placeholder on your Mac. It still shows in Finder and downloads when you open it.
An online-only file is one whose contents live in a cloud account, with only a small placeholder on your Mac. It still appears in Finder with its name and size, but takes almost no space until you open it — then it downloads. Finder marks online-only items with a small cloud icon.
Opening one needs an internet connection the first time, so keep files you need offline downloaded.
In Storage Studio:
- Files in the Storage Studio location in Finder are online-only until you open them. Keep opened files on this Mac decides how long an opened file stays downloaded — 24 hours unless you change it.
- Optimize Cloud Storage… in the More menu turns files that are already downloaded in a cloud folder on your Mac back into online-only files, skipping any file that's open.
See also: Keep opened files on this Mac · Optimise Cloud Storage Locally
What links here
- Built-in disk
- Keep opened files on this Mac
- Keep opened files versus iCloud's Remove Download
- Optimise Cloud Storage Locally
- Parking a folder in a cloud account
- Storage Studio and Optimise Mac Storage
- Storage Studio and macOS Storage settings
- Storage Studio's cloud accounts and iCloud Drive
- The Storage Studio location in Finder
- What the Delta Drive badges mean