The Finder location

Keep opened files on this Mac

Keep opened files on this Mac sets how long a file you opened from the Storage Studio location stays downloaded once you stop using it, before it goes back to online-only and its space is freed. The default is 24 hours.

Last updated Markdown

Files in the Storage Studio location are online-only until you open them. Keep opened files on this Mac decides how long an opened file stays downloaded after you last used it. After that, it goes back to online-only and the space it took is freed. The default is 24 hours.

Where to find it

Open Remotes & Accounts (Connect Accounts… in the More menu, or Cloud Accounts… in the popover), choose the Mounting tab, and use the Keep opened files on this Mac menu. It's greyed out while Mount everything as one Finder drive is off.

The choices

ChoiceWhat happens
Don't keep (free space right away)An opened file goes back to online-only within a few minutes of when you stop using it
6 hours, 12 hoursShort stays, good on a Mac that's tight on space
24 hoursThe default
2 days, 1 weekLonger stays for files you come back to
Forever (external drive only)Never cleared. Only offered on the fallback drive, when its downloads are kept on your external drive

Forever isn't offered for the Finder location itself. There, macOS keeps opened files on your Mac's own disk, and keeping them forever would slowly fill the very disk Storage Studio is trying to free. If Forever was chosen earlier and isn't available now, the menu says so and files are kept for 1 week instead. See When the location falls back to a mounted drive.

The life of an opened file

How the clean-up works

  • Storage Studio checks once an hour for downloaded files that haven't been used for longer than your chosen time. With Don't keep, it checks every five minutes.
  • "Used" means opened, changed or touched in any way. The clock starts again each time.
  • Only files you've downloaded are looked at. Nothing is downloaded or listed from your accounts to do this.
  • The clean-up is light background work. While Storage Studio is holding back background work to keep your Mac responsive, it waits. See Performance modes.

Things that are never removed

  • A file that's open right now.
  • A file with changes that are still uploading to the account.

macOS itself refuses to clear those, so nothing unsaved can be lost.

Choosing a shorter time frees space straight away; you don't have to wait for the next hourly check.

See also: Keep opened files versus iCloud's Remove Download · Optimise Cloud Storage Locally · Online-only file

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If you want space back without losing files, the best approach is "move, don't delete." Storage Studio relocates big apps and folders to an external drive (with a shortcut left in place so they still open), reclaims space macOS is holding in old snapshots, and keeps cloud files online-only — all…
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