--- title: "Keep opened files on this Mac" url: https://storagestudio.us/wiki/keep-opened-files-on-this-mac category: "The Finder location" tags: ["finder", "cloud accounts", "free up space"] summary: "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." updated: 2026-10-01T05:37:31.000Z --- # 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. Files in the [Storage Studio location](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/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 after you last used it. After that, it goes back to [online-only](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/glossary-online-only-file) 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 | Choice | What 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 hours** | Short stays, good on a Mac that's tight on space | | **24 hours** | The default | | **2 days**, **1 week** | Longer 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](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/when-the-location-falls-back-to-a-mounted-drive). ```mermaid %% caption: The life of an opened file flowchart LR A[Online-only] -->|You open it| B[Downloaded] B -->|You stop using it| C[Waiting] C -->|The time you chose passes| A C -->|You use it again| B ``` *Flowchart — The life of an opened file. Outline:* - Online-only - You open it: leads to Downloaded - Downloaded - You stop using it: leads to Waiting - Waiting - The time you chose passes: leads to Online-only - You use it again: leads to Downloaded ## 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](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/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](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/compared-with-remove-download) · [Optimise Cloud Storage Locally](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/optimise-cloud-storage-locally) · [Online-only file](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/glossary-online-only-file) - **Can I see all my cloud accounts in Finder on a Mac?** Yes. Storage Studio adds a "Storage Studio" location to Finder's sidebar, with each connected cloud account and paired device as a folder inside, and a Finder button in the app's main window opens it. Files stay in the cloud until you open them. Folders you have visited open straight away and… (https://storagestudio.us/faq) - **Will opening cloud files in Finder fill up my Mac?** No. Only files you actually open are downloaded, and you choose how long they stay on your Mac once you stop using them — from not at all up to a week, 24 hours by default (and longer when the drive keeps its copies on your external drive). After that they go back to being online-only and the… (https://storagestudio.us/faq) - **Is a locked Delta Drive folder the same as Finder's Locked checkbox?** No. Finder's own Locked checkbox (in Get Info) only stops a file being changed or deleted by accident, and anyone using your Mac can untick it — it doesn't keep anyone out. A locked Delta Drive folder does: it opens only in Storage Studio on your Mac, with your 6-digit PIN and a one-time code we… (https://storagestudio.us/faq) ## What links here - [Keep opened files versus iCloud's Remove Download](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/compared-with-remove-download) - [Large folders appear a page at a time](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/large-folders-in-finder) - [Online-only file](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/glossary-online-only-file) - [Optimise Cloud Storage Locally](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/optimise-cloud-storage-locally) - [Storage Studio and Optimise Mac Storage](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/compared-with-optimise-mac-storage) - [The Finder button in the main window](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/the-finder-button) - [The Storage Studio location in Finder](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/the-storage-studio-location-in-finder) - [When the location falls back to a mounted drive](https://storagestudio.us/wiki/when-the-location-falls-back-to-a-mounted-drive)