Disk space on your Mac during a backup

Updated

To back up a file that's stored only in iCloud, CloudBak downloads it to your Mac, copies it, and then returns it to iCloud. Two settings in Settings › Storage limit how much space that takes. You also choose them in setup's Space on This Mac step.

The two settings

  • Temporary download budget: the most space a backup uses at once for files it downloads from iCloud. A bigger budget means fewer, larger rounds of downloading and copying. It starts at 25 GB.
  • Always keep free: CloudBak won't start a download that would leave less free space on your Mac than this. It starts at 20 GB, and can be set from 5 GB to 100 GB.

The bar at the top of Settings › Storage shows your Mac's disk: what's used, the backup budget, and the space kept free.

If your Mac doesn't have room for the budget you've chosen, CloudBak says how much it will actually use until more space is free.

When your Mac runs low on space

If free space falls below Always keep free during a backup, the backup stops starting new downloads. Activity says Free space on this Mac dropped below your minimum. Files already downloaded are still being copied, and the backup will continue once space is available. Copying the files already downloaded is what frees the space, so the backup carries on by itself.

Activity also shows how much Temporary space on this Mac the backup is using, out of the budget.

Files bigger than the budget

A file, or a document such as a Pages file, that's bigger than your budget isn't downloaded. It's listed in Issues as Too Large for Budget. You can:

  • Click Allow Once to let the next backup use the extra space for it. If a backup is running, it picks the file up straight away.
  • Raise Temporary download budget in Settings › Storage.
  • Click Skip to leave the file out of future backups.

Settings › Storage warns you when your largest cloud-only file is bigger than the budget.

A file can also be listed as Too Large for Budget when it needs more free space than your Mac has to spare at that moment: the issue says how much it needs and how much can be used. Free up some space on your Mac, or lower Always keep free, before the next backup.

How many files move at once

CloudBak downloads and copies several files at the same time. With Auto manage turned on under Transfers in Settings › Storage, which is the standard setting, each backup works out how many at once is fastest for your destination and network, and notes what it settled on in the backup's log.

To choose yourself, turn off Auto manage and set how many files to copy to the destination and to download from iCloud at once, from 1 to 12 each. The change applies to the next backup.