12TB iCloud Drive on BASE M4 Mac Mini? No Problem!

[@volkankaleli9898]

Thank you for giving such benefficial and important informations free, as Apple does not do.

[@morgonaut]

@volkankaleli9898 - thank you for your very kind grateful comment, that's very rare to see! 💜 I'm happy to help. Best thanks would be if you share my videos on forums/socials so it can help to more people and that will in return help to me to produce for you more such helpful content and still for free.

[@sherrikrams6786]

So excited to find a female techy person.

[@morgonaut]

@sherrikrams6786 - oh that's so sweet, thank you. I'm also glad some women wander across my videos 🙏 More women on my channel are welcome...

[@homegrownstu72]

Thanks

[@morgonaut]

@homegrownstu72 - thank you too 🙏

[@henrybarnett]

I was thinking of changing my iMac for a BASE model M4 Mac mini. Now I will definitely follow your setup (slowly but surely). Amazingly well explained considering that it is fairly long (not suprising). Hats off to you.

[@morgonaut]

@henrybarnett - go ahead. the BASE mini M4 is the best Mac ever produced in terms of value. That's why I bought it myself for myself. I love it. I would never ever think about buying higher end model for Apples insane pricing.

[@morgonaut]

@henrybarnett - I'm happy to help. Best thanks would be if you share my videos on forums/socials so it can help to more people and that will in return help to me to produce for you more such helpful content and still for free.

[@FujiXH1]

WHat is when my Mac Studio was on Sleepmode ? then I can't get my Files on my iPhone right ? or other Devices.. Work it outside my network ? I mean when I on the way in Town to Upload my Pictures to this External Drive ?

[@dwijenj]

Thank you so much for this trick. This is for me the best and most useful video. Please also share the follow up video tutorial on sharing the same across other devices like the iPad and iPhone.

[@morgonaut]

@dwijenj - I'm happy to help and yes I plan follow-up video. Best thanks would be if you share my videos on forums/socials so it can help to more people and that will in return help to me to produce for you more such helpful content and still for free. And/or if you are really grateful for my help you can click under my video on the THANKS button, that will again help me keep producing for you useful content for free

[@ventudeca]

OMG that's the best solution i've ever encountered on YT. Of course you gained a subscriber!

[@morgonaut]

@ventudeca - darling thank you for kind comment. But all my videos and solutions I produced are as well as good and useful 😇 so watch also my other videos. I'm happy to help. Best thanks would be if you share my videos on forums/socials so it can help to more people and that will in return help to me to produce for you more such helpful content and still for free.

[@prio.realestate]

Can I set up a iCloud account/server that can be shared by my family? Both local and remote? I need a central server that contains all our docs, photos, etc…. One that runs just like my current iCloud account that syncs to all my computers and phone (iOS devices)??

[@SlowMovingSaddles]

Just a positive message to compliment your drive, knowledge and enthusiasm! Very well done ❤

[@morgonaut]

@SlowMovingSaddles - oh, that's kind of you, thank you 💜 🙏

[@agalis2003]

Hello. Instead of putting an external disk, I assume it's possible to point to a NAS server ? Thank you

[@alderfalderkalder]

can you also share and sync photos from icloud family members iPhones iPads etc. ?

[@PhotoLogic-SightFlight]

You have amazed me. This is fantastic! Thank you for your time creating this workaround and this demonstration video! My 27” iMac from 2017 will be joined by a new M4 Mac Mini and Studio Display. As fellow photographers, having enough space for all images and videos is crucial. I have allocated my Photos Library to an 18TB GLYPH external drive. Eventually, I’ll want another tier to back that up. Your ingenious solution will be incorporated into this workflow. With 60K images and videos in Apple Photos, I now need to store them somewhere locally accessible. I subscribed to all, so I don’t miss a thing. Thank You.

[@morgonaut]

@PhotoLogic-SightFlight - I'm glad my video helped you and I'm very pleased by your very kind comment! That's very rare to see these days! Thumbs up. 😇 Best thanks would be if you share my videos on forums/socials so it can help to more people and that will in return help to me to produce for you more such helpful content and still for free. And/or if you are really grateful for my help you can click under my video on the THANKS button, that will again help me keep producing for you useful content for free

[@macsterguy]

I just stumbled on your video. I could listen to you for hours… Very cool solution!

[@morgonaut]

@macsterguy - hihi 😇 what's the problem? You can listen to me for hours, just watch videos I already produced for you

[@macsterguy]

@ Now subscribed! I Will 😊👍🏼

[@nickiogr]

Oh my goodness! I haven’t come across a video with so many advice, breaking best practices to secure your system in my entire life. Moreover, I fail to comprehend the purpose of all these instructions. Everything you demonstrated here can be accomplished with a single account.

[@morgonaut]

@nickiogr - no, it can't! it's very bad idea to move the home folder of main user. It is risky. If your ext. disk would die or just disconnect you will loose the ability to work on that computer completely. If you will loose only the sync account then you can in just few clicks enable selected sync on main account and buy new ext. disk to fix the sync user.

[@Mike-h7h5k]

@@morgonaut You can simply keep a dormant copy of your main user on internal drive and activate old homedir path using a 2nd admin account. Then restore external home folder from Time Machine or CCC or whatever backup solution you should have anyway.

[@morgonaut]

@Mike-h7h5k - it's clear you absolute didn't get the point of the solution in this video. But it's OK. Use whatever solution you want, I will happily use mine, because it's perfectly working and reliable unlike your adviced one

[@nickiogr]

Maybe I do not get the problem you are trying to solve. Nevertheless you should never create admin accounts with easy passwords that auto login on boot. This is a major security risk that everyone should avoid.

[@Mike-h7h5k]

@@morgonaut it’s clear you don’t distinguish between a pointed answer and the overall “solution” you’re proposing. Berating your audience is why your channel only has 20K subs in 5+ years. I’m out!

[@stockfootagenow]

Can you backup an iPhone wirelessly when on the same network to that iCloud folder? Thanks in advance

[@morgonaut]

@stockfootagenow - turn on icloud backups on your iphone

[@eullin]

Gran vídeo ❤ me encanta lo bien que lo explicas! Gran trabajo Morgonaut 😍 Quiero 2º parte! 😅😅

[@morgonaut]

@eullin - I'm glad you liked my video. Share it on forums/socials so it can help to more people and that will in return help to me to produce for you more such helpful content and still for free. And/or if you are really grateful for my help you can click under my video on the THANKS button, that will again help me keep producing for you useful content for free

[@marvinisrael1671]

I'm an old guy (87 in 2 weeks) who just bought a Mini M4 Pro with a 1TB drive. After almost 30 years on Windows, I decided to switch to Apple. I have two 4TB hard drives in an enclosure which I formatted to APFS and I've been moving large programs like Photoshop onto one of the drives and then deleting it from the main drive. But I have thousands of photos on the PC and I can't use with Migration Assistant because MA will only send files to the Mini's main drive which is not big enough to accept them. I'm just wondering whether a newbie with Apple and an oldie guy can carry out your instructions without really screwing up the Mini.

[@morgonaut]

@marvinisrael1671 - Congratulations to your amazing age! I love "oldies" as you said about yourself 💜 When my father was 75 he asked me to teach him with computers, so I did. I admire people who start such tasks at such an advanced age! Hats down. 🙏 👍 You can always at any time schedule a Zoom video call and remote session with me so I can help you right in front of your eyes. Link is in video description.

[@marvinisrael1671]

@ That’s a very generous offer.

[@morgonaut]

@marvinisrael1671 - it is 😇 It's only up to you if you'll take advantage of it or not 😇

[@renatobautistabutchie622]

Thanks so much for sharing this with the world! My question is, will this approach require me also subscribe to the larger capacity Apple iCloud? Also, whatever I delete in my Apple iCloud, will this also be deleted in the "icloud" in the external drive? Thanks for your help!

[@morgonaut]

@renatobautistabutchie622 - In this video, I said several times “both-way synchronization" = that means does not matter if you will upload a file or delete files on iCloud web, or any of your devices like Mac, iPhone, etc. These changes are always synchronized. That's the point.

[@renatobautistabutchie622]

@@morgonaut Thank you for your timely response. It's clearer to me now. Thanks for your patience! More power to your channel!

[@franciscosunworld]

Im using Sequoia and in Users & Groups the right mouse click does not work…. Great video…can you help?

[@morgonaut]

@franciscosunworld - I showed it right in on macOS Sequoia and right click does work as you can see!

[@milk4chillout]

First of all, thank you for the detailed video. Maybe I misunderstood something, but to what extent does a pseudo-extension of the iCloud storage help me when the basic configuration of the M4 Mac Mini only has 256 GB SSD? I'm not expanding the internal storage with this, but I'm getting storage through the connected external hard drive. But why the detour via the iCloud clone? I can just use the drive directly as an external drive and run all the apps on it using aliases. What's the advantage? OK, I can access the data in my own network, I can do that quite well with a NAS connection via a 2.5 or 10 Gbit network and also when I need access from several computers on the network. And that way I'm not limited to Apple devices, everyone can access the data. At the same time, I lose the advantages of the real iCloud, namely that I can access the data from anywhere, even outside my network. So what's the benefit? To expand the internal memory of the "small" M4, I simply plug in the hard drive. If I need data on the network (even outside the Apple ecosystem), I use a NAS, which can also be used externally if desired. So the 2TB iCloud storage is more than enough (at least for me). The storage problem of the small M4 is ultimately internal. But as I said, maybe I misunderstood something. Where is my thinking wrong?

[@morgonaut]

@milk4chillout - Maybe just listen carefully to what I said in the intro of this video, where I explained why this solution is useful.

[@andyb4553]

Never thought about that but this method is genius. Thx a lot!

[@morgonaut]

@andyb4553 - I do mostly stuff nobody else do 😇 Share my video on forums/socials so it can help to more people and that will in return help to me to produce for you more such helpful content and still for free.

[@cristianmihaisoby7562]

Hello, I have a Mac Mini m2 - 512 Gb., is it worth switching to m4 - 512 Gb..? I only use it for browsing and movies..? Thank you

[@morgonaut]

@cristianmihaisoby7562 - based upon what you provided I would guess no, it's not worth it. But M4 is really great :)

[@greenfarmdave]

Thank you, fascinating. Is having iCloud files actually stored locally to avoid slow internet iCloud sync the problem you are solving? I like the idea but I didn't see you actually download the files to the new user's external drive (right click "Download now" on all your iCloud files and folders). Did you just untick the "Optimise Mac Storage" option on the new user? Also, have you tried using Sharing/Content Caching/Advanced where you can specify an external hard to store the cache which includes software downloads and your iCloud documents? That way your iCloud can be stored in the cache and you always have quick access to it.

[@growheroteam]

simply BRILLIANT! Well done! I have a question: and if I simply connect a 6 TB external hard drive and then use the "optimize mac storage" function I don't get the same result? what isn't used ends up in iCloud. ditto with photo library. or am I missing something?

[@morgonaut]

@growheroteam - if you enable the optimized storage than all the iCloud drive files will not be downloaded to your Mac! The point is to have access to all of them locally

[@growheroteam]

@@morgonaut Right. here's the point. EVERYTHING on iCloud and EVERYTHING accessible on disk. YOU ARE BRILLIANT!!!!

[@morgonaut]

@growheroteam - that's the point of this video which I even explained in the beginning of it

[@johndal201]

Theresa, is it also possible to use a Synology NAS instead of an external drive or is this only possible with an external SSD?

[@morgonaut]

@johndal201 - to use Synology is not very good idea at first place and secondly Apple don't like to use NAS for this

[@janetkirby2448]

Incredible channel Theresa!

[@morgonaut]

@janetkirby2448 - Thank you. I'm glad you like my production. Share my video on forums/socials so it can help to more people and that will in return help to me to produce for you more such helpful content and still for free.

[@Tamimy2912]

can I do that using a Samsung T7 touch (the finger print hard drive) for this? Needless to say that when the drive is connected (to get power) it opens a small portion that asks for a finger print and then connect to the main portion where all the data is

[@morgonaut]

@Tamimy2912 - can't confirm, I never had the fingerprint T7 for testing

[@kestrel007]

You're a genius. Thanks for the guide. I'll have to look at the instructions a few more times before I dare to do it.🌻💐

[@morgonaut]

@kestrel007 - Best thanks would be if you share my videos on forums/socials so it can help to more people and that will in return help to me to produce for you more such helpful content and still for free.

[@kestrel007]

@@morgonaut - yes, I'll do that for sure, I promise

[@morgonaut]

@kestrel007 - 👍

[@gelbards]

Great stuff, but can you do it with dropbox or google drive?

[@morgonaut]

@gelbards - as I said here in comments already several times I use this solution for my Dropbox too = read comments first!

[@Lareo1964]

I got mobile drive - however, where are the fotos located ? btw I deleted the archive from the main account, lets see if I get the memory back....

[@morgonaut]

@Lareo1964 - this video tutorial is focused on iCloud Drive. Photos are stored on the external disk in Photos Library

[@Frank-sy1po]

You're so awesome. Such interesting, useful, and brilliant tutorials and content!

[@morgonaut]

@Frank-sy1po - Thank you for your kind comment! 💜I'm happy to help to kind and grateful people. Best thanks would be if you share my videos on forums/socials so it can help to more people and that will in return help to me to produce for you more such helpful content and still for free.

[@therealbenyu]

are u able to access the "icloud" drive from outside your home network?

[@MarcosElMalo2]

I might be wrong but: You should be able to access it from any device or account associated with your AppleID. I believe you can have up to six devices.

[@morgonaut]

@therealbenyu - you can access iCloud and iCloud Drive from anywhere on the planet if you have internet. connection 😇

[@Shahaaim]

@@morgonaut can I access the 12TB of storage outside my home network without purchasing Apple's iCloud?

[@morgonaut]

@Shahaaim - yes you could, but for this kind of purpose there are even better solutions

[@etoile635]

Hello, sorry for my English, not native language. First thanks for this video because I want to leave Windows and here find a good trick for storage and Mac Mini. Just one question, is it available only for devices on the same network or also via internet everywhere in the world?

[@morgonaut]

@etoile635 - I answered this in comments many times already. Yes it could be visible also from internet after additional configuration, but for that purpose I would use different solution

[@hamadminmgr]

The front usb does not have as much power as the rear ones. Therefore is there a risk of it not being mounted properly?

[@morgonaut]

@hamadminmgr - that's not true, front ports have enough power to drive a disk like this

[@hamadminmgr]

@ I read somewhere it has less power. I will ask the genius at the Apple Store. Thanks for the video. Only ask as I have been having issues creating a time machine backup using usb 3 external drives.

[@morgonaut]

@hamadminmgr - it obviously depends on what exact 3 drives you are talking about. I'm talking about NVMe or SATA SSDs which don't require too much power unlike for example 3.5" mechanical hard drives

[@connernguyen3820]

Thank you for taking time to research, discover and share the solution to this cost saving , time saving and most importantly data saving issue. I just purchased a Mac Mini M4 with 512 GB internal SSD as well as external 8TB WD SSD with an ACASIS enclosure. I'm learning photography and also purchased DxO PhotoLab editing software. Should I download this photo editing software to the Mac Mini Internal drive or to the External 8TB NVMe SSD or to both? I want to download this software first before I attempt to convert the 8TB SSD into a iCloud Drive using your wonderful instructions. Thank you in advance for your advice.

[@morgonaut]

@connernguyen3820 - each user is different, each users use case is different. So to recommend to you what you should do, I would need to know first all about your workflow, expectations etc.

[@crstycrsty598]

I'm not an expert on this, but I'm curious about iCloud's architecture. If it's a cloud service that's always available, how does it handle situations where the user's local devices (like a computer or phone) are offline? does it keeps working ? And thank you so much for that... it really good :)

[@morgonaut]

@crstycrsty598 - iCloud is always working, it's on Apples servers, so does not matter what of your devices is off or not. What you put to icloud is gonna be on icloud even if you kill all your devices

[@crstycrsty598]

@@morgonaut Thank you so much !

[@HamadaJazaiery]

hi, thanks for your great time, but let me understand something in a clear way.. now does this fully replace the iCloud space on Apple servers ? or did I understood it wrong ?

[@morgonaut]

@HamadaJazaiery - yes, you misunderstood it :)

[@iMolen77]

any possible this solution for Mac Mini 2018 /8/256Gb? thanks

[@morgonaut]

@iMolen77 - just follow this video tutorial, works for any macOS

[@iMolen77]

Thanks, but after all step followed, found any pop up "iCloud drive is not available, to use icloud drive, move your home folder to a local volume,, did i do wrong?

[@morgonaut]

@iMolen77 - yes, you clearly didn't follow my instructions to the letter carefully as I advised.

[@iMolen77]

Will retry again, thanks

[@iMolen77]

It's working, thanks for your guidance.

[@oasis9194]

Hello Madam. I would like to ask you a question on another subject. While I was undecided, and after watching several videos about the 15-inch Air M3, it was finally yours that finally convinced me to opt for this model. Which I did a few weeks ago. But after a year of experience as a user on your side, is your enthusiasm still the same, especially in terms of performance and heating? I am not a multimedia professional and I do not think I am asking for anything too greedy but your experience and opinion interest me. Thank you and it is really always a pleasure to listen to you! 😊

[@morgonaut]

@oasis9194 - I can answer to only very quickly because of the amount if interest in my videos and amount of comments I'm getting. Yes, I still use my 15" MacBook Air every day for ordinary tasks like web browsing, emails, Discord, WhatsUp etc. Great companion. But if you would need more elaborate on this topic you can always schedule a Zoom video call with me - link is in video description

[@SD-ft6gs]

YAY Theresa is back! happy new year!

[@morgonaut]

@SD-ft6gs - what do you mean by I should be back? I don't understand. I'm here all the time and producing periodically content for you for many years already. Yes, happy new year...

[@Conservator.]

Why do you have to create another user? Is it because: - Apple only allows to sync your home folder to iCloud and - You don’t want to move your main home-user-folder to an external drive? What’s the difference with creating a for example Google drive or One drive on a Windows system?

[@MrBalloonatic]

is it possible to use this to back up all contents from ipads too, perhaps with a family shared icloud plan?

[@valeriekaeppelin9188]

Great video! Would it be possible to encrypt the external drive before setting it up as your new iCloud drive, or could that cause any problems? Thank you.

[@morgonaut]

@valeriekaeppelin9188 - i see no reason why you wouldn't be able to encrypt that drive. I don't encrypt such disks because it often cause more harm. I want my disks to be quickly interchangeable

[@valeriekaeppelin9188]

@@morgonaut thank you for the prompt response

[@morgonaut]

@valeriekaeppelin9188 - no problem, when I can, I always answer ASAP as you can see :)

[@stephenoreilly3696]

Thank you for making this. You are a legend. 🙂

[@morgonaut]

@stephenoreilly3696 - I'm happy to help. Best thanks would be if you share my videos on forums/socials so it can help to more people and that will in return help to me to produce for you more such helpful content and still for free.

[@SneakyJoeRu]

12tb is 60 usd/month. This is 720 a year. Is it really worth it instead of building a NAS and sharing it? I'm grabbing a m4 mini to pair with a 14tb HDD, set a VPN to home network and use with containers. Not using macos for myself as it's hostile to user IMO in comparison to anything lunux/windows.

[@morgonaut]

@SneakyJoeRu - what do you mean exactly by "hostile to user"? Can you be specific?

[@paalpaal1326]

Yes it's very expensive, and no real person would need it. 2 TB is probably much more common. That costs 10 euros a month, 120 per year. The upgrade on the mac mini will cost you 800 euros! So it's still cheaper option. PLUS you can acces your files on all devices, phones, other macs.

[@morgonaut]

@paalpaal1326 - as I said I pay for the 2TB iCloud Drive and never regret it. One of the best things I did

[@Juber-m3n]

Thank you, an actionable solution to students, well done

[@tejasthakur123]

1) Is there any way in which we can run this headless using some older version of mac mini ? 2) Can we add redundancy to the disk ? ( RAID)

[@morgonaut]

@tejasthakur123 - yes I run this headless on M2 Mac mini and yes you can create and use RAID for this

[@thetonefactory]

Hi, Rock Star! Happy New Year! ❤🤘

[@morgonaut]

@thetonefactory - Hi guys, we didn't meet for long time :( Is everything OK in your studio? No help needed now? BTW I'll be in Vegas March/April, we could do something together. 🎸🤘🍺 Did you see my new SG? -> kzbin.info/www/bejne/iKSsZ2qlnqZ1Y5I

[@thetonefactory]

@@morgonaut We always need help! lol Nice on the new SG!! Definitely hang when u get here! 🤘🍻

[@morgonaut]

@thetonefactory - ok, let's see how it will all end up. I'll write you an email when I will know when exactly I'm gonna land in Vegas...

[@johnkraith4]

Thank you so much for this helpful video! - I have a base-model Mac mini (256GB) and a 4TB external drive, along with a 2TB iCloud plan. If I use the “second user on external drive” method, can I store my full-resolution iCloud Photos library on the external drive? - How does Apple handle storage in this case? Will syncing stop once I exceed 2TB in iCloud, even though my external drive has more space? - For iCloud Photos syncing, will my iPhone photos automatically sync to the external drive, or is additional setup required? Thank you again for all the great tips!

[@morgonaut]

@johnkraith4 - yes, as I said in this video I use this method exactly for iCLoud Drive + Photos = all files downloaded to my disk, not just in cloud

[@morgonaut]

@johnkraith4 - and yes again, all your photos you will take for example with your iPhone will immediately appear on your external drive 😇

[@johnkraith4]

@@morgonaut Thank you so much for your response and clarification! I really appreciate your time and the helpful explanation. Your content is fantastic, thanks again!

[@morgonaut]

@johnkraith4 - I'm glad my video helped you. Best thanks would be if you share my videos on forums/socials so it can help to more people and that will in return help to me to produce for you more quality content and still for free. And/or if you are really grateful for my help you can click under my video on the THANKS button, that will again help me keep producing for you useful content for free

[@ChristoSkelton]

At 7.33 of your video, I try to right click on icloudsync a/c but it does not bring up Advanced Options. Could this be because iCloud is encrypyted on my main account? Is there another method? Thanks for the video.

[@morgonaut]

@ChristoSkelton - I said RIGHT CLICK!!!! Watch and listen carefully :(

[@photopoeth]

You have to enable secondary click in the new account first. Otherwise right click won't work.

[@morgonaut]

@photopoeth - that's not true! When someone don't have enabled right click on settings right click is always for ages done by CONTROL + LEFT CLICK! That's what I did.

[@ChristoSkelton]

@@morgonaut I don't have an M4 Mac Mini yet but I intend to buy one soon. I have been trying to follow your instructions on my M2 Macbook Air without success. I cannot right click on any of my accounts and in particular iCloudSync and using Ctrl and left click does not work. I'm using a Logi MX Master 3 mouse. It is not particularly urgent for me now but when I get the M4 Mac Mini, I shall try it.

[@morgonaut]

@ChristoSkelton - you know you can always at any time schedule a Zoom video call and remote session with me so I can help you right in front of your eyes. Link is in video description.

[@diaby90]

Hello, first of all EXCELLENT VIDEO. I have a question, can I try that on my iMac 2019 intel i9??? Or only that can be done on a M chip macs? Best regards from México.

[@morgonaut]

@diaby90 - if you would read video description you would know, I wrote there, it will work with any Mac. Greetings to Mexico 🇲🇽

[@diaby90]

@@morgonautthank you so much!! And again such a great video.

[@morgonaut]

@diaby90 - I'm happy to help. Best thanks would be if you share my videos on forums/socials so it can help to more people and that will in return help to me to produce for you more such helpful content and still for free.

[@Hart-en-Ziel]

Very beneficial information. Thanks you. However, I wondered, 1) as I initially synced my first account with iCloud, that data is also "smart-synced" with my local drive. When I start using your approach, after I add new data (using my 2nd account, using an external drive) that data will be synced - via iCloud - to my local drive as well, isn't it? Woudn't it take up some space too? 2) auto login an (admin) account might cause an issue if someone is able to get hold of your device. Certainly when it's an admin account. It's feels like a security risk. Please share your thoughts.

[@morgonaut]

@Hart-en-Ziel - I said many times in this video "it's up to you" = feel free to make your user non-admin if you want = it's up to you, you are the master of your computer

[@Joebarnone]

Escellent solution and very well presented too. Thank you 🙏

[@morgonaut]

@Joebarnone - I'm happy to help. Best thanks would be if you share my videos on forums/socials so it can help to more people and that will in return help to me to produce for you more such helpful content and still for free.

[@VanHuyBui]

Can I ask? If I have many apps to install and take a lot of space, maybe more than space of the internal disk, can I install app to external drive and is it needed to install macOS on external drive? Thanks.

[@morgonaut]

@VanHuyBui - you can install your apps wherever you want with all the advantages and risks

[@letspretend_22]

This is awesome. I will try this with our Dropbox for Business, which is like 8TB in size. Hopefully having the whole user account on an external harddrive, will also work for Dropbox and the Fileprovider API it now uses. I have used all sorts of symlink trickery in the past, but this seems like it might be a good workaround. Thanks!

[@morgonaut]

@letspretend_22 - sure, I use it also for Dropbox.

[@morgonaut]

@letspretend_22 - please share my video on forums/socials so it can help to more people and that will in return help to me to produce for you more quality content and still for free.

[@fabio.lor.]

How do you set up Dropbox?

[@morgonaut]

@fabio.lor. - it's same principle as I showed in this video

[@fabio.lor.]

@@morgonaut ok, what is the Dropbox folder directory?

[@wmgreenleaf5671]

Another great video, so informative. Thank you for sharing your MacOS experience.

[@morgonaut]

@wmgreenleaf5671 - I'm happy to help. Best thanks would be if you share my videos on forums/socials so it can help to more people and that will in return help to me to produce for you more such helpful content and still for free.

[@lolobueno4877]

Very nice video Morgonaut. Could you say how this solution behaves with Lightroom and big photos .How slow or fast is to import, edit and export them. Would you notice any throttling? Thanks

[@morgonaut]

@lolobueno4877 - you misunderstood this solution. If you wanna have your Lightroom etc. on your main dist, then it's gonna behave as performance of the main disk. If you wanna use on the ext. disk, then again it's gonna be determined by the ext. disk. You have the freedom of choice

[@carlosvaldovinos275]

Teresa it is could be possible do this configuration with an old AirPort Time Capsule?

[@morgonaut]

@carlosvaldovinos275 - I don't think so. From my experience Apple don't like to have such network based setups. But you can try it 😇

[@robertvsnow]

Time Capsules are incredibly slow. Much slower than the hard disk read and write speed or the ethernet connection. Hardly a problem for incremental Time Machine backups, but like molasses for file sharing.

[@morgonaut]

@robertvsnow - you can place ansd SSD to Time Capsule. But it's still gonna be limited by the 1G networking it has = at teor. max. +-120MB/s

[@LeonardFrogs]

Your a genius ... Thank-you x

[@morgonaut]

@LeonardFrogs - I'm glad my video helped you. Best thanks would be if you share my video on forums/socials so it can help to more people and that will in return help to me to produce for you more such helpful content and still for free. And/or if you are really grateful for my help you can click under my video on the THANKS button, that will again help me keep producing for you useful content for free

[@AlexandreLollini]

Interesting ! I would like to know how to do that for photos, as it is really annoying to only have previews stored on the mac. Also you should point out the advantages and disadvantages from this vs moving the home folder completely.

[@morgonaut]

@AlexandreLollini - this video is already 20 minutes long and people don't bother to watch it = no reason why I should add more info to it

[@AlexandreLollini]

@@morgonaut I was thinking about another video, because I am waiting for the delivery of a hub/external drive and wanted to move all the home folder, I would lite to compare my solution with yours, and also know what is your take on photos.

[@morgonaut]

@AlexandreLollini - as I said in this video I use this solution also to my Photos library. It's all running now on my old base model M2 Mac mini. And it works great

[@DavidHillock-g7t]

Great video - thank you. So if I want to have 8TB drive plugged into my desktop, do I have purchase 8TB of cloud storage from Apple?

[@morgonaut]

@DavidHillock-g7t - no, you can buy for example 16TB drive but be even on the base 5GB iCloud 😇 Size of iCloud has nothing to do with how big disk you will buy.

[@DavidHillock-g7t]

@@morgonaut If I have the base 5GB iCloud, then I will only be able to sync 5GB to the external drive, right?

[@morgonaut]

@DavidHillock-g7t - how much data you will fit into your 5GB free icloud? 5GB = that's the amount you can sync via icloud. But icloud is not the only one, I use also on the same disk Dropbox, Box, Google drive so I sync much more data than my iCloud. You can do the same But in fact the Apple pricing I pay fot the 2TB was the best investment I could do

[@winnie-iu9mo]

Can i use only a folder of the external drive instead of the entire drive?

[@morgonaut]

@winnie-iu9mo - you can of course

[@primula671]

I can't believe it, a brilliant solution, You are very good, you solved my space problem on ICLOUD. A question: But the mac mini must always remain on, or can I turn it off and access ICLOUD easily from the web. Thanks for your videos A hug and best wishes

[@morgonaut]

@primula671 - of course you can turn it off when you don't need the local network sync at that moment.

[@morgonaut]

@primula671 - I'm happy to help. Best thanks would be if you share my videos on forums/socials so it can help to more people and that will in return help to me to produce for you more such helpful content and still for free.

[@primula671]

Sure, just now I put it on the forum ❤❤❤❤

[@morgonaut]

@primula671 - 🙏

[@peterluna]

Thanks for the video. I currently have iCloud 2TB monthly plan. Would I be able to downgrade to basic storage if I used your process? Thanks in advance

[@morgonaut]

@peterluna - if you ask this way then you misunderstood this solution :(

[@peterluna]

@@morgonaut Perhaps I misstated what I meant to ask. If set up my iCloud on a 8TB drive, for example, am I still limited to the inital iCloud storage plan? Right now I'm paying for 2TB iCloud storage. I'd still aheb to use that plan no matter if the drive itself lives on a larger external disk? Does that make sense?

[@morgonaut]

@peterluna - your 2TB iCloud Drive will fit onto 8TB disk right? So where is the problem? As I said several times in this video you can buy any sized disk you want.

[@peterluna]

@@morgonaut I understand that. I'm wondering if I have smaller size iCloud drive (50GB for example), yet have it live on a 2TB drive, am I still limited to 50GB? 2TB is $10 a month and am looking to save money if I can. Now I'm thinking I'd have to pay for 2TB to get 2TB, no matter the size of the drive

[@larskovitch]

Very well explained. The only confusing part is perhaps that you call your external drive “icloud drive”. Got me kind of confused anyway 😊

[@morgonaut]

@larskovitch - that's wrong, I named my external drive just "icloud", not "icloud drive" :) Watch carefully and you'll see I'm right. BTW disk and drive are synonymous

[@vincenzodisieno8752]

Excellent, thank you very much!

[@morgonaut]

@vincenzodisieno8752 - I'm happy to help. Best thanks would be if you share my video on forums/socials so it can help to more people and that will in return help to me to produce for you more such helpful content and still for free.

[@Midland_Wolf_71]

You’re wonderful. You remind me of a Slovakian a girl I worked with in the Uk. 🙏

[@ryanzmuda3167]

Great tips and idea. Happy new year to you. Question at the end instead of sharing, Can you just set persimmons for the other user to have read and write sort of like how they had in in the past. Or did they take that away?

[@morgonaut]

@ryanzmuda3167 - I don't have any permission issues. Don't force any permission! Let the iCloud do its thing. You can mess up all your files and you don't want that I guess 😇

[@ryanzmuda3167]

@ thank you.

[@johngravett4638]

Thank you for this video. I have been wondering if it was possible to move the Apple iCloud location to a drive of your choosing. I have recently purchased a Synology NAS and was wondering if there’s any reason why this method would not work for locating the iCloud on the NAS? Would there be problems with security sign in to the NAS?

[@pitdeli849]

Excellent, thank you very much! Question: can this local iCloud Drive be used as Time Machine drive too?

[@morgonaut]

@pitdeli849 - yes, with slight modification it can be used even for Time Machine

[@gastonsalaya]

Great solution! Could it work on a Mac Mini M2 as well? Thanks!!!

[@morgonaut]

@gastonsalaya - as I wrote in video description it will work with any Mac

[@gastonsalaya]

@ 😊👍

[@wirklich_niemand]

what is the problem with symbolic links? that would have been my first attemp as well

[@morgonaut]

@wirklich_niemand - it was also the first way I tried. Try it yourself and you'll see where the problem with this solution is 😇

[@guycortesi]

Great idea and tutorial. Surprised you have under 20K subscribers. I subscribed and liked this video! Will have to give this method a try! I have the base model M4 Mini and an external 2K SSD already and am subscribed to 2TB of iCloud as well.

[@morgonaut]

@guycortesi - I have under 20k subs because people don't share my videos on social media. You should watch also the dozens of helpful videos I already produced

[@guycortesi]

@@morgonautWill take a look at your other videos. One question, how does the method you implemented in this video compare to just relocating / moving the user home directory to an external drive?

[@morgonaut]

@guycortesi - because it's stupid idea to move the home folder of main user. It is risky. If your ext. disk would die or just disconnect you will loose the ability to work on that computer completely. If you will loose only the sync account then you can in just few clicks enable selected sync on main account and buy new ext. disk to fix the sync user.

[@guycortesi]

Thank you for the explanation - makes total sense.

[@morgonaut]

@guycortesi - all I do make sense, but people don't like someone who is right 😂 or absolutely not to hear truth

[@oharris002]

Awesome solution I will go through this once I get home

[@morgonaut]

@oharris002 - thank you

[@ckaraca]

Thank you for the great information. It would be great if there was an automatic Synchronisation via icloud account to this external disc. 🙂

[@morgonaut]

@ckaraca - automatic synchronization I showed exactly in this video

[@ckaraca]

@@morgonaut Yes, for Mac OSX. Will it be valid for iPhone?

[@morgonaut]

@ckaraca - it works across all devices connected to same iCloud Apple ID = if you login using same account on your iPhone, iPad, Macs - all those devices will be then synchronized

[@ckaraca]

@@morgonaut Thank you. Yes, you are right. I missed it.

[@morgonaut]

@ckaraca - it's ok, I'm always right, but people hate it 😇

[@chafiqrahmani4343]

Hi, thx for the video and work. I just wanted to tell you, the moment you logged in your iCloud account, you blurred your mailadress, but not the whole time. Go back an check it, if it‘s important for you. Happy new year to everyone.

[@morgonaut]

@chafiqrahmani4343 - darling thank you for your kind comment. I know that, but in fact I don't care about that so much. There is always gonna be some a$$hole whose only intent is to cause harm, but there is much more kind nice people out there. But thank you again. That's why for my videos I use always only accounts I don't use for anything else than for just demonstration purposes, so nobody will ever have a chance to see my real accounts I use normally. So the fact I will leave your comment here, which can inspire those a$$holes to dig deeper is a proof of that it relates to accounts I just use only for these demos and I don't care about those 😇

[@chafiqrahmani4343]

@ OK, then everything is OK :). I thought maybe you didn't know and wanted to point it out to you. Have a great evening.

[@morgonaut]

@chafiqrahmani4343 - yeah, all is OK. I already learned my lesson many years ago, so I know very well why, what and how I let go to the screen/video 😇 And let the new year be the best year of your life so far! 🥳 I wish you lot of health and love on top of it...

[@chafiqrahmani4343]

@ ❤️💚

[@VinDias]

Happy New Year my beautiful!!!!

[@morgonaut]

@VinDias - let the new year be the greatest so far for all of us. And full of health and love 💜🙏🎸

[@diegochak]

Great video as always! thanks for sharing it. If you have time, I would like to ask you something. I have two macs, and I would like to have shared storage, can this only be achieved with a NAS? thank you!

[@morgonaut]

@diegochak7560 - using proper NAS is best idea. But you don't need that. Just enable file sharing on one of them and voila, you have shared storage

[@diegochak]

@@morgonaut Thanks for taking the time to respond to me! I would love if you could consider making a video in the future to show it. Thank you!

[@morgonaut]

@diegochak7560 - Diego if I will have time I will do that. Take care...

[@diegochak]

@@morgonaut you are the best

[@morgonaut]

@diegochak7560 - sometimes yes, sometimes no. Ask my friend 😇

[@Jelriky]

Thank you for this smart workaround. Can the same concept be used on windows with multiple OneDrive account’s or is there a simpler way to use multiple OneDrive’s ?

[@morgonaut]

@Jelriky - I would use for that rather my server solution I mentioned at the end of my video

[@andreasandersson409]

Hi, could you please update the brand for the SSD and adapter you are using in this video, thanks 🙂

[@morgonaut]

@andreasandersson409 - in this video I used just old stuff I had here just for demonstration. What I recommend I linked in this video description.

[@andreasandersson409]

@@morgonaut Thanks - great video 🙂

[@morgonaut]

@andreasandersson409 - thanks, but all my videos are great, not just this one 😇

[@alaskajim907]

I should be able to use these instructions on my MacBook Pro correct? I started following you and of course I liked your video. Does having a shared ICloud account (Just wife and myself) impact its functionality. We have: 1 MacBook Pro, 2 IPads and 2 IPhones. 5 devices total. Awesome job creating this video.

[@morgonaut]

@alaskajim907 - yes, it will work for any Mac. And no, shared icloud as you wrote is no problem. Mine is also family account

[@morgonaut]

@alaskajim907 - I'm happy to help. Best thanks would be if you share my videos on forums/socials so it can help to more people and that will in return help to me to produce for you more such helpful content and still for free.

[@sherrikrams6786]

This is amazing !!!! I’ve been wanting to upgrade my m1 I Mac but hesitant because I run Lightroom and photoshop and need min 512. I’m fine with that price but ideally wanted 1tb and don’t want pay because I also need to invest in a monitor. I’ve always had iMac because it’s so easy and clean set up. But now I want a larger screen so going down that rabbit hole. Now I’ll have more money for the monitor.

[@davidcrespo8162]

This is pretty amazing! I can’t wait to try this. Thank you for the information.

[@morgonaut]

@davidcrespo8162 - It is amazing :) We use it for a long time. Best thanks would be if you share my videos on forums/socials so it can help to more people and that will in return help to me to produce for you more such helpful content and still for free.

[@marcardouin8066]

Bonjour, Thanks a lot and happy new year.

[@morgonaut]

@marcardouin8066 - Happy new year! 🥳

[@ON3S3V3NTHR33]

Wow. I must try this solution. Thank you!

[@morgonaut]

@ON3S3V3NTHR33 - I'm happy to help. Best thanks would be if you share my videos on forums/socials so it can help to more people and that will in return help to me to produce for you more such helpful content and still for free.

[@janoo85]

It is very interresting can i use it like my external storage is the cloud? i mean i dont want to buy big icloud storage i want to use only my external storage but like it is acting like my main storage ? so the same thing but withoute buying icloud storage ?

[@morgonaut]

@janoo85 - yes there is also way how to configure on your local hardware your own cloud accessible from anywhere. But that's not what this video is about, that's completely different topic and if enough people would want to see it, then I can produce video about it too

[@lramdial]

That video sounds interesting. I’m looking forward to seeing it soon.

[@danielreyessanchez2299]

Great video! So for “family sharing” the way to get it done is to create idk for example 5 number of users in the same mac mini, and 5 iCloud accounts all of them pointing to the same external drive?

[@njpme]

Wouldn't your online storage be maxed out the moment you put a file larger than 5GB to sync between devices and the icloud website?

[@morgonaut]

@njpme - yes, that's why as I said on my main account I pay Apple for the 2TB iCloud+

[@FFHamilton]

@@morgonaut so what happens if you go over your 2tb of paid storage? Will family sync still work? I have 4tb of photos and videos shared between 6 accounts and would like to avoid paying for a higher Apple plan.

[@CalvinHill-reflects]

I have done something similar but it was a more manual process. This is a great tutorial. I do have a concern with the auto-login. If you turn that off, then have a process to login to the second account first, then do the fast switching, with having it never go to sleep, would it still do the syncing? I like to keep the admin accounts more secure. Thanks.

[@Rio-by1eh]

Let me understand this; now BECAUSE OF A FILE SHARING ON BETWEEN THE REAL ICLOUD AND THE EXTERNAL-DRIVE “I-CLOUD”, you can ACCESS that External Drive via another MOBILE APP,E ACCNT …………? Is that correct…? In essence we are creating an “Alias” ? of I-cloud on a local external drive ?

[@morgonaut]

@Rio-by1eh - no, we are not creating any alias. All the iCloud Drive data synced to this external drive can be now accessible from any Mac or iOS device on same network with both ways synchronization - If I take photo on iPhone or save any image to iCloud Drive on iOS device, then it will become immediately accessible to all devices

[@nlym2]

Love it. Thank you!

[@morgonaut]

@nlym2 - I'm happy to help. Best thanks would be if you share my videos on forums/socials so it can help to more people and that will in return help to me to produce for you more such helpful content and still for free.

[@hegler1951]

Made my day!

[@morgonaut]

@hegler1951 - yeah, I do that all the time

[@connernguyen3820]

Hello Theresa. Fantastic step-by-step instructions for setting up and sharing iCloud storage via External Drive. I'm relatively new to how this works and wondering if you have to keep the External Drive On continuously (you checked Never Sleep in all the Power options), then wouldn't the Hard Drive potentially get overheated and experience a shorter lifespan? Thank you.

[@morgonaut]

@connernguyen3820 - of course you need to have that drive connected when your user and all the date is there :) And no, my SSD will not overheat in my adapter. And those I linked in video description too

[@connernguyen3820]

@@morgonaut Thank you Theresa. One other question: Do you back up the iCloud from the External SSD since if if fails then theoretically all data within External SSD will be lost.

[@morgonaut]

@connernguyen3820 - all the data on the external drive are in cloud = you will not loose anything 😇 you can always re-download it to new disk

[@connernguyen3820]

@@morgonaut Amazing. Thank you very much Theresa 🙂

[@morgonaut]

@connernguyen3820 - I'm happy to help. Best thanks would be if you share my videos on forums/socials so it can help to more people and that will in return help to me to produce for you more such helpful content and still for free.

[@Prabhaker-f4t]

If i by mac mini m4 Can i use windows 365 apps and tally software for my office use at home? I Will be awaiting for a response to this comment

[@morgonaut]

@Prabhaker-f4t - sorry, I don't understand what did you mean. Try to explain your needs in more detail

[@Prabhaker-f4t]

@morgonaut I'm sorry English is not my first Language , can I able to install tally software and Microsoft office apps on mac mini for office use?

[@morgonaut]

@Prabhaker-f4t - you can install any software like Office etc. it is has macOS app. Or you can also run Windows only programs in a virtual machine inside of macOS

[@mcfaultier388]

Great vid! Maybe this is a stupid question, but why not use the newly created account as your main? Especially since you have to switch to the other one after reboot anyway? That way you could use the external drive for everything else too. Am I missing something here? Thank you very much for sharing this great idea!

[@morgonaut]

@mcfaultier388 - it is very risky do it the way you say, I will probably make follow up video about it

[@morgonaut]

@mcfaultier388 - I'm glad my video helped you. Best thanks would be if you share my videos on forums/socials so it can help to more people and that will in return help to me to produce for you more such helpful content and still for free. And/or if you are really grateful for my help you can click under my video on the THANKS button, that will again help me keep producing for you useful content for free

[@jorgedewulf9688]

@@morgonautfollow up video about this would be nice 👍 thx

[@SpiderSato]

Thank you for this tutorial. Q: it would sync automatically my photos from iPhone ?

[@morgonaut]

@SpiderSato - yes as I said in this video several times

[@SpiderSato]

@ thank you for responding. I will watch more several times. You’re the best.

[@morgonaut]

@SpiderSato - BTW Apple Photos is disastrous app 👿

[@SpiderSato]

@ The funny thing is I’m right now searching how to install immich

[@morgonaut]

@SpiderSato - yes, Immich is probably the way to go in coherence with some smart way of synchronization. I will also produce some video about it

[@HarryJStark-ml8op]

Thank you so much for this! I have a MacStudio M1 Max with 2TB but I need more space because I compose music. I will have to try this! 😀

[@morgonaut]

@HarryJStark-ml8op - I'm happy to help. Best thanks would be if you share my videos on forums/socials so it can help to more people and that will in return help to me to produce for you more quality content and still for free.

[@morgonaut]

@HarryJStark-ml8op - maybe you didn't notice or didn't see my previous guitar video, I produce music for more than 4 decades so my Macs are set up for that kzbin.info/www/bejne/iKSsZ2qlnqZ1Y5I

[@RonLeblanc]

Brilliant solution!

[@morgonaut]

@RonLeblanc - I know 😇that's why I gave it to people

[@morgonaut]

@RonLeblanc - please share my videos on forums/socials so it can help to more people and that will in return help to me to produce for you more such helpful content and still for free.

[@mlhm5]

You are simply amazing!!

[@morgonaut]

@mlhm5 - sometimes I am, sometimes not so much. Ask my partner 😂 Share my video on forums/socials so it can help to more people and that will in return help to me to produce for you more quality content and still for free

[@xabierlanda8998]

I loved your video and I start following now, my question is this in all links I didn’t saw any 12 tb , I will love that link . My second questions is the backs up, you doing in the main account, is that’s correct ? My last question they can be synchronized, with my iPhone and iPad as well all photos and documents

[@morgonaut]

@xabierlanda8998 - as I said on Amazon you can buy any disk you want. Not many people want 12TB, most of them will aim at the lower options. And as I also said several times in thsis video all is synchronized across all devices connected to same Apple ID - you should watch and listen more carefuly

[@xabierlanda8998]

@ first at all thanks for the quick answer, as a photographer I need at much is possible , so any brand that you recommend, I will definitely appreciate, thx. Xabier

[@morgonaut]

@xabierlanda8998 - yes buy any dist you want. But if you buy crappy disk, then don't be surprised when you loose data. In video description I recommend proven disk

[@nurb2kea]

The only thing I don't get is why you use a second (new) user account for that. You could move your icloud with the main account to an external drive as well. Or am I missing something!?

[@morgonaut]

@nurb2kea - yes you are missing a lot. I said two times in this video how important it is to watch and listen carefully as well as follow it step by step. it's stupid idea to move the home folder of main user. It is risky. If your ext. disk would die or just disconnect you will loose the ability to work on that computer completely. If you will loose only the sync account then you can in just few clicks enable selected sync on main account and buy new ext. disk to fix the sync user.

[@nurb2kea]

@@morgonaut Thanks, I listened carefully but I missed the sec. when you switched to the second account, and realised that you'll have another homefolder. Totally ignored this fact, that's why it mixed up in my thinking. And sure it now makes sense to me. AND good to know how to, before messing up something...🙂🙃

[@morgonaut]

@nurb2kea - that's why I said two times people should relax and watch and listen carefully and follow to the letter, step by step and they will never have a problem