iCloud Copy iCloud Drive contents to External Drive

[dr_white]

Just wondering if anyone can give me some clarity around this scenario?

I have 1.3TB of data in my iCloud Drive and a new M1 MacBook Pro with just the 256SSD. I have "Optimise Mac Storage" enabled on this Mac with almost every file in that 1.3TB not stored locally on the machine. It's pretty much all in the cloud only.

What I'm wanting to do it get every single folder and file I have on iCloud Drive, and back them up on a 2TB external drive.

My question is, if I select all the folders on my iCloud Drive and copy/paste them to a 2TB external drive, will it download those files to the MacBook first, before then copying the files to the external drive? And if so, would "Optimise Mac..." play along and delete the files off the Mac to make way for the next lot of files?

I guess what I'm hoping for is a beautifully orchestrated operation where the Mac will download the files, copy them over to the external drive, and then remove those local files off the Mac SSD to make way for the next lot that it's downloading.

 

[0128672]

You'll just select files and folders from iCloud Drive and drag it to your external drive. There's no copying to your Mac.

Archive or make copies of the information you store in iCloud - Apple Support

Learn how to archive or make copies of the information that you use with iCloud.

support.apple.com

 

[Apple_Robert]

Go to AppleID.Apple.com and request all your iCloud data. In a few days, Apple will provide you the download link to your iCloud data. It will all be zipped and sorted just like you have it already. Then just drag and drop the zip files to your external drive.

I did this a week ago.