macOS Tahoe storage settings override

The options are NOT enabled, meaning what you see in the Storage panel dialog box is not yet enabled unless you take the next step (which you haven't).

When you click on the Store in iCloud button in the Storage settings pane, those two options toggled on in the dialog box by default (presumably because Apple is trying to save you the most space possible), but until you click the blue Store in iCloud button at the bottom of that dialog box, you have not activated them. If you had activated them, that would show in the iCloud settings pane.

For example, in the iCloud pane I have Photos off and Drive on, but I'm not syncing Desktop & Documents, as you can see when I click on Drive.

But when I click on the Store in iCloud in the Storage pane, I see what you see:

So, it's not iCloud syncing that's filling up your space. Other than the settings shown in your screenshot (that are not activated), what makes you think that macOS keeps attempting to store/restore my Desktop & Documents and Photos in iCloud?

Where are you seeing your free space fluctuating massively (sometimes gaining or losing 100–200 GB) even when I’m not downloading anything?

Blake-0 wrote:

If you see the screenshot above (blue is utilization), that's how my free space fluctuated right after upgrading to Tahoe (Before I upgrade I had some big files which I moved them to my NAS and disk space should have been 50% utilization).

Interesting, maybe a little suspect. In between your 41 GB free on the right side of the graph, it seems there was nothing at all on your drive – 0% utilization. Or maybe that's iStat Menus shows history vs. current, with a gap (that's not how it is on the current version for history graphs)? On Sequoia, you were running with almost no free space, a situation guaranteed to cause problems.

I say suspect because, while I trust and use iStat Menus, it seems that 1) you're using v6 (or earlier) and 2) they removed the Disk Usage history from v7 (which I am running) and replaced it with Disk Activity. The other thing is that v6 does not appear to show purgeable space, which can fluctuate significantly if your disk is nearly full and if you've deleted large amounts of data recently.

So you're saying the options for "Choose what you would like to store in iCloud" are by ON by default and it's for "presumably because Apple is trying to save you the most space possible" If I don't want Apple to "save" space, how do you turn those options off? When I toggle those options off, there is no way to keep them off But sometimes it looks like it turns off because I see another screen "Do you want to store all files in iCloud?"

I am saying they are not on and have never been on. Those two options are 'preselected' in the dialog box, and unless you toggle one of them off those choices will be applied IF AND ONLY IF you then click the Store in iCloud button. If you had clicked that, then in iCloud settings Photos and Drive would show as On. They don't. You are not syncing photos or documents with iCloud.

You think those options are on because every time you revisit that setting, the two options are preselected for syncing but if you cancel then syncing is never turned on. Note that if you toggle both options 'off' then the Store in iCloud button itself turns dark blue and can't be clicked.

So IF the fluctuations reported by iStat Menus are accurate, then something other than iCloud syncing is responsible for that.

Blake-0 wrote:

• Hi everyone,

I’m having an issue on macOS Tahoe (15.x) where the system appears to ignore my iCloud settings and starts consuming large amounts of disk space.

Here’s what I’m seeing:

In System Settings → iCloud, both Photos and Drive are turned Off.

• However, when I go to System Settings → General → Storage → Store in iCloud, the options for: Desktop and Documents Photos are both shown as On, even though I NEVER enabled them...

Any help, confirmation, or workaround would be greatly appreciated. This has been consuming my SSD space and causing confusing storage fluctuations.

Thanks!

I would try Signing out of your Apple ID/Account /iCloud on the Mac and back in again and compare your results

Sign in to or out of your Apple Account on Mac - Apple Support

You can file a bug report / submit your feedback here: Product Feedback - Apple

The current stable release of Tahoe including bug fixes, security updates is macOS 26.1

Keep your Mac up to date - Apple Support

Keep your Mac up to date - Apple Support