Browse iCloud items

The problem with the File and Folder window is that it is subject to the laws of quantum physics: when you observe a system, you or rather macOS changes it. Merely browsing files in an Open File dialog is usually sufficient to download them from iCloud, which makes it impossible to check their status when they have been evicted. This is where the iCloud Browser window comes into its own.

Open an iCloud Browser with the Open Browser command in the Window menu. Initially, this opens at the level of your iCloud Drive folder, but can also show and access all the files and folders in Mobile Documents folder (in Mojave and earlier). This doesn’t include iCloud’s shared databases, such as your address book or calendar, or special shared content such as photos (from the Photos app), music, or purchased content from the iTunes Store.

Rows in the browser represent one of four types:

files , whose name often begins with a period/stop and ends with .icloud,

folders , which are distinguished with the 📁 emoji symbol,

symbolic links (symlinks), distinguished with the 🔗 emoji symbol,

the final navigation row, containing the text ‘ ⬆︎ up one folder ⬆︎ ’.

Adjust the width of the columns using the header rows. You can’t change the sort order for items, though, or re-order the columns/rows.

Click on any file or folder row or use the ⬆︎⬇︎ cursor keys to move the selection and see details of that item, or double-click on a folder row to open that folder. Move back up the folder hierarchy by double-clicking on the navigation row at the end of the scrolling list of items. To follow a symbolic link, double-click on it; however, moving up the folder hierarchy from that link’s destination won’t return you to the folder in which the link is, but will take you up to the parent of that folder.

Select a file or folder with a single click to see its iCloud status in the checkboxes and text boxes below:

window title – the current file or folder name

Ubiquitous – the item is in iCloud,

Uploaded – the item has been uploaded from your Mac to iCloud,

Uploading – the item is currently being uploaded to iCloud; the box after that contains any error messages relating to uploading,

Downloading – the item is currently being downloaded from iCloud; the box below and to the right contains any error messages relating to downloading,

Download requested – the item has been requested for download, but that has not yet started,

Status – the iCloud downloading status of the item,

Container – the name of the iCloud container in which the item is stored,

lowest scrolling textbox – the normal and full path to the item. Change the size of the text in this using ⌘ + (Command-plus) to make it one point larger, to a maximum of 24 points, or ⌘ – (Command-hyphen) to make it one point smaller, to a minimum of 4 points. This size is saved as the default for the next time that you open Cirrus.

iCloud files which have been evicted from local storage have names which start with a period/stop, and end with the extension .icloud. When those are downloaded to local storage, macOS removes the initial period/stop, making the item visible, and strips the extension. Folders don’t change their names, and are effectively unchanged when ‘downloaded’.

Sizes given for folders are not the total folder size, but the total size of the items immediately in the folder, obtained from a shallow traversal of the folder contents. This is because the file system doesn’t store folder sizes, so they have to be obtained by inspecting every folder and file contained within a folder. Doing this for large folders, such as Documents, can take a long time, sometimes several minutes. Restricting this to a shallow traversal of the contents makes this quicker, if less informative.

There are two buttons, one to Refresh the content of the browser window. This is the default button, activated by pressing the Return key.

The other button, Save , saves a text summary of the files and folders currently shown in the browser. The default file name contains the name of the folder being browsed and the date and time at which the information was obtained from the items listed. Saves always start at the top level of your Home folder, as the most recently accessed folder (normally the default when saving) is likely to be one of the iCloud folders which you have been examining. ➜ browser reports .

Open as many iCloud Browser windows as you wish, and close them using their normal controls, such as the red Close button.

Viewing files and folders in the iCloud Browser doesn’t alter any of them in the slightest: Cirrus can only read their data, and cannot write to them in any way.

➜ browser reports

➜ where to find iCloud items

➜ log window

➜ test your iCloud

➜ how Cirrus works

➜ oddities, and more information

➜ back to welcome

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