On my Macbook, I have a folder that is synced to iCloud. It looks like this:
This is great, because in case something happens to my MacBook, I have a backup. However, my iCloud has more data than my MacBook's harddrive can hold, so iCloud routinely deletes the local copy of my files to free up space, while keeping them safe in the cloud. This is bad because files I need may not be available locally on my laptop, and when a Desktop application needs the file, it can't access the file, and it appears to the application as if the file is no longer there.
If I want to keep the file available locally, I have to manually find the missing file in Finder and click "Download Now" in the context menu:
This workaround does help, but only temporarily - after some hours, macOS decides to "optimize" my storage again and delete the local copy, reverting it back to the previous state, and breaking my desktop application. Super annoying.
Is it possible to mark a folder and/or files to permanently remain locally downloaded?
Some Googling reveals it is possible to do this on iCloud on Windows (huh?!) and iPad, but I can't find instructions on how to do it on a Mac (double huh?!)