The Files app on iPhones is designed to be a convenient hub for accessing all your files, including those stored in iCloud Drive. Ideally, it should provide seamless access to your cloud storage without consuming excessive local device space. However, many users are finding that the Files app is doing exactly the opposite, leading to confusion and frustration about storage management.
The core issue lies in how the Files app handles files accessed from iCloud Drive. When you open a photo, video, document, or any other file within the Files app, it automatically downloads a copy to your iPhone’s local storage. This is intended for quick access if you need to open the file again, which sounds helpful in theory. However, in practice, this caching behavior can quickly become problematic, especially for users with large iCloud libraries and limited iPhone storage.
Imagine having terabytes of data in iCloud, and the Files app decides to download a significant portion of it to your iPhone simply because you’ve opened those files even once. This can lead to your iPhone storage filling up rapidly, seemingly without you explicitly saving or downloading anything yourself. Unlike the Photos app which offers an “Optimize iPhone Storage” option to keep smaller, optimized versions of photos on your device, the Files app lacks a similar granular control. There’s no easy way to manage the downloaded files or clear the cache effectively.
Currently, users are stuck with deleting downloaded files individually, a tedious and time-consuming process. The absence of a “clear all downloads” button or even multi-select functionality within the Files app for managing downloaded files is a significant oversight. Furthermore, it’s often reported that even after manually removing downloaded files, the iPhone storage indicator doesn’t immediately reflect the freed-up space, adding to the confusion.
This situation contrasts sharply with services like Google Drive, which offer more transparent and manageable cloud file access without aggressively caching files on the device. For users who rely heavily on cloud storage and expect their Files app to act as a window into their iCloud Drive without mirroring its entire contents on their iPhone, the current system is deeply disappointing and necessitates a re-evaluation of their cloud storage strategy. Apple needs to provide users with more control over how the Files app manages local storage to truly make it a helpful and efficient tool for accessing iCloud files.
