iCloud Drive is convenient — until it starts syncing folders you would rather keep only on your Mac. Large project folders, downloads you do not need on your iPhone, or files with sensitive client data can all quietly eat into your iCloud storage and bandwidth. The good news: you can exempt a single folder from syncing with a simple rename trick, no third-party tools required.
Here is how the .nosync method works, plus two alternative approaches for different situations.
Stop syncing a folder with the .nosync rename
macOS respects a special naming convention: any folder whose name ends in .nosync is skipped by iCloud Drive. Its contents stay on your Mac only and never upload.
- Open Finder and go to iCloud Drive. Click iCloud Drive in the Finder sidebar to see your synced folders.
- Select the folder you want to keep local. Make sure everything inside it has finished syncing first — check that no files show the cloud-with-arrow icon.
- Rename it, adding .nosync to the end. Right-click the folder, choose Rename, and change e.g. “Projects” to “Projects.nosync”. Press Return to confirm.
- Verify it stopped syncing. The folder’s iCloud status icons disappear, and its contents remain on your Mac. Nothing is deleted — the files simply stop uploading.
To resume syncing later, just remove the .nosync suffix — macOS picks the folder back up and uploads its contents. Apple Support documents iCloud Drive’s syncing behavior, and MacRumors has covered this community-discovered trick and its limitations.
Alternative 1: Turn off Desktop & Documents syncing for the whole Mac
If the problem is broader — your entire Desktop and Documents folders syncing when you would rather they didn’t — switch it off at the source:
- Open System Settings and click your Apple ID name at the top.
- Click iCloud, then iCloud Drive.
- Switch off “Desktop & Documents folders”.
This stops syncing for your entire Mac rather than one folder, so use it only when you want everything local. Your files stay on the Mac; copies already in iCloud remain accessible from iCloud Drive on the web.
Alternative 2: Move the folder out of iCloud Drive
The simplest option of all: drag the folder out of iCloud Drive to a local spot like your home folder. Anything stored outside iCloud Drive never syncs, and you do not need to remember any naming tricks. The trade-off is that the folder will not be available on your other Apple devices.
For more ways to keep your Apple devices in harmony, see our guide on how to set up message sync between iPhone and Mac.
If it still doesn’t work
- Wait for the initial sync to finish. Renaming a folder mid-upload can confuse iCloud — let all files finish syncing before adding .nosync.
- Check for the exact suffix. It must be “.nosync” at the very end of the folder name, lowercase, with no trailing spaces.
- Do not use it on system folders. The trick works for your own folders; renaming Apple’s own directories can cause odd behavior.
- Restart Finder if icons linger. Occasionally the iCloud status badges take a moment to clear — relaunching Finder refreshes them.
While you are organizing, you might also like how to change folder colors and add emoji in macOS 26 and how to quickly open the installed apps list in macOS 26.
Frequently asked questions
Does the .nosync trick delete my files from iCloud?
No. It only stops future syncing for that folder — files already uploaded stay in iCloud until you delete them there. The local copies on your Mac are never touched by the rename.
Will Apple remove this trick in a future macOS update?
It is an undocumented behavior rather than an official feature, so there is no guarantee. 9to5Mac has noted that it has survived many macOS releases so far, but if it ever stops working, moving the folder out of iCloud Drive remains a foolproof fallback.
The bottom line
For a single folder, the .nosync rename is the fastest fix: add the suffix, and macOS leaves that folder alone while everything else keeps syncing. For whole-Mac control, toggle off Desktop & Documents in iCloud settings; for a permanent local home, move the folder out of iCloud Drive entirely.
