Disclosed herein is a technique for managing storage space in a user device by efficiently downloading files from a cloud-based storage system and evicting files from the user device. According to some embodiments, files are continuously downloaded in a download mode until a particular threshold is satisfied. When the threshold is satisfied, the files can be downloaded in an on-demand mode as needed by the user, where the user device operates in the on-demand mode until a sufficient amount of storage space is freed by evicting files from the user device. Thereafter, the user device can switch back to the download mode.