Access your files everywhere

One of the best things about iCloud Drive is that you can access it from almost anywhere. There’s an iCloud app for Windows that makes iCloud Drive work in much the same way as it does in your Mac’s Finder, appearing like a network drive; on iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch it lives in your Files app. You can access iCloud Drive using any modern web browser by logging in at iCloud.com, which enables you to download files and photos as well as interact with them.

iCloud Drive in iCloud.com works like iCloud Drive in iOS Files or macOS Finder.

iCloud is what iDisk became when it grew up: Apple’s original cloud storage service was shelved in 2011 and replaced by iCloud Drive in 2012. It’s evolved into a very clever and powerful tool. iCloud enables you to store files and data on Apple’s servers, and there are few limits to what you can store. Provided it’s less than 50GB and you have sufficient iCloud space, you can upload pretty much anything — although Apple does advise against storing app folders, libraries, or .tmp files. iCloud Drive enabled apps such as Pages and Numbers to use it to store documents, so you can use the Mac ones on iPhone or iPad and vice versa, and you can use it on Mac like you would a USB drive or other removable storage.

You can see what’s taking up room in your iCloud storage from System Prefs > Apple ID.

Using iCloud Drive depends on your device. On your Mac, it’s in your Finder. On your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, you access it via the Files app, or from inside an iCloud Drive– enabled app such as Keynote or GarageBand. And on a Windows PC, once you’ve installed the iCloud for Windows app, your iCloud storage will appear in File Explorer.

MORE THAN JUST STORAGE

If iCloud Drive were just a cloud storage service, it’d be a good one. But it can do more than just store stuff. You can use it to share files and, where apps support it, collaborate on documents. You can also use it to recover deleted files and mirror your Desktop and Documents folders on multiple Macs.

iCloud Drive uses the same storage as other iCloud services such as iCloud Photo Library, iCloud emails, iCloud backups and so on, so you’ll probably find the 5GB of free storage is inadequate. At the time of writing you can upgrade to 50GB for $0.99 a month, 200GB for $2.99 a month, or 2TB for $9.99 per month. You can also get iCloud storage as part of an Apple One bundle, or buy additional storage if your Apple One bundle doesn’t have enough.

Recover deleted files

If you regret deleting that funny cat picture, it’s available in iCloud’s Recently Deleted folder for 30 days.

Sometimes we delete important things by accident. Thankfully, iCloud can help us recover them. If you log in to iCloud.com and click on iCloud Drive, you’ll see an icon at the bottom-right of the window saying Recently Deleted. Click on that to open the Recently Deleted folder, which keeps deleted files and folders for up to 30 days. (You’ll see a label under each file or folder name telling you how long it has left before it’s gone forever). To get files back, just select them and click on Recover.

You can also restore other things from within iCloud.com. If you click on your name in the top–right and then on Account Settings, you’ll see links to restore contacts, calendars, and bookmarks too.

HOW TO Working with others

1 Share online

If you use iCloud Drive it’s easy to share documents with people, even if you’re away from your Mac — just log into your account at iCloud.com and click on iCloud Drive. To share a file, click the icon that shows a person with a “+” sign on it.

2 Set sharing options

By default, sharing is only available to the person you’re sending the document link to and they can make changes to it. If you prefer, you can enable anybody who has the link to open it and/or make the link read–only.

3 Share in apps

It’s pretty much identical inside Apple’s iCloud–enabled apps. In Pages you’ll see the same icon in the toolbar at the top, and if you click on it you’ll be given the same sharing options we just saw in iCloud.com.

4 Share in online apps

You can also share from inside the iCloud apps such as Pages, Keynote, and Numbers. Once again it’s the same icon, and in this screenshot we also have Track Changes enabled so we can see other people’s comments and edits.

5 Share from iOS

It’s the same with iOS. In this screenshot we’re sharing a spreadsheet from Numbers that we want to work on with other people, and the only real difference is the range of things we can share to — on iOS there are more options.

6 Share from Files

On your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch you can also share directly from inside the Files app, which is handy when you’re out and about, but you can’t change the sharing settings for it like you can in Numbers or on iCloud.com.