This video is brought to you by Clean my Mac X
Last year in 2020 I did a video on how I use iCloud drive to manage and store my entire
digital life.
The idea behind using iCloud for everything is if I were to lose my current Mac for some
reason (have it destroyed or stolen for example) without a single backup, I could grab any
other Mac computer and be up and running within few hours, without any data loss, all thanks
to iCloud.
Hey, Iskren here, but feel free to call me E. In this video, I will discuss the following:
• What's the difference between iCloud drive and competitive products, for example, Google
Drive or DropBox • What makes iCloud drive special when you
are into Apple's ecosystem, the reason I prefer it
• How I set up my iCloud drive and how I use it
• What happens with all my files and structure if I were to switch to a new computer.
In the end, I will address some of your questions from my last video with the hopes of clarifying
this digital service the best I can.
Rewinding a bit, so what is iCloud, and this of course applies to competitive services
as well?
Think of iCloud as your external hard drive, but invisible.
It's a rented digital drive where you can place your stuff and access them on demand
(of course internet connection is required).
Some people might have difficulty grasping the concept of iCloud if you think of it as
an exact external drive and usually, that confusion comes from the evergreen concept
of copy, pasting, and deleting things from an external drive to your local drive.
With iCloud, we talk about something being on the cloud but not locally and we use words
like offloading.
Let me try and explain visually.
This is my iCloud.
I have rented 2TB of storage of which I have filled out 1.2TB leaving me 800GB of available
free space.
In my iCloud I have all my photos, contacts, calendars, email, reminders, notes, passwords,
and many other things that the Mac computer can sync, including all my digital files,
and I mean ALL of them, my life.
That includes my work files, documents, personal assets, and lots more.
Sort of like a 2TB external drive that holds my life.
Now, my laptop has 512GB of storage, obviously less than everything that I have on the cloud,
but that's not a problem because I don't really want to download everything from my iCloud
to my laptop.
I want to download locally only the files that I most often use and this is where iCloud
shines.
Throughout my use, iCloud has figured what I require most often and downloads only those
things, leaving the rest in the cloud and on-demand.
This is called Optimized Storage.
An easy way to distinguish what's on my iCloud and what is locally on my computer is the
little cloud icon that represents the file being on the cloud.
For example, if I happen to look for something that is not downloaded, all I have to do is
search for it, as with any other computer file and double click to open it or press
the little cloud icon to trigger a download and now that file downloads physically on
my computer.
iCloud keeps it there but not forever and whenever enough time has passed where I haven't
found a reason to use it, it offloads it from my hard drive until I need it next time.
This exact scenario applies to my iPad and iPhone as well.
With both of them, just as with my computer, I can access and download and work with files
that I am currently in need of.
Whatever I do on the Cloud, stays on the cloud and can be accessed through all my devices.
The same synchronization and Optimized storage apply to your iPhone photos for example.
When you have the feature enabled, even if you have tens of thousands of photos, since
not all of them are on your phone, you would never run out of space because iCloud will
automatically offload older photos and videos to save up physical space on your iPhone or
iPad.
By the way, if you end up enjoying this video, subscribe, it's free and you can always change
your mind.
Now, let's take this one step further.
That same 2TB of storage iCloud plan that I have is also shared with my family.
My wife, mother, and in-laws all share the same space with me, or rather I share it with
them.
Mind you that they only use my storage space without having access to any of my files.
In fact, it is a private space for everyone and no one can access each other's files.
By sharing my 2TB space with my family, they don't have to purchase separate iCloud accounts
and instead use my storage to offload their iPhone's photos and other iCloud data.
Also, a huge bonus is a fact that their iPhone backups are over the air and are automatically
uploaded to that same 2TB iCloud drive.
This way we are all safe and calm that everything is preserved.
So really, one monthly fee for a single service serves a purpose for 5 people while providing
storage, backup, and protection for everyone.
iCloud is the foundation of all Apple products and services and unlike other competitors
like DropBox or Google Drive, it is part of every Apple device.
You don't need to install it or set up special software or apps, or allow or set up any sort
of synchronization, iCloud is there from the get-go when you get your new Mac, iPad, or
iPhone.
You can just choose to use it or not.
So in my case, if I were to have to replace my computer tomorrow, without having created
a single backup, knowing that everything that I care about is on iCloud, all I have to do
on the new Mac is log in to iCloud and download the apps that I want use.
That's it.
All the rest of the synchronization will be done automatically by iCloud, including setting
up my passwords in KeyChain, Calendars, Email, Safari Bookmarks, and of course downloading
the files and folders that I most often use.
A final touch for me would be to move around and create shortcuts in the finder's sidebar
to quickly access the folders that I plan to use on regular basis.
To be fair, iCloud is not the best or most feature-packed cloud service there is.
Before I share some of its flaws and answer your question from my last video, let me address
something that I like to call data diet.
Since all our digital assets will only grow over time I have become sort of excess data-sensitive
and unlike before I am very careful not to keep around things that have no value to me.
The tool that helps me optimize my storage is called Clean My Mac X who are kind enough
to sponsor this video.
Clean My Mac X is an oddly satisfying helper that aids by getting rid of unnecessary and
invisible junk on my computer like tons of invisible cache files, unused DMGs, incomplete
downloads, and old baggage.
By pressing a single button the app locates massive old files that were swept under the
rug.
Even more useful however is a special tool that builds an interactive map of my entire
drive, helping glimpse and organize everything.
Also, Clean My Mac X can delete unwanted apps, plugins, and extensions that have been left
undetected for months and if I want to get rid of an app the proper way, without leaving
any trace, Clean My Mac can help me do that too with the built-in Uninstaller.
Notarized by Apple, this app is extremely easy to use, providing you with a great fluid
interface that also helps you keep your online activity private, and even though we are talking
about Macs here, stay malware-free ALL with a single press of a button.
Be sure to check out Clean My Mac X in the description below.
So, let's mention some of iCloud's flaws.
First off, iCloud doesn't have Incremental file-sharing (at least to my knowledge).
That means you need a stable connection because if a large file upload gets interrupted, you'd
have to start over...something that DropBox for example addresses with a feature called
block-level file syncing or uploading only parts of files that have changed over time.
That of course might change with iCloud as well in the future.
Second, iCloud is a black box.
You have no control over how and when it syncs (you can just stop it) but you can forget
about a bandwidth limit, wherein other cloud services you can control and avoid clogging
the internet connection.
In my previous example of setting up a new mac where everything is happening automatically,
that is of course the case, but once the process of synchronization is triggered all I can
do is wait until it ends...which depending on the internet speed and amount of files
might take hours.
If you happen to use iCloud for the first time and you were to upload all your files
on it, as I did, keep in mind the following.
Once you drag and drop everything in iCloud you might see some temporary decrease in local
storage space.
That is normal, in fact, you might notice some weird loss and gain of local storage
until iCloud does its magic.
As I said, it's a black box, but it works.
Now let me try and answer some of your questions from my last video:
Jean asks: Is there a way to "force" items back to the
cloud once they have been downloaded to your machine?
Ex.
A large file I made a change to but know I won't need it again for awhile.
YES, you can.
If you right-click on an item or folder, you can choose Remove Download which will offload
the file from your hard drive.
A popular question has been: how I set up your iCloud drive.
It's simple.
Go to system preferences, Apple ID, and check or tick the iCloud option.
Next, grab all the files that you want to put on the cloud and drag them to iCloud in
finder.
In there, you can organize them in any way you see fit.
Then let it do its magic.
QUESTION: But the Documents folder is gone from under
my after I enabled Documents & Desktop from iCloud Drive.
Where did it go?
I can see it in iCloud.
But not under my username folder.
I was planning on organizing all my files and folders under Documents.
ANSWER: If you enable documents and desktop on the
cloud, they disappear from your local drive, respectively your local USERNAME folder, and
appear in iCloud where you can access them just as they were under your USERNAME folder.
QUESTION: Wouldn’t iCloud Drive unnecessarily fill
up your device storage just because it is empty?
ANSWER: No, iCloud doesn't download things that you
don't use.
QUESTION: Would love to edit from iCloud if that's even
a thing if not what's your process for editing and storing your final cut library?
ANSWER: I wouldn't recommend editing off iCloud.
I use fast external SSD for that.
I would fill out my cloud storage drive after two videos if I was to edit off of it.
If you enjoyed this video you might find my How I set up a new Mac guide useful, which
I'll link right here.
If you have questions, leave them in the comments below or ping me on Twitter.
As always, it’s been an absolute pleasure, This is E
Over and out