Can I use iCloud as pure online storage?

[lamerica80]

I hope someone can help me with some clarification here.

I have about 1TB of personal photos and videos that I need to store securely long-term. They are currently on two external drives, but I dont like physical storage only.

I dont want to "sync" anything to my computer, i basically just need an external hard drive in the sky, with the option to view/download content occasionally.

Is iCloud the right service for this? And/or are there other services that would suit me?

 

[BeatCrazy]

Yes, iCloud works like this.

 

[planteater]

BeatCrazy is wrong.

Any files moved into iCloud are synced. You can not, unfortunately, copy files up and leave them there. It is a sync service only.

 

[BeatCrazy]

BeatCrazy is wrong.

Any files moved into iCloud are synced. You can not, unfortunately, copy files up and leave them there. It is a sync service only.

Perhaps we're interpreting his question wrong.

If I take a folder with some pictures, songs and videos, I can throw it into iCloud Drive and not have to download it and sync it unless I want to.

That's indicated by the "cloud with down arrow" icon on the folder/file.
This file is not on my iMac, it's in the cloud:

 

[planteater]

Perhaps we're interpreting his question wrong.

If I take a folder with some pictures, songs and videos, I can throw it into iCloud Drive and not have to download it and sync it unless I want to.

That's indicated by the "cloud with down arrow" icon on the folder/file.
This file is not on my iMac, it's in the cloud:

It is both on your Mac and in iCloud. It you have optimize storage enabled, iCloud will selectively remove local Mac files if you run low on space. If you do have the space the files are on your local drive.

When you enable iCloud Drive the local file paths for storage change, but the files are still there. I don’t have my Mac with me so I can’t give you the exact path right now.

 

[chrfr]

Perhaps we're interpreting his question wrong.

If I take a folder with some pictures, songs and videos, I can throw it into iCloud Drive and not have to download it and sync it unless I want to.

That's indicated by the "cloud with down arrow" icon on the folder/file.
This file is not on my iMac, it's in the cloud:

The problem is that iCloud Drive will arbitrarily download files to your computer and they will take up space without any warning. Other services like Dropbox or OneDrive are much better for this.

 

[BeatCrazy]

It is both on your Mac and in iCloud. It you have optimize storage enabled, iCloud will selectively remove local Mac files if you run low on space. If you do have the space the files are on your local drive.

When you enable iCloud Drive the local file paths for storage change, but the files are still there. I don’t have my Mac with me so I can’t give you the exact path right now.

That’s not how mine appears to work. I do have optimize storage enabled, and the contents of folders with the cloud icon are not on my Mac.

In fact, right clicking on such a “cloud” folder gives you the option to Download Now. Folders without such icon give you the option to “Remove Download”, hence putting them back as cloud-only.
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The problem is that iCloud Drive will arbitrarily download files to your computer and they will take up space without any warning. Other services like Dropbox or OneDrive are much better for this.

I can believe that.

 

[artfossil]

Another option is Amazon Drive, which has 100 GB and 1, 2 or 3 TB options. I use this as cloud storage for my Mylio photo library as it is another "device" that automatically syncs via Mylio. There is also unlimited photo storage with Amazon Prime.

 

[planteater]

That’s not how mine appears to work. I do have optimize storage enabled, and the contents of folders with the cloud icon are not on my Mac.

In fact, right clicking on such a “cloud” folder gives you the option to Download Now. Folders without such icon give you the option to “Remove Download”, hence putting them back as cloud-only.
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I can believe that.

That likely means you have far less space on your local drive than files in iCloud. If you had sufficient local space they would likely download to your machine.

But the point is for the op, iCloud is a sync service only. Not for offline storage of files.

 

[BeatCrazy]

That likely means you have far less space on your local drive than files in iCloud. If you had sufficient local space they would likely download to your machine.

Nope.

But the point is for the op, iCloud is a sync service only. Not for offline storage of files.

I guess mine works different from yours? Same on my Windows machine. I have a choice to "Always keep on this device" which is syncing, or "Free up space" which give you a similar cloud icon as on macOS and provides the functionality of offline file storage. Just what the OP is looking for.

 

[Eric Idle]

iCloud is so incredibly difficult to understand. How Apple made such an insane, crazy system is beyond me. It used to "just work".

 

[chrfr]

I guess mine works different from yours? Same on my Windows machine. I have a choice to "Always keep on this device" which is syncing, or "Free up space" which give you a similar cloud icon as on macOS and provides the functionality of offline file storage. Just what the OP is looking for.

Frustratingly, the Windows client for iCloud Drive is much more functional that what’s available for Macs or iOS/iPadOS devices. The Windows iCloud Drive client actually is based Microsoft’s OneDrive client. The options to keep files on the device don’t exist on Apple’s devices.

 

[Clix Pix]

I hope someone can help me with some clarification here.

I have about 1TB of personal photos and videos that I need to store securely long-term. They are currently on two external drives, but I dont like physical storage only.

I dont want to "sync" anything to my computer, i basically just need an external hard drive in the sky, with the option to view/download content occasionally.

Is iCloud the right service for this? And/or are there other services that would suit me?

IMHO, iCloud is not really meant to serve as a long-term storage facility, but rather as a mechanism for syncing and sharing files and folders back-and-forth among devices. I wouldn't just throw something up there and expect it to be safely stored for years...... While there are other cloud services which are more meant for actual backup and storage, I have-not tried them out as I am leery of putting some of my files with personal and medical information up there on the cloud.....and also am concerned about the cloud service suddenly going out of business, which has happened in the past.

My particular methodology is to store files and folders, images and data, that I need to save on external SSDs as well as longer-term archival HDD, and to keep the external drives in various places for safekeeping. I store some external SSDs with backups of my important files (especially photos) plus a larger-capacity external HDD in my bank safe deposit box as well as having duplicates at home. I'm retired so no longer go to an office where I could also safely stash stuff, nor do I have family members living close enough to me where I could keep something at their home(s) in between updating the backups. Instead, in the past I went once a month to swap out the drives from my safe deposit box; COVID-19 has kind of interrupted that process, of course, and now instead of just being able to walk into the bank's lobby at any time I need to make a specific appointment in order to access my safe deposit box.

 

[Rigby]

I hope someone can help me with some clarification here.

I have about 1TB of personal photos and videos that I need to store securely long-term. They are currently on two external drives, but I dont like physical storage only.

I dont want to "sync" anything to my computer, i basically just need an external hard drive in the sky, with the option to view/download content occasionally.

Is iCloud the right service for this? And/or are there other services that would suit me?

It sounds like you are looking for a backup solution. iCloud is not particularly well suited for that. It's a syncing service, which means there is a constant risk that a file might accidentally be deleted or overwritten on a machine you're working on, which will then sync and the file will be deleted in the cloud too. It also has no file versioning, meaning once a file is gone it's gone forever and you can't go back. I'd recommend a dedicated online backup service or, if that is not an option, at least a sync service with file versioning (e.g. Dropbox).

 

[lamerica80]

Thanks for all the feedback! I have decided to give Dropbox a go for this.

 

[Jstuts5797]

Nope.






I guess mine works different from yours? Same on my Windows machine. I have a choice to "Always keep on this device" which is syncing, or "Free up space" which give you a similar cloud icon as on macOS and provides the functionality of offline file storage. Just what the OP is looking for.

This is also how it works for me, also using windows. I def do use it as storage. As far as how it works on my devices like iPhone/iPad... I really don’t care if it downloads the files to my device or not. With optimize storage on, it will delete those files if I need the space anyway. I have a 2TB iCloud... and I just let iOS manage my iOS device storage and I use iCloud Drive app on those devices as needed to access the storage. On windows it downloads nothing unless I tell it to. It worked great for me for the past 5 or so years as a storage medium.

 

[purdnost]

Thanks for all the feedback! I have decided to give Dropbox a go for this.

Almost a year later, how is this working out for you? Are you still using Dropbox?

 

[lamerica80]

Almost a year later, how is this working out for you? Are you still using Dropbox?

It's fine I suppose to upload and forget, which is what I wanted. Their phone images backup needs work though, its basically just uploading the files - no fancy features at all like google photos. Overall its a decent deal if you like me already use dropbox a lot for work stuff.