iCloud Drive is still as useless as it ever was

[Pagemakers]

So we have a new iCloud Drive icon. Big deal.

The service is as half baked now as the day it was released…

1. I seem unable to send a photo to iCloud Drive from my camera roll. Though I’d use that to transfer between devices because Air Drop is so unreliable - but, no, seems it can’t be done.
2. Some apps can save to ICD but not open from it.
3. Some apps can open from ICD but not save to it.
4. Office for iOS can save to ICD but only copy from it - not open the document just saved!

Why on earth didn’t Apple add ICD to the default share sheet.

 

[George Knighton]

Why on earth didn’t Apple add ICD to the default share sheet.

You're right, that would be a great idea.

One of the first things I did was to check out iCloud Drive to see if it could replace Dropbox and OneDrive, and of course, it cannot.

I think that's what we really want: a replacement for OneDrive and Dropbox while remaining inside the Apple Ecosphere.

 

[George Knighton]

In my case I am paying 99 cents/month for 20 GB just because I will very rarely go over the free 5 GB.

I don't want to exaggerate, like it is expensive or anything...but it is slightly annoying to usually have 15 GB of useless space which, if I could use it, would allow me to get rid of OneDrive and Dropbox, both of which are certainly more expensive than 99 cents/month!

 

[pituin]

We just need a simple filesystem, that is all.

 

[Megakazbek]

We just need a simple filesystem, that is all.

Not even filesystem, just ability to open and save files between any apps would be good enough.

 

[GrumpyTrucker]

Not even filesystem, just ability to open and save files between any apps would be good enough.

Or pretty much exactly what was promised with iOS 8 then? I've not tried it yet but I'm guessing that ICD isn't even a option for downloading or uploading from Safari? (Edit as I type: yup, you can't). If Apple won't implement it app what chance other devs will?

 

[sbailey4]

In my case I am paying 99 cents/month for 20 GB just because I will very rarely go over the free 5 GB.

I don't want to exaggerate, like it is expensive or anything...but it is slightly annoying to usually have 15 GB of useless space which, if I could use it, would allow me to get rid of OneDrive and Dropbox, both of which are certainly more expensive than 99 cents/month!

You are getting 50gb now for that. They updated their plans

 

[canesalato]

So we have a new iCloud Drive icon. Big deal.

The service is as half baked now as the day it was released…

1. I seem unable to send a photo to iCloud Drive from my camera roll. Though I’d use that to transfer between devices because Air Drop is so unreliable - but, no, seems it can’t be done.
2. Some apps can save to ICD but not open from it.
3. Some apps can open from ICD but not save to it.
4. Office for iOS can save to ICD but only copy from it - not open the document just saved!

Why on earth didn’t Apple add ICD to the default share sheet.

"Actually, starting from iOS9, file managment is much better on iOS than on OSX"
a macrumors forum user

 

[Pagemakers]

"Actually, starting from iOS9, file managment is much better on iOS than on OSX"
a macrumors forum user

Are you on drugs?

 

[liteshow]

Even if all the features that OP had mentioned were there, 5GB free data for icloud in 2015 is still below the industry standard, especially if I use it also to back up my device. Apple needs to increase their base free storage. Google has 15 GB free. OneDrive has 30 GB (15 + 15 more if camera upload is turned on). Just saying...

 

[canesalato]

Are you on drugs?

not me...as i have written I was quoting a macrumors user from another thread. ;-)
Just to have a good laugh

 

[mrex]

i wish i could choose those default apps. because icloud is more or less iclown and several problems to get it work in a crossplatform, im using gdrive as my default cloud. but i cant understand that im not able to send files to icloud from apple devices, but i can choose useless app instead - that is ridiculous.

 

[GrumpyTrucker]

Even if all the features that OP had mentioned were there, 5GB free data for icloud in 2015 is still below the industry standard, especially if I use it also to back up my device. Apple needs to increase their base free storage. Google has 15 GB free. OneDrive has 30 GB (15 + 15 more if camera upload is turned on). Just saying...

My feeling is you should get enough space to backup each device registered to your account. I've never had an issue with the 5GB space for my backups so unless you're backing up your photo library to iCloud (if not using iCloud Photo Library) then I doubt you'd use close to 5GB so maybe it should be 5GB per device registered to your iCloud id? If you want to back up large camera rolls then maybe it's not unreasonable for Apple to suggest we switch to iCloud Photo Library.

iCloud Drive though is woefully inadequate. As far as I can tell there isn't even a way to share a document with others from the ICD app but you can from iCloud.com on a desktop. I could be wrong on that, maybe I just haven't found it.

 

[canesalato]

well, at the moment icloud drive is an embarassment. Anyway, since it was not present on iOS8 we are not loosing anything. still disappointing

 

[Jbagger]

iCloud Drive though is woefully inadequate. As far as I can tell there isn't even a way to share a document with others from the ICD app but you can from iCloud.com on a desktop. I could be wrong on that, maybe I just haven't found it.

Easy. Tap and hold on a file. A hovering set of options will appear. Select 'More..." and then tap 'Share Item."

I like the new app. It is a step in the right direction. My only complaint is that files outside of the app containers only are permitted to be 'coped' to an associated app rather than a simple 'open in'. The former makes a copy and you can only edit that copy--the original is unmodified. The latter would let you open and edit with the associated app without making a copy. To get around this, you still have to hit the '+' button in an iWork app and import the file from the ICD, like in iOS 8. This does not make a copy and you are simply editing the original, which is ideal. Thus, in some ways the new ICD app is useless except for file management (renaming, moving, deleting, etc).

 

[canesalato]

Easy. Tap and hold on a file. A hovering set of options will appear. Select 'More..." and then tap 'Share Item."

I like the new app. It is a step in the right direction. My only complaint is that files outside of the app containers only are permitted to be 'coped' to an associated app rather than a simple 'open in'. The former makes a copy and you can only edit that copy--the original is unmodified. The latter would let you open and edit with the associated app without making a copy. To get around this, you still have to hit the '+' button in an iWork app and import the file from the ICD, like in iOS 8. This does not make a copy and you are simply editing the original, which is ideal. Thus, in some ways the new ICD app is useless except for file management (renaming, moving, deleting, etc).

moving not so much...it seems you can't move a file outside its "silos" (app folder)

 

[Jbagger]

moving not so much...it seems you can't move a file outside its "silos" (app folder)

Correct. All I want to be able to do is select a file from a folder that I have created, edit it with the appropriate app (Pages) and have that edit sync back to the folder for which the file originated from. Does not seem that difficult.

 

[canesalato]

Correct. All I want to be able to do is select a file from a folder that I have created, edit it with the appropriate app (Pages) and have that edit sync back to the folder for which the file originated from. Does not seem that difficult.

I hear your pain

 

[Pagemakers]

Easy. Tap and hold on a file. A hovering set of options will appear. Select 'More..." and then tap 'Share Item."

I like the new app. It is a step in the right direction. My only complaint is that files outside of the app containers only are permitted to be 'coped' to an associated app rather than a simple 'open in'. The former makes a copy and you can only edit that copy--the original is unmodified. The latter would let you open and edit with the associated app without making a copy. To get around this, you still have to hit the '+' button in an iWork app and import the file from the ICD, like in iOS 8. This does not make a copy and you are simply editing the original, which is ideal. Thus, in some ways the new ICD app is useless except for file management (renaming, moving, deleting, etc).

Try doing that with a photo from the camera roll. Simple enough request....

 

[0970373]

So we have a new iCloud Drive icon. Big deal.

The service is as half baked now as the day it was released…

1. I seem unable to send a photo to iCloud Drive from my camera roll. Though I’d use that to transfer between devices because Air Drop is so unreliable - but, no, seems it can’t be done.
2. Some apps can save to ICD but not open from it.
3. Some apps can open from ICD but not save to it.
4. Office for iOS can save to ICD but only copy from it - not open the document just saved!

Why on earth didn’t Apple add ICD to the default share sheet.

I definitely agree that ICD has some work to do. You *should* be able to save photos there but I'm sure there is some kind of iCloud Photos reasoning behind it, which is infuriating. I just send the photos to myself via messages or send to dropbox.

But 2 & 3 are app/dev dependent, no? I say that because I do have an app, IA Writer, that can both open/save files to it. I go to that program on my Mac and all the changes in there in the same file on ICD.

Word sort of works. If I open a word doc from ICD, I do what I need to and then the changes are saved in ICD and show up on my Mac. But you can't seem to create a doc on word for iOS and then save it to ICD unless you have a subscription, it seems. Total BS.

Apple definitely has some things to work out here.

 

[Pagemakers]

I think all most people wanted apple to do was copy Dropbox. ICD is a mess.

 

[SoYoung]

Icloud drive is terrible. You can't upload photo/videos from your camera roll, and you have to download a full video size before you can watch it. Plus, after you watched the video, you can't delete just the local file stored on your phone. Realy, I don't understand Apple with this mediocre service. I'll stick with OneDrive. Works well on my iPhone and as a bonus, I can access it on my Xbox One.

 

[Pagemakers]

Something else I've noticed...

Press and hold a file on the ipad and you get a popup to rename etc etc. Do the same on the iphone and nothing. You can't do anything with the file.

 

[EJ8]

iCloud Drive is a joke. Move on it is pretty much useless. I use Amazon Cloud.

 

[username:]

Or pretty much exactly what was promised with iOS 8 then? I've not tried it yet but I'm guessing that ICD isn't even a option for downloading or uploading from Safari? (Edit as I type: yup, you can't). If Apple won't implement it app what chance other devs will?

I can upload from iCloud Drive in Safari