iCloud Drive Isn't A "Dropbox" is it?

[Hrothgar]

As often happens, I hear about great new features from Apple, but I have no idea what they do or how to use them because the only information I find from Apple comes in vague sales pitches on the Apple site.

So -- iCloud Drive. I assumed this was Apple's version of Dropbox. But it seems that it's limited to syncing mail, contacts, etc. And, according to what I see in preference, there is a small number of Apple apps that will sync documents to iCloud. And, of course, I don't use them (but that's just me -- I'm sure other people do.)

But I can't just move Word docs, spreadsheets, pdfs, etc into iCloud?

Or am I missing anything? From what I see, iCloud Drive is pretty much useless.

 

[Phil A.]

As often happens, I hear about great new features from Apple, but I have no idea what they do or how to use them because the only information I find from Apple comes in vague sales pitches on the Apple site.

So -- iCloud Drive. I assumed this was Apple's version of Dropbox. But it seems that it's limited to syncing mail, contacts, etc. And, according to what I see in preference, there is a small number of Apple apps that will sync documents to iCloud. And, of course, I don't use them (but that's just me -- I'm sure other people do.)

But I can't just move Word docs, spreadsheets, pdfs, etc into iCloud?

Or am I missing anything? From what I see, iCloud Drive is pretty much useless.

If you enable iCloud Drive on a desktop machine, you can create any folders you want and drag anything into those folders and they will be available across any computer that has iCloud drive enabled / installed.

However, apps on iOS devices will have to be updated to support iCloud Drive (same as they have to have support for Dropbox programmed into them) and not many have been so far from what I can see

IMO, it's like a very early version of Dropbox - there are glaring holes in the functionality such as shared folders, selective sync, etc, but the basics are there and I guess it will improve over time

 

[Baytriple]

I have tried to upload 3GB videos from my go pro to the iCloud via a mavericks machine in the browser. It just does not work. It get to around 2.3GB and then just gives up. I have not got one large file up yet. I just cancelled my 200GB plan.

 

[Hrothgar]

That makes a lot of sense. Thank you. I should have figured that out myself.

But -- I created a folder in Drive on "Finder" and put a document into it.

How do I get that on my iPhone? I don't see anyplace where the folder will be on the iPhone?

And, can I put the "drive" folder on my desktop to move docs into it? Or does it only work if I put docs into the folder on Finder?

(Sometimes I know how my Dad feels when he can't figure out his computer.)

 

[bgro]

That makes a lot of sense. Thank you. I should have figured that out myself.

But -- I created a folder in Drive on "Finder" and put a document into it.

How do I get that on my iPhone? I don't see anyplace where the folder will be on the iPhone?

And, can I put the "drive" folder on my desktop to move docs into it? Or does it only work if I put docs into the folder on Finder?

(Sometimes I know how my Dad feels when he can't figure out his computer.)

In order to access your documents in iCloud Drive on an iOS device, you need to select an app that has iCloud Functionality built in. As an example, Pages supports iCloud Drive so open up the app and hit the "+" in the top left corner and it will allow you to select a document stored in iCloud Drive. I also know Dropbox supports iCloud Drive.

To be honest the service really sucks (imho). It is unreliable, featureless when compared to existing services, and unecessarily confusing. You're better off using Dropbox or Google Drive, both which have excellent iOS support and many more features than iCloud Drive. Why anyone would use iCloud Drive right now is beyond me. I love to stay in the Apple ecosystem whenever possible but iCloud Drive just flat out sucks.

 

[roadbloc]

Its basically an ever so slightly more reliable iDisk. Not really close to the functionality Dropbox or SkyDrive has.

 

[Cloudsurfer]

It's not quite dropbox, more like a mix between dropbox and the 'old' iCloud.

What bugs me about iCloud Drive is the fact that apps still have their specific folders. I currently have my documents organised the way I want them to on iCD, but whenever I open a file on my iPhone (like a Pages document for example) it copies the file over to the Pages folder.

Getting rid of the app specific folders would be a good start. But so would adding a stand alone iCD app be as well.