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casperes1996

macrumors 604
Jan 26, 2014
7,599
5,771
Horsens, Denmark
If I am like at a university windows computer how would I access these files?


I haven't really used Windows for anything other than games in a long time, but I'm pretty sure iCloud Drive is available for WIndows and integrates with Windows Explorer.
You can however also go to iCloud.com and see iCloud Drive there, downloading and uploading from the page.

But of course the native program is a more lean approach. If I remember correctly it's automatically installed when Windows is installed on a Mac with BootCamp

Edit:
Here's the link to download iCloud for Windows:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204283

It's not exactly as feature rich as on macOS - iCloud Drive itself of course will function the same with syncing files and the like, but you won't have more advanced iCloud features like Find My Mac and Keychain. But yeah, other than that, it's iCloud for Windows
 

Mendota

macrumors 6502a
Jan 9, 2019
617
1,209
Omaha
It's such a shame as OneDrive is by far the best value online storage solution out there (with Office 365 included), as I share it with other family members. Does anyone have any recommendations for any OneDrive alternatives?

Set it up to not run all the time in the background. You can sync only when you choose.
 

maflynn

macrumors Haswell
May 3, 2009
73,682
43,740
Or just use it via the internet like I do. It is a well done web page. I only keep an external drive backup of the files.
That's what I did when I was on a mac. Not surprisingly, it works really well in Windows and I have it running. I didn't need onedrive running my mac, and Excel was still able to access my spreadsheets.
 

BigMcGuire

Cancelled
Jan 10, 2012
9,832
14,032
Back when Google Drive came out with their online web office suite, I went 100% cloud and loved it, until many years later when a work account I had was deleted and all the data with it purged. I figured sharing it with my personal account was enough (my own ignorance). So now I try to do everything file based if possible... But at work, we use Office 365 Online to share work schedules, shared documents, it is almost as good as Google Docs - but what's nice is, you have a file on your hard drive that can be easily backed up.

I really like OneDrive. I really dislike how it doesn't back up live photos, so iCloud has my photo business and my personal data business. I wish Office 365 offered auto-save to iCloud, not just OneDrive - kind of a handy feature.

I'm lucky because I use OneDrive for work so my work computer has all my work data on disk and I can use Office 365 web on my MacBook. I'll be uninstalling Onedrive on my mac when I go home today.

Re- this thread - I haven't had OneDrive stuck at 100% CPU for months now, I assume they fixed it.

Arq on my work machine backs up OneDrive to B2.
 
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vine-boating

macrumors 68020
Aug 10, 2017
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Back when Google Drive came out with their online web office suite, I went 100% cloud and loved it, until many years later when a work account I had was deleted and all the data with it purged. I figured sharing it with my personal account was enough (my own ignorance). So now I try to do everything file based if possible... But at work, we use Office 365 Online to share work schedules, shared documents, it is almost as good as Google Docs - but what's nice is, you have a file on your hard drive that can be easily backed up.

I really like OneDrive. I really dislike how it doesn't back up live photos, so iCloud has my photo business and my personal data business. I wish Office 365 offered auto-save to iCloud, not just OneDrive - kind of a handy feature.

I'm lucky because I use OneDrive for work so my work computer has all my work data on disk and I can use Office 365 web on my MacBook. I'll be uninstalling Onedrive on my mac when I go home today.

Re- this thread - I haven't had OneDrive stuck at 100% CPU for months now, I assume they fixed it.

Arq on my work machine backs up OneDrive to B2.
So you recommend one drive then?

I haven't got any cloud services and I wanted to use only 1 for all my uni work etc...

Some people recommend dropbox, some one drive and some iCloud Drive
 

BigMcGuire

Cancelled
Jan 10, 2012
9,832
14,032
So you recommend one drive then?

I haven't got any cloud services and I wanted to use only 1 for all my uni work etc...

Some people recommend dropbox, some one drive and some iCloud Drive

I do, OneDrive is great, upload speeds great.
Dropbox is great, almost better to than OneDrive in terms of simplicity and ease of use. But OneDrive is free if you have Office 365 subscription.
iCloud is my favorite recommendation because I already pay for it for my iOS backups and my wife uses it a lot, so I just do the family plan.

So it's not really one is a ton better than the other, most cloud services are pretty good. If you use Word and have an Office 365 subscription, use OneDrive. iCloud is probably the easiest for all Apple products, if you have Windows laptops then I recommend OneDrive and Dropbox. :p
 
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vine-boating

macrumors 68020
Aug 10, 2017
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I do, OneDrive is great, upload speeds great.
Dropbox is great, almost better to than OneDrive in terms of simplicity and ease of use. But OneDrive is free if you have Office 365 subscription.
iCloud is my favorite recommendation because I already pay for it for my iOS backups and my wife uses it a lot, so I just do the family plan.

So it's not really one is a ton better than the other, most cloud services are pretty good. If you use Word and have an Office 365 subscription, use OneDrive. iCloud is probably the easiest for all Apple products, if you have Windows laptops then I recommend OneDrive and Dropbox. :p
I have Office but the download version not the cloud version.

So for iCloud Drive for example if I have a word document which I said on to the iCloud Drive, how would I open the document up on a windows computer for example?
 

BigMcGuire

Cancelled
Jan 10, 2012
9,832
14,032
I have Office but the download version not the cloud version.

So for iCloud Drive for example if I have a word document which I said on to the iCloud Drive, how would I open the document up on a windows computer for example?

You can install iCloud Drive on your windows machine. That will sync everything in your iCloud to your windows hard drive. Then you can open it on your windows machine.
 

vine-boating

macrumors 68020
Aug 10, 2017
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You can install iCloud Drive on your windows machine. That will sync everything in your iCloud to your windows hard drive. Then you can open it on your windows machine.
Oh I was talking about a public computer
Like if I want to open up a world document saved on my iCloud Drive. How would I open it up?
 

BigMcGuire

Cancelled
Jan 10, 2012
9,832
14,032
Oh I was talking about a public computer
Like if I want to open up a world document saved on my iCloud Drive. How would I open it up?

On a pubic computer you'd have to go to iCloud.com - log in there, use 2 factor to get in (via your iPhone), then download the word document to the local computer. Though easier would be to use Pages. iCloud has a Google Doc/Office 365 like feature where you can use pages in the web browser. I much prefer Office 365 though. iCloud is great for Apple only devices.
 

casperes1996

macrumors 604
Jan 26, 2014
7,599
5,771
Horsens, Denmark
On a pubic computer you'd have to go to iCloud.com - log in there, use 2 factor to get in (via your iPhone), then download the word document to the local computer. Though easier would be to use Pages. iCloud has a Google Doc/Office 365 like feature where you can use pages in the web browser. I much prefer Office 365 though. iCloud is great for Apple only devices.


My entire workflow is Apple from end-to-end. Whilst OneDrive and Office 365 is likely a great solution for the workflows that require the programs, iCloud as the platform makes way more sense to me if those services are out of the picture and your main computing is Apple-centric. Anything saved to Desktop or Documents, instantly syncs. All notes. All photos. All backups. The OS integration is also super nice. It's very easy to get to all the data from any device, it's fast and cheap and I'm a happy camper.

I strongly urge people in academia not to use Word anyway, making Office365 and thus the accompanying OneDrive thing less attractive for Apple-centric workflows. Get used to LaTeX instead. If you want a cloud colaboration environment for LaTeX similar to Google Docs or Office 365, use Overleaf.
At least if you study in the department of Science and Technology (or similar/equivalent) LaTeX will likely both be expected and much nicer to work with, and to read... Once you get through the initial learning curve.

Between Overleaf, iCloud and GitHub syncing and going all wireless has been super easy for me and the people I collaborate with at uni. iCloud does all the work from a personal perspective, but GitHub is brillant for sharing code with a group and doing version control - Of course the version control aspect is just Git itself - GitHub just makes synchronised collaboration easy. And Overleaf is great for simultaneous editing of LaTeX files. If you don't write LaTeX, iCloud.com of course has Pages for online editing (the app version can also integrate with collaboration workflows, but for PC contributors, the web version is your only option for iCloud backed sync work, though it's a good web app in my book. As good as Google Docs anyway.)
 
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vine-boating

macrumors 68020
Aug 10, 2017
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My entire workflow is Apple from end-to-end. Whilst OneDrive and Office 365 is likely a great solution for the workflows that require the programs, iCloud as the platform makes way more sense to me if those services are out of the picture and your main computing is Apple-centric. Anything saved to Desktop or Documents, instantly syncs. All notes. All photos. All backups. The OS integration is also super nice. It's very easy to get to all the data from any device, it's fast and cheap and I'm a happy camper.

I strongly urge people in academia not to use Word anyway, making Office365 and thus the accompanying OneDrive thing less attractive for Apple-centric workflows. Get used to LaTeX instead. If you want a cloud colaboration environment for LaTeX similar to Google Docs or Office 365, use Overleaf.
At least if you study in the department of Science and Technology (or similar/equivalent) LaTeX will likely both be expected and much nicer to work with, and to read... Once you get through the initial learning curve.

Between Overleaf, iCloud and GitHub syncing and going all wireless has been super easy for me and the people I collaborate with at uni. iCloud does all the work from a personal perspective, but GitHub is brillant for sharing code with a group and doing version control - Of course the version control aspect is just Git itself - GitHub just makes synchronised collaboration easy. And Overleaf is great for simultaneous editing of LaTeX files. If you don't write LaTeX, iCloud.com of course has Pages for online editing (the app version can also integrate with collaboration workflows, but for PC contributors, the web version is your only option for iCloud backed sync work, though it's a good web app in my book. As good as Google Docs anyway.)

The thing is I have an iPhone and a MacBook Pro, I will also have an iPad very soon. However when I am at university the computers that are windows computers so I need to be able to open all my saved documents on public and windows computers. What cloud service would you recommend? iCloud Drive?
[doublepost=1551533557][/doublepost]
On a pubic computer you'd have to go to iCloud.com - log in there, use 2 factor to get in (via your iPhone), then download the word document to the local computer. Though easier would be to use Pages. iCloud has a Google Doc/Office 365 like feature where you can use pages in the web browser. I much prefer Office 365 though. iCloud is great for Apple only devices.
Thank-you.

I have office but the download version which I bought a couple of years ago. I don't have the online version where you get one drive with it.
 
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casperes1996

macrumors 604
Jan 26, 2014
7,599
5,771
Horsens, Denmark
The thing is I have an iPhone and a MacBook Pro, I will also have an iPad very soon. However when I am at university the computers that are windows computers so I need to be able to open all my saved documents on public and windows computers. What cloud service would you recommend? iCloud Drive?

I don't really get why it's done this way to start with - At my uni we all just use our own computers. We have Linux boxes we can SSH into and WebDAV for storage, but we just use our own equipment.

Anyways, if you're allowed to install custom software you'll get about the same experience with all of them, iCloud Drive maybe being a bit less optimal on Windows than the rest, but almost the exact same experience, and still better integrated with the Apple world.

If you're not allowed to install custom software;
Is OneDrive already installed and you're allowed to log in and stay logged in to your profile? If so, use that
If not and you need to access data through a web browser, I think we're back to it all essentially being the same experience. The bigger difference then isn't the cloud storage, but the accompanying service. Google Drive will let you live open files (open files in the web browser) perhaps more so than the other too, but your editor will be Google Docs for text files.
OneDrive will let you open Office files with the online Office version (though I don't know if that comes with just OneDrive or requires 365 subscritpion)
iCloud gives you iWork on iCloud.

If you download the files anyway they're all the exact same experience. You can try out iWork on iCloud and Google Docs now if you want. They're free services and you only pay for the storage. Again, don't know about Office Online or whatever they call it.
 
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vine-boating

macrumors 68020
Aug 10, 2017
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I don't really get why it's done this way to start with - At my uni we all just use our own computers. We have Linux boxes we can SSH into and WebDAV for storage, but we just use our own equipment.

Anyways, if you're allowed to install custom software you'll get about the same experience with all of them, iCloud Drive maybe being a bit less optimal on Windows than the rest, but almost the exact same experience, and still better integrated with the Apple world.

If you're not allowed to install custom software;
Is OneDrive already installed and you're allowed to log in and stay logged in to your profile? If so, use that
If not and you need to access data through a web browser, I think we're back to it all essentially being the same experience. The bigger difference then isn't the cloud storage, but the accompanying service. Google Drive will let you live open files (open files in the web browser) perhaps more so than the other too, but your editor will be Google Docs for text files.
OneDrive will let you open Office files with the online Office version (though I don't know if that comes with just OneDrive or requires 365 subscritpion)
iCloud gives you iWork on iCloud.

If you download the files anyway they're all the exact same experience. You can try out iWork on iCloud and Google Docs now if you want. They're free services and you only pay for the storage. Again, don't know about Office Online or whatever they call it.
Thanks for the reply
Can you open iCloud Drive on a windows computer? For example if I save a word document on iCloud Drive I can open it on a public uni computer?
 

casperes1996

macrumors 604
Jan 26, 2014
7,599
5,771
Horsens, Denmark
Can you open iCloud Drive on a windows computer? For example if I save a word document on iCloud Drive I can open it on a public uni computer?

Yes. You can download all your iCloud documents from any computer no matter the OS, by logging into iCloud.com. If you can install software on the public computer and use it as your own, there's also iCloud for Windows which integrates with the file browser
 

vine-boating

macrumors 68020
Aug 10, 2017
2,242
579
Yes. You can download all your iCloud documents from any computer no matter the OS, by logging into iCloud.com. If you can install software on the public computer and use it as your own, there's also iCloud for Windows which integrates with the file browser
Oh okay thanks

I think I will stick with iCloud drive for now. I don't see the point of paying £7.99 or however much it is for One Drive because I already have MS office installed on my computer which I bought a 2 years ago. There would be no point having 2 subscriptions unless I just pay for the storage?

Also Dropbox charges as well I think....
 

casperes1996

macrumors 604
Jan 26, 2014
7,599
5,771
Horsens, Denmark
Oh okay thanks

I think I will stick with iCloud drive for now. I don't see the point of paying £7.99 or however much it is for One Drive because I already have MS office installed on my computer which I bought a 2 years ago. There would be no point having 2 subscriptions unless I just pay for the storage?

Also Dropbox charges as well I think....


Well, nothing comes free. iCloud gives you 5GB for free - after that you need to pay too. Though it's rather cheap. I only know Danish pricing, but assuming that it's about the same, $1 gives you 50GB and somewhere around $3.5 gets you 200GB.

Last I checked Dropbox gives you more than 5GB for the free tier, and Google Drive gets me 15GB for free. - Though that is at the cost of privacy of course.
 
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vine-boating

macrumors 68020
Aug 10, 2017
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Well, nothing comes free. iCloud gives you 5GB for free - after that you need to pay too. Though it's rather cheap. I only know Danish pricing, but assuming that it's about the same, $1 gives you 50GB and somewhere around $3.5 gets you 200GB.

Last I checked Dropbox gives you more than 5GB for the free tier, and Google Drive gets me 15GB for free. - Though that is at the cost of privacy of course.

iCloud here in the UK is like 79p for 50gb so its very cheap. Dropbox and One Drive for example are like £7.99 if you want the premium service which comes with more storage than the free versions.

I am thinking of stick with iCloud Drive for now as all I am really using the storage service for is my essays that.I do at uni and all my lecture notes. That is pretty much it. I wrote most of these using Microsoft Word.
Unless I use the dropbox free version?
 

BigMcGuire

Cancelled
Jan 10, 2012
9,832
14,032
My wife and I use iCloud for our primary cloud storage. It has been working for us very well. Professors at my wife's college use Box, Dropbox, OneDrive, and Google Drive so she has to have all those installed and uses the free version.

If you have Apple products and a Mac laptop, highly recommend iCloud. We use it, we're happy with it. We use Microsoft Word/Excel with it extensively. For notes, wife and I use an iPad with GoodNotes and Notability when we can.

For Windows applications, like my work, OneDrive is a no brainer with Windows 10. Works well on Mac too (especially with Word/Excel).
 

badsimian

macrumors 6502
Aug 23, 2015
374
200
Although I am not currently on a Mac laptop when I was a few months back I actually found iCloud to be a bit of a battery hog, never had any trouble with OneDrive. If you have OneDrive for business as part of an Office 365 licence then you get 25TB included. If you have an E3 or above then it is actually practically unlimited. I backup my NAS to it using Duplicati :)

An alternative to the OneDrive client is rclone ( https://rclone.org )which can mount various cloud services as folders on the file system. Not sure how smooth it will be. You won't necessarily get the selective sync etc but might be worth looking into.
 

vine-boating

macrumors 68020
Aug 10, 2017
2,242
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Although I am not currently on a Mac laptop when I was a few months back I actually found iCloud to be a bit of a battery hog, never had any trouble with OneDrive. If you have OneDrive for business as part of an Office 365 licence then you get 25TB included. If you have an E3 or above then it is actually practically unlimited. I backup my NAS to it using Duplicati :)

An alternative to the OneDrive client is rclone ( https://rclone.org )which can mount various cloud services as folders on the file system. Not sure how smooth it will be. You won't necessarily get the selective sync etc but might be worth looking into.
Hmm maybe I should buy One Drive storage only since I have MS Office downloaded on my computer already.
 
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