I Don't Fully Understand the iCloud Drive Concept

[durango]

I'm sorta a newbie to the world of OSX and iOS, having worked with PC/Windows for many, many years. But I'm slowly getting the hang of things, thanks to the help of many members on this forum.

But one concept that I am having trouble understanding is the iCloud Drive as it pertains to iCloud. I've searched the internet and read many articles, but I remain confused.

To exemplify my confusion, when I click on Systems Preferences>iCloud on my iMac, I see a listing of apps which I assume store data on iCloud. The first app listed is iCloud Drive, and I don't understand why it is listed here. But if I click on iCloud Drive Options, I get yet another list of apps. And if I click on Manage in the lower right corner of the first screen, I get yet another list of apps. Some apps appear on more than one list.

So I guess my questions are:
(1) What us the meaning/purpose of these three lists, each of which contain different apps?
(2) What is the real purpose of iCloud Drive (I understand it is not really an app)?

Any education would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[lclev]

I will do the best I can to explain it. Here is a link from Apple that you may have seen:

Apple - iCloud - Everything you love, everywhere you go.

iCloud is basically a personal storage amount (5GB) that Apple provides you to store data on. One of the issues I have with it is that only data generated by apple approved apps are stored. Which means if you have documents created in Word they will not be backed up but if you used Pages then yes, it will be uploaded. Rumor is they may change that someday.

As for what you can do with it. In the opening screen a list of standard apps are presented that you can select for iCloud back up plus the Find my Mac app (which I strongley recommend using) and Back to My Mac (which is a remote access app you can use between two apple products.)

I am not sure why when you click on the options button next to iCloud Drive why some apps appear again although mine only duplicates the Mail app. The options button for Photos gives you sharing and uploading options for photos and videos.

The Manage button is to allow you to actually look at what is actually in you iCloud storage in the cloud. You can delete stuff there. You can also go on the internet and type in your apple id and your password to manage what you have uploaded.

https://www.icloud.com/

I personally use iCloud to hold backups of my iPhone and iPad. Plus I use the "Find My Mac". I use other cloud storage for document backup and use local Time Machine backups for my MB Pro, MB Air and Mac Pro.

I hope this helps but I do understand your confusion. If you have anymore questions post back and either I or someone else here will help.

Lisa

 

[pm-r]

Good questions durango and I dare say you're sure not alone in asking.

Apple does a great job of proclaiming how good and wonderful it is, but fails to explain it properly, but does provide a bit of info with such kb articles like this:
https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT201104

I'd suggest your best bet is to do some Googling on things like: what is iCloud Drive
https://www.google.ca/search?client...&oe=UTF-8&gfe_rd=cr&ei=6R4vVcexAdCrmAKNy4CYAQ

which will give you some hits like:
What Is iCloud Drive & How Does It Work?

I don't use it because I haven't upgraded enough to do so, but I also have no real needs for what it can do for me. But I'm sure it can be great for some other users who can use it's features properly.

I basically see it as an external storage drive with various options that's owned by Apple and only accessible via a 'net connection with the rules and operations controlled (and restricted) by Apple and their OSs.

So, I'd suggest that Google can be your friend here to find the answers you want, and if it would be a benefit of of use to you and your usage.

Obviously, I wouldn't be one of Apples better salespeople regarding their iCloud Drive. ;D

EDIT:
I might add that like these users I haven't really figured out the difference between iCloud and iCloud Drive:
https://discussions.agilebits.com/d...icloud-vs-icloud-drive-explanation-in-post-10
so off to look sometime I guess at:
https://www.google.ca/search?client...&oe=UTF-8&gfe_rd=cr&ei=5iUvVeLjOurs8weak4DIBg

And maybe this is the best summary of the difference:
"iCloud is the collective name for Apple's cloud-based services.
iCloud Drive is a service that runs on iCloud. It's a web-syncing drive that allows you a centralized location for files shared between devices."

 

[S.SubZero]

Since you have used PC/Windows for a long time, maybe you've used Windows 8.x. Windows 8.x does a similar concept, syncing various system settings and preferences into OneDrive.

 

[durango]

Thanks for the above responses. Actually, Google is my friend, and I bet I've printed out 20 pages of website explanations/definitions regarding iCloud Drive. But I remain confused. I'm beginning to think that Apple considers iCloud Drive to simply be an update (or second version) of iCloud.

So let me ask one more question. What difference would I have seen had I did not turned iCloud Drive on? I.E., if on my iMac I clicked on System Preferences>iCloud and then did not check to turn iCloud Drive on. What if I had just continued to work with iCloud only?

 

[durango]

Since you have used PC/Windows for a long time, maybe you've used Windows 8.x. Windows 8.x does a similar concept, syncing various system settings and preferences into OneDrive.

I'm not a fan of Windows 8.x, so I continue to run Windows 7 on my three PCs. However, I think I will get excited when Windows 10 arrives.

But I do understand OneDrive, and that is the only entity. Microsoft did not come out with a 'One' and then a 'OneDrive' so as to confuse everybody. Apple did that.....they came out with two entities.......an 'iCloud' and then an 'iCloud Drive'. And the iCloud Drive can be found on the iCloud, adding to my confusion.

 

[S.SubZero]

Thanks for the above responses. Actually, Google is my friend, and I bet I've printed out 20 pages of website explanations/definitions regarding iCloud Drive. But I remain confused. I'm beginning to think that Apple considers iCloud Drive to simply be an update (or second version) of iCloud.

That's accurate.

Previously iCloud was a pool of storage, but it was only accessible through apps designed to work with it, ala Apple stuff. You as a user didn't have a way directly into it, you could only interact with stuff there indirectly through the apps that stored files there. Apps without iCloud functionality could not do anything with it.

iCloud Drive is much more generic in function. It is literally a mapped drive like in Windows. It's just "a drive." Any app can store stuff there, and you can access it through Finder like any other folder. There's even iOS apps to manipulate iCloud Drive stuff, and there's an iCloud Drive for Windows as well. iCloud Drive is also accessible through icloud.com.

iCloud Drive still syncs previous iCloud stuff like mail, calendars, contacts, etc.

 

[durango]

Thanks Subzero. All of what you said made sense, and I think I'm beginning to understand. It's too bad that Apple didn't publish a 2-paragraph kb article with a simple explanation. Anyway, I'm going to keep using iCloud and iCloud Drive, at least until next year when Apple will probably come out with iMoon and iMoon Shot.

Regards.........