iCreate - UK (2020-05)

The key components of iCloud and

how they impact on your storage

iCLOUD BACKUP

This is a feature of iOS that

backs up your entire device to

iCloud so that all of your important data is

safe in the event of you losing or breaking

your device. Everyone should utilise

this feature by going to Settings>Apple

ID>iCloud>iCloud Backup and turning it

on. Any backups that you make to iCloud

will impact on your available storage.

iCLOUD DRIVE

This is a slightly newer feature

that allows Apple users to sync

files across devices, rather like Dropbox or

Google Drive. This is deeply integrated into

Apple Software, although it has become a

lot more flexible in recent updates to allow

for the uploading and syncing of virtually

any type of file. Any files stored in your

iCloud Drive will affect your storage.

iCLOUD PHOTOS

This uploads and stores all

of your photos and videos to

iCloud so that you can access them from

all of your devices. However it doesn’t

mean that your photos aren’t backed up if

you don’t have it turned on. Your photos

are included in all of your iPhone/iPad

backups by default, so you don’t want

to be paying out for a larger plan just to

back them up twice.

MY PHOTO STREAM

This uploads and sends all of

your new photos to your other

devices, which sounds a bit like iCloud

Photos. However, using My Photo Stream

does not count against your available

iCloud storage as the photos aren’t

uploaded to iCloud, they’re just transported

to your other devices over Wi-Fi. So do you

really need more storage for your photos?

If you found that your free 5GB allocation

of iCloud storage has been eaten up

quite quickly and you are struggling to

back up your iOS device as a result, here

are the main storage-eaters.

What you need

to know

If you have two Apple IDs then you can leave your Mac signed into one and

access the other through iCloud.com. You cannot access both within Finder.

The key components of iCloud and

how they impact on your storage

iCLOUD BACKUP

This is a feature of iOS that

backs up your entire device to

iCloud so that all of your important data is

safe in the event of you losing or breaking

your device. Everyone should utilise

this feature by going to Settings>Apple

ID>iCloud>iCloud Backup and turning it

on. Any backups that you make to iCloud

will impact on your available storage.

iCLOUD DRIVE

This is a slightly newer feature

that allows Apple users to sync

files across devices, rather like Dropbox or

Google Drive. This is deeply integrated into

Apple Software, although it has become a

lot more flexible in recent updates to allow

for the uploading and syncing of virtually

any type of file. Any files stored in your

iCloud Drive will affect your storage.

iCLOUD PHOTOS

This uploads and stores all

of your photos and videos to

iCloud so that you can access them from

all of your devices. However it doesn’t

mean that your photos aren’t backed up if

you don’t have it turned on. Your photos

are included in all of your iPhone/iPad

backups by default, so you don’t want

to be paying out for a larger plan just to

back them up twice.

MY PHOTO STREAM

This uploads and sends all of

your new photos to your other

devices, which sounds a bit like iCloud

Photos. However, using My Photo Stream

does not count against your available

iCloud storage as the photos aren’t

uploaded to iCloud, they’re just transported

to your other devices over Wi-Fi. So do you

really need more storage for your photos?

If you found that your free 5GB allocation

of iCloud storage has been eaten up

quite quickly and you are struggling to

back up your iOS device as a result, here

are the main storage-eaters.

What you need

to know

If you have two Apple IDs then you can leave your Mac signed into one and
access the other through iCloud.com. You cannot access both within Finder.