iCloud Drive
iCloud Drive is worth the cost
Over the past few months I have been using Apple's iCloud Drive as part of my everyday backup. The family subscribed to the 2TB plan.
Here's my review of the good/bad of using the iCloud as personal storage
Eight Things I Learned
- Very useful when you have limited space. My iMac has only 500GB on an internal SSD drive. Having the iCloud makes it easy to backup files that I don't use frequently. I can get access to them any time.
- Not Searchable. The advantage of storing files on a personal Thumb drive is that I can put them in and search within documents. With the iCloud, I have to download the files to search inside documents.
- Available Between Computers. I used to use DropBox to quickly move files between computers. Now I just move them using iCloud. Many of my favorite applications have their own iCloud folders where I can store files.
- Instant Free Storage. When I move files from the Desktop to a folder on the iCloud I get the space back.
- Files Always Available. I store all my fonts in a folder on iCloud Drive. Anytime I need a particular font I can grab it and instantly use it. I can then remove it from the system. Did you know: Fewer fonts installed helps the computer performance.
- Remove Download. MacOS automatically manages how long to keep downloaded files from the iCloud based on the last usage. However, I and right-click on any folder and select 'Remove Download' to free up space.
- Downloaded Folders. Folders that are downloaded are temporary stored in xxxxx
- Cost. The 2TB plan costs $9.99 a month. On Amazon, you can buy a standard 2 TB drive for $60. While it sounds cheaper, in the long run, to buy local storage it may not be. Apple's storage is well protected to make sure it's always available. If you ever lost a hard drive or a flash drive, you know the value of cloud storage.
At the End of the day...
I have thought of buying a new external drive for storage, but having used the iCloud drive for a couple of months convinced me that Apple iCloud is a better option. It's easy to manage the drive space and even easier to get files that I want.
It's nice to know that the files are protected and I don't have to worry about the hard drive crashing.