iCloud EXPLAINED! Here's what you need to know!

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There’s a part of the Apple ecosystem that I’ve not touched on in all the years that I’ve been working on this channel, but I get asked about a lot in the comments, and that’s iCloud. It’s something that I reckon we all use every day as Apple users, yet a huge number of people find it really confusing. And to be fair, that’s because Apple make it way more confusing than it needs to be.
So in this video, I’m going to explain what iCloud is, and what it isn’t. I’ll debunk some myths, and try and answer some Frequently Asked Questions, so that hopefully by the end of this video, iCloud will be a tool you can use with confidence, to get the most out of it, rather than be confused by.
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Chapters
0:00 - Intro
0:37 - What is iCloud?
4:55 - What does iCloud store?
7:05 - Isn't iCloud Drive basically iCloud?
10:56 - What about Shared Photo Albums?
13:11 - What about Backups?
15:17 - Managing iCloud Storage
17:24 - What is iCloud.com?
18:40 - What about iCloud+?

[@zorikn]

I'm watching this video in complete awe of how good you are at explaining things. You have a combination of patience, intelligence, and clarity that's just out of this world.

[@ProperHonestTech]

That's very kind of you

[@dismaldunc]

The way I explained it to my very old mum was " imagine you have a statue in the front garden, you can see it from the living room, dining room or bedroom. the view is of the same thing , just from different places. If I go in the garden and break its arm off, you will see its arm is missing whichever window you look out of.

[@ProperHonestTech]

That’s a good way of looking at it!

[@TheKlyagcy]

Awesome explanation!! If I were a genie, I'd give you an extra wish for that one. The first wish would be on me.

[@micosstar]

@@TheKlyagcy (: wholesome vibes :)

[@yunghiga3556]

Just one thing that’s missing the size of the window from you see through it (cellular data or Wi-Fi) sometimes you can’t never see the whole sculpture.

[@slomojo98]

@@yunghiga3556 🤦 WOW just add mud to it. 😂

[@djross95]

I'm pretty good with tech, but I have always found iCloud far more confusing that (say) Google Drive or OneDrive. This was a really excellent, informative video that cleared up a lot of my questions. Well done, sir!

[@jemand8462]

to be fair, icloud is much more then just a cloud for files though. If you use multiple Apple devices, Icloud does soo much more and it's really complicated.

[@josephpepe2607]

Eeew how? Google drive sucks big time

[@Manuel-rl6um]

@@jemand8462 Same as Google Cloud with Google Drive, Google Photos, Google Keep, Google Tasks, Gmail, Write, Sheets, etc. You take a photo in a phone linked to Google Photos and you will instantly see it in any Google Photos app of other phones or Photos in Chrome on a desktop for example. Everything described in this video is possible with Google Cloud. OneDrive works similarly, where your Outlook, OneNote, etc sync seamlessly using OneDrive storage.

[@christianc6016]

Your videos are so clear, concise, and crisp. And they replicate the ease and intuitiveness of the Apple experience. The graphics/visuals are professional and clean. Really enjoy your channel.

[@hettytravels]

Very good! Years ago, as a new Apple user, I learned the hard way that deleting photos on one device deletes them everywhere. Never again!

[@juliewholohan2850]

Me too, just lucky enough to have been able to retrieve them.😵‍💫 So glad to have found this man great channel.🙏🇦🇺

[@PatricioBenavente]

Tip: you can have more than one Photo Library. One shared on the iCloud and one just local. To do this: open photo app while holding the Option Key. To go to a different library: close photo app and open it again with the option key

[@IMHO313]

I'm a long time Apple user who randomly stumbled on this video and I can't believe how useful it has been! I didn't know about the "Remove download" feature. Could have saved me a lot of headache all these years. Many thanks mate!

[@djgdroid]

I have been an android user for several years and just in the last month have bought into the Apple eco system. I watch your videos daily and would really be struggling without them. This video on iCloud was amazing and you answered so many questions, THANK YOU!

[@artysanmobile]

I’ve explored alternatives and realized iCloud is unique. Not storage by any means. Others do storage very well. What iCloud does for me is take away the fear of any of my devices suffering catastrophic failure or theft. It just doesn’t matter anymore and that’s a huge relief.

[@bennym1956]

Have a home backup !

[@artysanmobile]

@@bennym1956 A copy at home is not practical for me as I have so many devices and constant changes. iCloud does all the work of synchronization and backup automatically which is exactly what I need. I used to maintain hard copies which was both time consuming and not at all secure, losing data all the time as a result. I keep hard copies only of archival data that is impractically large for cloud storage and is not subject to change, such as record projects that are finished, roughly 50TB in total, three full copies on HDDs . These two very different solutions have resulted in perfect security.

[@SoNowWhat]

Thanks for this. A point of clarification - Shared Albums do not count against your iCloud storage limits. Also, as someone else commented here, media is compressed to lower resolutions in a shared album.

[@MatthiasDamm]

And it losts the gps data of where the photos have been taken

[@WheelieAwesomeAdventures]

The quality goes down to 720p and I just figured this out the hard way!

[@yukuhana]

In other words, don't upload to shared album and delete your original!

[@mvl6827]

I watched the whole video from beginning to end (a miracle by itself), and consider it far more useful and informative than anything else I've watched on the subject. Up till now Apple iCloud was a mystery to me, and not a good one as I don't want to pay £10 each month for the privilege. I can now, with your help, start working on what I dó want. So, thanks a lot from a new subscriber!

[@Primo_extracts]

Your explanation of the shared album changed the game for me. I have over 10,000 videos and pictures from my travels and I've never been able to organize them the way I want. I am very thankful. For this video because the information you gave me is going to simplify everything.

[@Orwic1]

Excellent video - really useful and well explained. I am generally familiar with I cloud, but this filled in some gaps in my knowledge. Thanks for explaining it so well.

[@kevinmiles5770]

so, I have only began watching your videos a few days ago (two days ago I think) I wanted to say a BIG thank you for your very clear voice, the non over- usage of theatrics to make your videos stand out. Too often the other guys feel the need to use loud music, and so many transitions I have to stop watching theirs because they give me a headache. I will be 6o tomorrow and I don't tolerate a lot of junk in videos when I want to learn something. This is not to say your videos are any less entertaining because they are. You have a good way of pulling your audience in without over stimulation. I hope you stick around for a very long time. I think Apple themselves should see your videos because I am pretty sure they themselves would approve! - Thank you many times over!

[@marcdupuis4679]

Thanks for this great video on this particular subject. Don’t know how you do it every time but it is so well explained, so clear and concise. Keep up the good work. You’re TOP in my book 🏆

[@kimlarjohnson2263]

I teach older adults IT and to get them to understand icloud & Apple Storage is a minefield. you are so clear at explaining everything! Wonderful!

[@wingandhog]

Great explanation as usual. I use iCloud as you describe but use pCloud for encrypted long term storage that I purchased a life-time subscription a few years ago. pCloud has a synchronization feature that can be turned on or off. I have my turned on. When I open pCloud on any of my devices including a Windows desktop, my photos, videos or other folders I have pre-tagged get uploaded quickly to cloud storage. When I delete stuff from iCloud, those files still live in pCloud. I can manually delete them there if I need to. So iCloud is only my ‘working’ storage vs pCloud as my true archive.

[@andrejstemmle606]

WOW, what an AWESOME TIP YOU’VE GIVEN ME, regarding the Shared Photo-Album. Up until TODAY exactly this ISSUE (having 2 photos of the same if moved 2 another album) is (was) the GREATEST NUISANCE I‘ve had regarding the photo album. Greetings from Switzerland 🇨🇭

[@KGM962]

This is the best video ever!! It single-handedly answered my years long questions in the first few minutes !!!

[@dexplore97]

You explained this very well! I am a well experienced user of Apple products and I wouldn’t have been able to explain this as well as you did. Nice.

[@georgee3401]

Excellent tutorial. Well presented and very useful information. Many thanks!

[@rudybriskar5267]

Still clear as mud but very informative. I'm new to Apple and the ecosystem. Thank you for your content.

[@Fizz511]

So I was pleased to see you doing this topic, as I was specifically looking to see if there was a workaround for the fact that Apple have recently stopped streaming photos to all devices, but then here you are explaining how by the time you get home from your walk, your pic will be available on all your devices…… What have I missed/misunderstood? Because photo stream has definitely disappeared from all my devices (and I pay for storage too) 🤔🤷‍♀️

[@ProperHonestTech]

They've disabled My Photo Stream, so you'll need to enable iCloud Photos now to experience what was shown in this video. support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201317

[@robinriesner]

great topic that i need fully explained..thank you..i really enjoy your channel :)

[@user-pe1oo1xe9u]

Great explanation vid! This is why I think Google Photos offers a more convenient service for iPhone users. I can take as many photos as I like, and have them back up to Google Photos and then clear the photos from my phone knowing that they're backed up to the cloud. It's a shame that iCloud doesn't offer the same. I think this is arguably the most important feature (storage savings) for those who have a smaller capacity phone or want to reduce reliance on the storing photos on a single device.

[@chad8355]

Man, thanks for this comment.

[@kasperkorea]

It's not unlikely that Apple wants to nudge you into buying a larger capacity phone. I always opt for the lowest storage model and autobackup my photos in Google Photos and my files in Google Drive. I only use Icloud for Apple native services. In this way, I barely use any storage whatsoever on phone.

[@user-pe1oo1xe9u]

@@kasperkorea Agree with you on that but there's no back up service as an option which I think is questionable. Google Photos does make it easy enough to delete storage on phone once photos are backed up. How do you offload iMessages from your phone?

[@kasperkorea]

@@user-pe1oo1xe9u I don't use iMessages much :)

[@peetabrown5813]

@@kasperkoreaI don’t use iCloud for my photos on my iPhone, and by far the largest chunk of my storage space is consumed by photos and videos; however my iPhone tells me I can save that big chunk of data by enabling iCloud for photos, so it seems it would offload to the iCloud and when viewing on the phone I am only viewing the iCloud photo

[@andydavies27]

Wow, thank you SO much! I have been using an iPhone since iCloud was introduced and never have quite understood iCloud! Apple definitely needs to get your video on their website - I’m sure they would get a lot more sign ups after people actually understand how to use the thing! Thanks

[@juliewholohan2850]

Thank you for your wonderfully detailed yet simple response to this subject. I am an older tech challenged grandmother. I look forward to your help with other challenging tasks as I stumble through the wilderness of technology….I definitely have a much better handle on my Apple iPad and iPhone. Will definitely be recommending your KZbin channel to all my Babybooming friends.🙏🇦🇺

[@freddymiguelponce]

By far THE BEST iCloud video! Just subscribed

[@jtinoco9859]

Very informative and detailed video. I find iCloud confusing but now I have a better understanding and hopefully I’d be able to use all its functions to my advantage. Thank you!

[@MarttiSuomivuori]

Good quality stuff. You talk clearly, you make your points, you do not scream, nor do you think you are cute. Most of all, the information content is high. You know what you are talking about. One of the best.

[@GT-ho6co]

Well described and helpful. Now please explain iTunes music syncing for those that don’t subscribe to Apple Music 🤔🤷🏻🤷🏻‍♂️

[@3weight]

Yes, and Music Match - how does that interact with iCloud’s music sync?

[@ceasarsalad2055]

There's no iTunes anymore

[@GT-ho6co]

@@ceasarsalad2055 yes there is on Windows PC

[@jamesfield1674]

I hear ITunes is going and they are working on a better sync procedure for your own music

[@LeeStewart]

What annoys me about iCloud is the inconsistency between iCloud Drive and Photos. Photos consumes the majority of my iCloud storage, but also my devices' storage, which shouldn't be the case. They should remain separate. To do this Photos should act in the same way as iCloud Drive. You select a photo or video, download it from the cloud and when you need more internal storage, do the opposite of downloading it.

[@georgecaplin9075]

That drives me mad as well.

[@scotta3885]

In settings -> Photos make sure you have optimise iPhone storage enabled this will keep all the full quality versions of your images on iCloud and a lower resolution version on your phone (taking up less phone storage) and once you click into an image or video it will attempt to download the higher quality version from iCloud

[@laratheplanespotter]

Same. I deleted photos from my phone. I didn’t know I’d deleted them from my iCloud account too. So they’ve disappeared and gone forever 😢

[@georgecaplin9075]

@@laratheplanespotter i know this is obvious, but did you look in the deleted folder?

[@sir_whocampsalot2876]

@@laratheplanespotter What do you mean you didn't know? It warns you when deleting pictures that they will be deleted from iCloud too.

[@ericfielding2540]

This is a helpful explanation for people of almost all levels. I knew most of this information but I still learned more.

[@FlaminpieSpain]

Very interesting as usual, you make everything easy to understand

[@dylanfenn4265]

I just redid my iCloud storage plan as a result of this. Great explanation. Unlike most of you this stuff is far from intuitive for me, so this was a great help.

[@maxh4296]

At last! An explanation that I can actually understand Many thanks 🤩

[@dhanukaperera594]

This is a brilliant and comprehensive explaination. Thanks.

[@MrUbi]

Hi thanks for this video as always your material is well organised and explained, but still concise and very professional. One thing you didn't cover in the last piece on icloud+ is the Custom Email Domain feature? Would you be able to cover this? Thanks

[@meeluanistyn1644]

Great video, clear, informative and well-paced.

[@SteveFox66]

Interesting that your video came along at this time, I just got a message from iCloud saying my storage was almost full. I've got 200 gigs and usually keep a pretty good eye on it but the culprit turned out to be 60 gigs of drone footage, problem fixed when I moved it to an external drive. thanks for the info.

[@justinsmith368]

Thank you so much, I've been overlooking this feature for so long and never fully understood it.

[@KIWI_ADVENTURES]

awesome explanation!! great job buddy!!

[@billligon4005]

There is so much good information here - on this New Years Day 2024 I just can't absorb it all. Awfully glad you "index" the items. Thanks.

[@chrisanckaert]

Great video. I'm already a 2 TB iCloud customer, but still it was very informative 🙂

[@brendonfernandez]

This was such a helpful video! Thank you! I’ve been juggling the 5GB free iCloud storage for so long, hoping to get my backup to work. I didn’t realize the next 50GB increment was so affordable.

[@grayareahenshaw4583]

Great video as always. Could you please look at family sharing, another poorly explained feature within the Apple ecosystem which has crossover into iCloud amongst other areas.

[@itimdesigner]

your videos are so helpful! got 15 plus and i dont regret getting it:) thanks for this video

[@WFTL14]

Nice job. I found it to the point and easy to understand.

[@hali_kay32]

This was such an informative video! Thank you so much! :)

[@terencebull6340]

I realise I thought I knew about iCloud but you make it obvious I didn’t , thank you …you are very good at explaining things

[@GrandslamTim1]

excellent topic thats been confusing me for a while - not any more! thank you

[@tombirkland]

This is extremely helpful. Thanks for this.

[@johngfaulh]

A good video that I will share. A lot I already knew but learned some things too!

[@cari-serenity]

Awesome video! I learned more than I have in using icloud for 4 years!!

[@krisbuckles8392]

Excellent information and presentation. Thank you

[@fredaker8353]

Great video as always. Thanks!

[@PixelSplash999]

It's a shame that Apple doesn't allow you to delete photos from the phone and keep the uploaded photos in the cloud just like how iCloud drive does with the pdf files etc.

[@firefly8464]

Great video with epic clarity 👍

[@MegaTechiegirl]

Thank you! This was a great video- very helpful

[@artprojectsnz]

Great simple explanation - as usual. Q: I backed up my iPhone on my iMacPro ticking back up to iCloud - however I noticed that my system drive was now approx. 250GB heavier than when I began? I’d assumed it would all be uploaded to iCloud (over time of course) but is it also stored on my iMacPro? A little confused. (BTW I also use an external drive with the iMazing software which I find reassuring)…any thoughts on this? Cheers. JPMusic

[@xaza8uhitra4]

Excellent video this really helped me understand things better

[@joeglennaz]

This video keeps getting better and better! a sidenote, I have never seen moved to the bin on my Mac neither here nor there, though.

[@joeglennaz]

@@sam------- oh of course. Thank you

[@candylandqt]

From the bottom of my heart .. THANKYOU 🙏🏾🙏🏾

[@maikaimakena9424]

As always great work Bro ❤🤙🤙🤙

[@ProperHonestTech]

Thanks man, appreciate your long-time support!

[@thejonesy01]

Great content as ever thanks. Do you use and could you explain Advanced Data Protection in future content?

[@amalive_ways]

Thanks so much for these helpful tips and info, truly helpful for a newbie like me! 🤩🥰🙏

[@RichBriere]

You absolutely Rock my Friend....... Fabulous info. :)

[@nealvaught8176]

Fantastic video, thank you so much!

[@Superjeanmarc]

Very clear video. I consider myself as a power user and still got confused with iCloud. The most terrible feature about iCloud is the way it automatically decides which are the files that you frequently use and how it removes the local download to preserve space but without warning. I often work in remove areas, off grid, and found myself in the situation where I wanted to continue working offline on a file, only to discover that iCloud decided to remove it from my device (the dreaded cloud icon with down arrow)… This is extremely frustrating and shows that the system is really designed by Silicon Valley people that can’t imagine that some people in world need to actually work offline sometimes. Thanks for the video though.

[@krappy_]

Super helpful, thank you

[@SuperBarca1984]

That was really helpful thank you for ur effort

[@dougdurham6780]

Nice job, thanks Tim

[@markproulx1472]

This was a superb presentation. My only request would be to explain how to make (non-photo) files on one’s iCloud drive accessible to others.

[@meatme53]

While I don’t have a Mac, “yet”. I have the phone 13 and the iPad same. I find your videos extremely helpful and easy to follow. I was going to subscribe but couldn’t. I went to click and saw I already was. 👍I also like Payette Forward. It’s a shame we need people to explain things we do and use daily. I was not sure why I was even paying for the extra 50GB/month. But all the other features…yes! Sometimes we need a little explanation. Thank you!

[@charllescampos2932]

Great vídeo! Thank you very much!

[@sammayet9002]

Wonderful, helpful and useful, thanks a stack ❤❤❤

[@JAMxxxx]

Brilliant explanation of iCloud features! So nice to have an Apple presenter who does not bad-mouth Windows or Android.

[@jonnybingham1]

Fantastic channel - thank you!

[@madhur1404]

Great information.. thank you 👍🏻

[@seanmartinflix]

Just getting back into Apple after 10+ years, using windows, and Linux. I mostly use Google Drive for my cloud needs. One thing it has that I miss that iCloud doesn't do for some reason is streaming files. With Google dropbox and others, you can sync of course and use it like iCloud works, but you can also just stream the files if you don't want to take up space. I really like Mac however as a video, editor and large file collector for that matter. LOL... Not being able to swap an upgrade storage makes me feel limited. Of course there are solutions to a point. Being able to stream from Google Drive is a nice option I would love to be able to do with iCloud and Apple apps. Anyway, very informative video. Great stuff.

[@seanz7804]

Very useful! Thank you.

[@carlosprovyrivera8522]

Great crystal clear explanation. Kudos. If you haven’t done a f/u video yet I’d like to see a deeper dive on Time Machine and how it backs up what stored on iCloud. For example if I remove a downloaded file from my Mac but keep it on iCloud does time machine back it up or not?

[@maryflanagan7424]

Great info for a novice. Thank you so much

[@poornachandra1127]

Great explanation 👏👌

[@drewmarshammarsham2955]

Tom, Great video. Just something I would like to share that might help others. I was in South Africa a few years ago on holiday and was staying in a hotel which had a small wi fi allowance for guests. I could not work out why my allowance was getting used up when I came home after being out all day. Turned out that my iphone was set up to upload photos when on wi fi. As I had been out all day taking photos the minute I connected to hotel wi fi my photos were uploading to icloud and maxing out my allownace. Thanks to a tech savvy reception I sorted it out but just something worth mentioning in future videos Regards Drew

[@AfricanFlightStar]

Excellent job thank you!

[@genecampanelli7456]

Thank you for this!!!!

[@larajamokha2274]

Thank you that was so clear.

[@stewartgray9102]

Thank you, very helpful

[@Bellaire_Isaac]

Wow! I did not know that bit about the hide my email feature. I will probably start using that now Thanks!

[@shteebo]

Good explanation. Apple's made it way harder than necessary to understand this stuff, insisting on using the same terms in several places when they have different purposes/rules. "Cloud" is a prime example. I bet if you ask 10 average users the difference between deleting a photo in the iCloud verses on a CloudDrive, you'd get 5 "no ideas" and 5 wrong answers.

[@user-gn1cl9ix7p]

Great video, man.

[@andrewkuhne2586]

Great walkthrough however what was missing for me is Mac back up using iCloud. Disappointed this isn’t available.

[@app48]

An informative and well presented video. Many thanks. I've just started to use iCloud within a dual computer congiuration (iMac and MacBook Pro). Photos have been uploaded from my iMac and I'm about to do the same with the MacBook. Are there likely to be any conflicts/problems?

[@andyfx]

Another excellent video. 👏

[@Bohemian-Nilda]

Although I’m very appreciative of your description of iCloud, I’m nevertheless extremely happy not using it at all! I hated all the data space I lost bc of it and the $ I had to pay for all the extra space I needed to buy! And I’m perfectly happy with different photos, videos, files, etc. in each of my 5 Apple devices with absolutely no sharing between them. If I wish to share a file or two between devices i can easily do it by airdropping them. I find I’m better organized this way and each device is always packed with space to play with! And most importantly, no more headaches!😊

[@federico68]

I already knew all but... You reassured me 😀

[@davidgory1757]

Well done. Thanks!

[@arashtabrizi8018]

Hi. Thank you for the fabulous content of your posts. I have had a paid iCloud account for years on my iPhone. However, when I try to access older photos on my account, the folders are there but the pictures show as grey rectangles and do not download.

[@ecmanaut]

19:27 I'd love to hear more about your thoughts on HomeKit Secure Video. I don't know much about it beside it adheres to Apple's ideals about security and privacy, which would probably be enough for me if I had any need for security cameras, but it sounds like you have a more nuanced view of what they should deliver, but maybe don't. (And I understand if making that kind of video does not align at all with the intentions and flavour of your channel.)