The Practical Guide To Mac Security: Part 14, iCloud Drive (MacMost

[@jerryrounds8586]

I learn something new in every one of your videos. Thanks Gary for continuing education.

[@debreale5236]

I’ll have to watch the part about optimized files again (and again). My new MacBook Pro has 512gb and I have Dropbox. I migrated from my 2014 MacBook Pro also 512gb but had been getting sooo slow. Not much free space, so I need to make good choices! Your videos always help, Gary. Thank you!

[@born2bwildne744]

I am learning MacOS on a late 2013 MacBook - with a 120GB or so SSD. I have pieceparts ordered to build and add an external 1 TB SSD drive. Will iCloud contain copies of both internal and external drives? Is there a setting I need to enable to do this? Do I need to "move" the location of the iCloud Documents and Desktop "folders" to the external drive in order to take advantage of its size? Is there a comprehensive document or manual that describes iCloud's features and functionality - along with how users can affect the functionality via settings, etc.? Hopefully this will all start coming into contextual understanding as I continue to educate and practice. I have used Windows since the beginning - MS-DOS before that.....

[@macmost]

Typically iCloud Drive files are stored in the internal drive. External drives would be used to store local files only. There may be ways to hack the system a bit to force them to be stored elsewhere, but I can't help with that, sorry.

[@born2bwildne744]

@@macmost Thank you for responding. I would't expect you to help with any "hacking" - and am not seeking that sort of guidance. Not knowing what I don't know drives to ask questions. It is hard to learn new things in today's technology - because quality vendor documentation and comprehensive teaching material seem hard to find (or I haven't simply found them yet). Throughout my life, I have always learned best when I understand the schema and context of the foundation and design - not just via rote learning. Your videos help a lot. Thank you for them all.

[@garyackers1469]

Again Gary you’ve educated me to storing files in different places….

[@loisskiathitis8926]

Another excellent and very informative video tutorial today! I so appreciate the visuals so when I do these things I can follow along correctly. Thank you, Gary! 👏👍🏻❤️

[@johnconstable8512]

best explanation ever. ty gary :D

[@karthickg2050]

Hi Sir! Suddenly, my WD external hard drive is not getting mounted on to my Mac. I am using Mac BigSur with version 11.5 My WD external hard disk is APFS encrypted formatted version. I know my password and my username given to my hard disk while formatting. After googling a lot, I understood that for spinning 2.5 inch external hard drive, APFS format is not good. But now, I need to mount it. Please help me with the terminal commands to mount my external hard disk to my Mac. Thanks a lot in advance. I am awaiting for your guidance.

[@macmost]

Use Disk Utility to mount it. But if the drive is broken, it won't help. Using APFS for spinning disks is fine and should cause problems.

[@Matschbacke25]

Can just use Cryptomator… works well

[@desertpatient]

Thank you

[@patrickcarrierephoto]

Can you limit how much space iCloud drive takes on your optimized local drive?

[@toadlguy]

No. And this is the greatest disadvantage to iCloud Drive. However, when you use Optimize, the latest version of MacOS will delete older iCloud files to free up space on your local drive as necessary. It even does not include the space used by iCloud Drive in your “free space” and you can delete local files with a right click action as well. This sounds great, except many programs may fail (such as VMs) when they run out of actual space. It really is somewhat ridiculous that the only options are copy all the files, turn off iCloud Drive, or let Apple control which files you have locally. Why not let you control what files you have locally? Or as you queried, limit the size locally.

[@hermes8258]

I jumped from #8 to #14 in this series. Not smart. I was lost with much of this content. Perhaps also watching and learning the basics of Mac (and even computers in general) is more prudent than watching this entire series first, at least out of sequence.

[@seanzhang479]

why there's no option for turning off the two factor authentication? THis is annoying

[@macmost]

Apple doesn't want people to move toward weaker security. Plus, many features now require it, which means turning it off would disable things. Why do you want to turn it off?

[@RyderCragie]

I don’t use iCloud Drive on my Mac purely because it tries to download all my files. I don’t want that. The “Optimise” option didn’t help either.

[@macmost]

Optimize will do what you want. How much it downloads depends on the space you have available locally. So maybe you have plenty of space?

[@RyderCragie]

I have 80 GB available, but that gets lowered considerably when I enable iCloud Drive. Therefore I don't bother with it.

[@macmost]

@@RyderCragie It is intelligently using your empty space to cache files. What good does 80GB of empty space do for you?

[@harryhellerman474]

That helped!

[@thomasipad7719]

Just one point: 2FA makes your iCloud content LESS secure! Anyone with access to you SIM card can reset the password and get in. Apple really broke this. 2FA is nice, but it should never ever allow to reset the password! Loose password -> loose account! This is the only secure way to do this.

[@colinowenuk]

Iv'e had files suddenly disappear from iCloud drive ... Don't trust it.

[@bernardoco]

Sorry, my first dislike on one of your videos. There’s a grave error: files in iCloud are not encrypted as you mention in the beginning. They are only encrypted during the transfer, which makes them accessible by Apple’s employees and the government (by legal request) when they’re at Apple’s servers.

[@macmost]

Here is Apple's security document. iCloud Drive is encrypted while on the server. support.apple.com/en-us/HT202303

[@bernardoco]

@@macmost my bad, I was referring to end-to-end encryption. iCloud data is not end-to-end, so Apple has the keys to access it. As a security feature, it’s as if your landlord could enter your home (or give access to someone) at anytime, but sure, there’s a lock on the door. This has been a security vulnerability in iCloud and I think you could have mentioned it.

[@macmost]

@@bernardoco But if your concern is Apple itself, then you are using Apple's hardware, Apple's operating system, Apple's apps and Apple's servers. Seems you have to trust Apple at some point. Apple could receive a court order to turn over your files, but then you can receive that order as well, right?

[@bernardoco]

@@macmost I really don’t know how the access would take place and if I’d be informed. I actually don’t trust anybody with my private or sensitive files.

[@ranevc]

First

[@trapstarbari9202]

First f