Question: How do you use iCloud?
*Applies to iPhone, Apple Users
What is iCloud?
To describe this in a simple way, iCloud is an Apple service that allows you to store data in the “cloud” aka computer server storage around the globe.
Introduction to iCloud
Cloud is the service from Apple that securely stores your photos, files, notes, passwords, and other data in the cloud and keeps it up to date across all your devices, automatically. iCloud also makes it easy to share photos, files, notes, and more with friends and family. You can also back up your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch using iCloud.
iCloud includes a free email account and 5 GB of free storage for your data. For more storage and additional features, you can subscribe to iCloud+.
Apple support page – https://support.apple.com/en-lamr/guide/icloud/mm74e822f6de/icloud
Another way to explain this would be to visualize the CD stands they sold back in the 90s and all of those CDs you owned. Keeping those CD stands was quite the chore, sometimes you had to shift entire sections to add in a new CD. Sometimes there were just piles of CD cases waiting to be organized and stored.
The cloud is the CD stand and your data (pictures, documents, email, etc) are the CDs. The good thing is the cloud takes in and organizes all this data for you.
1. Backing Up – Why is backing up important?
Most importantly, I use iCloud for backing up my iPhone and all my precious pictures.
iCloud is seamlessly available across all of my Apple devices and available with a little more work from my Windows machine.
Honestly, this feature is so seamless, that I forget it is a feature.
Backing up allows your data along with your phone configuration and settings to be saved to either iCloud or to a computer. If you lose or damage your phone you can use the “back up” to restore it to a new iPhone.
A few years ago, it was common to back up your phone to a computer but the problem with this method is that you have to remember to do this periodically and chances are, if you lose or damage your phone, your backup would be at least a few days old. iCloud backs up your photos in increments and backs up your device every 24 hours.
Here are instructions on how to back up your iPhone.
2. Sharing Albums
I also use iCloud to share photos with other iPhone users.
As an example, my daughter had a playdate with a few other girls. The play date developed into a 10-minute variety show of singing and dancing. I took some videos and pictures to share with the other parents. The other parents might be concerned about data storage or data transfer rates. So, I created a “Shared Album” in iCloud and shared it with the other parents. They can just view or download the video or images to their phones by choice.
The official instructions on how to use or create a shared album in iCloud is here.
3. Extra Storage for Your Phone & Storage
I just can’t decide between wanting storage in my hand versus iCloud, so given the opportunity, I will always choose a phone with more storage space, however, I do subscribe to extra space from iCloud because life happens and I feel comfort in knowing that if my phone fell to the bottom of the ocean, my phone data would be intact and available from my iCloud backup.
I have seen articles that call the iCloud storage space “expensive” compared to other “cloud” storage, but none are as easy to use as iCloud with your iPhone. I can take a photo on one end of my room and walk across to my computer and the photo is already there for me to view or edit on my computer.
I do manage what is backed up to iCloud from my phone.
You can do this too:
Manage Items in Storage
Settings> Click Your Name – Apple ID, iCloud, Media & Purchases> Click iCloud >Manage Storage
Manage Your Apps
You will be able to see which app and how much storage it is taking in iCloud.
>Click back on iCloud
Scroll down a bit and you will be able to toggle back up to iCloud on and off for all of your apps.
You may want to disable apps like “Dog Emoji Designer” like I did :).
How do I access my Apple iCloud storage?
You can access your iCloud Apple storage from your Apple devices. Here are the instructions.
You can also access it from your PC computer at: https://www.icloud.com/. You will need to know your iCloud account username and password.
Get iCloud Active
For more information on accessing Apple iCloud use Apple Support instructions here.