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Is iCloud and icloud drive the same thing?

Is iCloud drive different from icloud photo library? I knew stuff is available about this on internet, but I'm unable to understand it. Would You please guide me through. One more thing I didn't get whether both can make difference for future technological concerns or one of them can rock in near future to cover all issues?

Posted on May 1, 2019 11:37 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on May 2, 2019 7:23 AM

iCloud is the name for Apple’s cloud based service suite. Other than mail and your iCloud backup files, iCloud is exclusively a synchronization service (as opposed to an independent archival cloud storage system like DropBox where files can be kept independent of what’s on your devices).


iCloud Drive is a service that uses your iCloud storage space to store files to by synchronized across all your iOS and MacOS devices. iCloud Photos is a service to sync all your photos to all your devices via iCloud.


All of these services (iCloud email, iCloud Drive, iCloud photos, messages in iCloud, your iCloud backup) are stored in your free or subscription block of storage assigned to your AppleID in Apple’s iCloud system. So if using the free 5GB storage, all of these services are using space that counts towards your total allowed iCloud storage.


Your iCloud storage is also fully encrypted and is “end-to-end” encrypted, meaning anything being sent to iCloud from any of your devices, or anything received from iCloud to any of your devices, is also transmitted over an encrypted internet connection.


The main thing is to remember iCloud is a sync service, not independent storage. Changes to your photos or files in iCloud Drive made on any connected device will be sync’d via iCloud to all, so iCloud itself only reflects what’s also on one or more of your connected devices.

2 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

May 2, 2019 7:23 AM in response to mh256

iCloud is the name for Apple’s cloud based service suite. Other than mail and your iCloud backup files, iCloud is exclusively a synchronization service (as opposed to an independent archival cloud storage system like DropBox where files can be kept independent of what’s on your devices).


iCloud Drive is a service that uses your iCloud storage space to store files to by synchronized across all your iOS and MacOS devices. iCloud Photos is a service to sync all your photos to all your devices via iCloud.


All of these services (iCloud email, iCloud Drive, iCloud photos, messages in iCloud, your iCloud backup) are stored in your free or subscription block of storage assigned to your AppleID in Apple’s iCloud system. So if using the free 5GB storage, all of these services are using space that counts towards your total allowed iCloud storage.


Your iCloud storage is also fully encrypted and is “end-to-end” encrypted, meaning anything being sent to iCloud from any of your devices, or anything received from iCloud to any of your devices, is also transmitted over an encrypted internet connection.


The main thing is to remember iCloud is a sync service, not independent storage. Changes to your photos or files in iCloud Drive made on any connected device will be sync’d via iCloud to all, so iCloud itself only reflects what’s also on one or more of your connected devices.

May 2, 2019 6:13 AM in response to mh256

Hello. The following support pages should explain the main features of iCloud Drive and iCloud Photos.


https://support.apple.com/kb/PH19386?locale=en_US

Set up and use iCloud Photos - Apple Support


The main thing to remember with iCloud Photos is that it SYNCS your photos across multiple devices - so you need to bear in mind deleting a photograph on one device will also delete it on all other devices to keep them in sync. Both are used for different purposes and are part of the iCloud umbrella of services, which includes many other features as well, so it’s not a case of one replacing the other.


iCloud: What is iCloud?

Is iCloud and icloud drive the same thing?

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