Icloud drive

Thanks for clarifying MarOre,

While iCloud can be used to create a complete backup of an iOS device, it's not intended as a backup for photos, or data stored on a computer.

iCloud is primarily used to sync data between devices, so items stored in iCloud are typically available both in the cloud, as well as on the device or devices syncing with iCloud, which would also use storage space on those devices.

There may be other cloud services, specifically designed to backup data from computers, that would better serve the purpose. You can also copy the data from the drive, to another external drive, which would give you a physical backup copy of the data.

For additional guidance on options for backing up data stored on an external drive connected to a Windows computer, we recommend connecting with Microsoft Support.

We hope this helps!

Hi there Mari,

We understand you have questions about and are looking for assistance with iCloud, iCloud Drive, and storage.

We'd like to start by clarifying what you mean to accomplish, members of the community can then offer the most relevant guidance to help you reach your goal from there.

Typically, the way iCloud handles photos, is that they sync automatically to the cloud, so you can see the same pictures on all your devices. Is this what you're trying to do?

The following page provides some additional information about how it works: Set up and use iCloud Photos

If you're hoping to free up storage space on another device or hard drive, while photos on the device might be able to be optimized to make more space, iCloud would not be the recommended solution for freeing up storage used by Photos. If this is the case, let us know which device you're trying to make more storage available on.

If the intent is to keep a backup of your photos, let us know what device they were captured with, or are currently on, and whether you are signed into that device for iCloud, and have syncing enabled.

We'll look forward to hearing back from you!