What is meant by the terms "uploading" and "downloading?"

Back in the before times, there were networking-related mechanisms including downline loading, and upline dumping. These mechanisms refer to the transfer data from a server computer to a client computer, or from a client to server. The server could—for instance—downline load an operating system into a client computer and particularly into a client computer without local storage. Diskless computers were pretty common back then, as disks were expensive and small, and were not needed for some applications. That same client computer might later crash or otherwise fail, and could then perform an upline load to transfer the carcass in its physical memory to the server where it could be analyzed. And back in that era, the referenced lines were quite often communications lines such as a leased telephone line, or other wiring, and not an Ethernet connection. One server and one line that suppirted multiple clients were common, too. Much like a shared party line telephone but for computers, for those that recall party lines. Ethernet got rolling in the early 1980s, and a whole lot of these older lines were all replaced with less wiring and Ethernet, but the same servers were still downline loading (downloading) and uploading, and the terms continued. Download, upload, etc.

Upload/Download more simply is purely the direction data is being transmitted. When you turn on an AM radio, you receive a transmission. Similarly, on a computer, you receive data.

The radio station sends the transmission. Similarly, a computer located somewhere else sends data.

Obviously, you cannot send a transmission back to the radio station from your radio. However, a computer can send "transmissions." So, download refers to a "data" your computer receives from another computer. Upload refers to data (a transmission) your computer sends to another computer.

I used "device" because computers can be phones, tablets, watches, etc. Of course, these are all different types of "computers."

Haha...I used to go nuts back in the day when every person new to a computer and trying to sound "cool" would say they "downloaded" for every computer interaction. "Hey! I just downloaded the picture to you." Uhhhh...no, that's actually not what you did.😂🤓 Still, far better than "shoot me an email." OOF! Yeahhh...how 'bout I send you a postcard.

OK...

In short, uploading is transferring a file FROM your device to somewhere else. Downloading is when you are receiving a file from somewhere TO your device. Think of it as putting something UP on a shelf for someone else vs. taking it DOWN from a shelf for you.

ExplainitomelikeIm2yrsold wrote:

Thank you. Interesting history, but it doesn't help me much.

In modern parlance, copying stuff from "the cloud" or some other servers to your computer is "downloading", and copying stuff from your computer to "the cloud" is uploading.

The network directions "down" and "up" are relative to whichever computer is considered to have higher importance in the particular transfer. "Down" is from that computer, and "up" is to that computer.

This terminology was in use in the 1970s, and quite probably earlier.

Download is from somewhere TO your Mac

Upload is from your Mac TO somewhere else.

ExplainitomelikeIm2yrsold wrote:

What is meant by the term "uploading?" What is meant by the term "downloading?" What's the difference?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upload

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Download

You're close to understanding it my friend...

Your Hard Drive = Filing Cabinet

Partitions if any on your Hard Drive = File Cabinets Drawers.

Folders on your Hard Drive = Folders in a File Cabinets Drawer

Documents are whatever is in those folders or ones you've spread out on your Desktop, they can be Pics, writings, newspaper clippings, ads, coupons, Application, or other such things.

The "cloud" language is still a bit of an oddity as someone who just thought of it as the "Internet" in the 90s.😂

Think of the cloud as computers around the globe that transmit data back and forth between each other. When you pay with a credit card at a restaurant, the store's device (cash register, credit card machine, etc) checks with your bank to make sure you have enough credit to cover the bill. Your bank doesn't have just ONE computer at your local branch. It stores data remotely on "other" computers. Amazon, for example, has large swaths of computers to handle transactions for businesses. Businesses pay Amazon to provide this kind of service.

That's why if your local branch's computer breaks, your credit card charge still will go through.

ExplainitomelikeIm2yrsold wrote:

Thank you for the words of encouragement ("You're close to understanding...") But I can't help feeling I'm light years away from understanding much of it.

It's jargon. Every specialty has its jargon. And lots of it.

"Partitions if any on your Hard Drive..."

Partitions are a way to subdivide a single physical storage device into one or more virtual storage devices, and to make one physical device appear as several virtual devices. Physical and virtual devices are another bit of jargon, too. A physical device is one that—if dropped—can dent the floor. A virtual device is a construct of software or firmware, and isn't something that can be dropped.

How do I make filing cabinet drawers on my computer? What would they look like? I organize things in my actual filing cabinet by putting them in specifically titled manilla folders.

The user interface designs of computers routinely borrow familiar terms and concepts from the physical world, and re-use and re-mix those terms and concepts for what are intended to be similar constructs within the user interface design. This includes the "desktop" presentation you're indirectly referring to here, which dates back to work decades ago including that by people at Xerox PARC.

This reuse of and re-mixing of terms can happen in other contexts too, where an electronic fob that can be used to open vehicle doors and start a vehicle can be called a "key" based on what it does, rather than based on what it looks like or how it physically works.

Similarly, you may have heard the process of starting a car called "cranking", and the crank here is a reference a physical metal rod inserted into the engine—connecting into an engine component called a crank shaft—and the crank was manually turned to start the vehicle. And that crank removed quickly and carefully when used, to avoid breaking an arm. No modern vehicle has a crank, but we still have the term.

In computing, there's also no bottom to these terms and to these discussions. Computing is abstractions all the way down, and ~nobody understands the entirety of the modern computer. The traditional block diagram of a computer with a CPU, memory, and a disk hasn't matched reality in decades. And like all fields of human endeavor, the jargon changes and evolves over time, too.

Here is an intro to computer terms not that much past the traditional block diagram:

https://red-dot-geek.com/basic-computer-terms-beginners/

A little further along, Julia Evans has some good materials—webzines, so-called web magazines—containing some technical introductions to various parts of modern computing at https://wizardzines.com/ — these are the next step past the terms, when you start to look at the various components within each block of the computer diagram. A caution to sensitive readers here too, as some of the 'zines use the rich and colorful phrasing of the vernacular.

ExplainitomelikeIm2yrsold wrote:

So the way I "file" things on my computer is using the "Bookmarks" function. There's something at the top of my screen though that's listed as "File." Is there any advantage to using something in that drop down menu (i.e.; list contains New Window, New Private Window, New Tab, New Empty Tab Group, etc. ... which are more terms that I have no idea what they mean), to save stuff? There are some sensitive items in my current "Bookmarks" filing system that I would prefer to be more hidden away. When I click on the "File" heading at the top of the screen and select "Open File..." There's some stuff there all ready. I have no idea how it got there or why it's there. Some of it is listed faintly in gray, why is that? And how do I better organize what's there now?

That's a description of the web addresses associated with web pages and related using the Safari web browser app, and of saving and grouping those web addresses as so-called bookmarks.

Bookmarks can be saved in your reading list, and in what Safari refers to as folders of saved bookmarks.

As you get more familiar with the Safari tool, you can have multiple bookmarks open at once, with each open web page called a tab, and tabs can be organized into what Safari calls tab groups.

How to get more familiar with the Safari app? Here is an on-line introduction: Safari User Guide for Mac - Apple Support

Here is the on-line Apple introduction to macOS: macOS User Guide - Apple Support

Depending on how you prefer to learn, the Today at Apple program has classes in various Apple Stores on various Apple-related topics, and offers a Mac class in some places. Here is a one-hour Getting Started class at a New England-area Apple Store: Skills: Getting Started with Mac - Apple

When fully utilized, a Mac is immensely powerful computer system, and distilling all of its tools and apps and user interfaces and even part of its terminology to the level of—per your forum nick—a two year old is an undertaking well beyond what these forums can probably provide. The scale here is closer to a career than to a thread.