You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!
When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.
When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.
💡 Did you know?
⏺ If you can't accept iCloud Terms and Conditions... Learn more >
⏺ If you don't see your iCloud notes in the Notes app... Learn more >
⏺ If you can't accept iCloud Terms and Conditions... Learn more >
⏺ If you don't see your iCloud notes in the Notes app... Learn more >
Hi,
I wanted to know if it is possible to use iCloud to archive documents. I will mainly use iCloud to:
— Synchronise documents between machines (a future Mac Studio and my MacBook);
— Synchronise Contacts, Photos, Calendar… between the macs and the iPad and iPhone;
But also archive documents since my hard drive is too small.
Simply put: can I also use iCloud as en external drive?
TIA,
MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 13.2
Thank you very much. So you can not create a folder on iCloud without having it on the Mac. :(
But can I synchronise a user on two machines? The "Office" Mac and the MBP for the trips. When I say "user" I mean documents and the Library folder, like keychain or mail (I still have some POP/SMTP accounts).
Or, si Time Machine my only solution?
benoît237 wrote:
Thank you very much. So you can not create a folder on iCloud without having it on the Mac. :(
Correct.
But can I synchronise a user on two machines? The "Office" Mac and the MBP for the trips. When I say "user" I mean documents and the Library folder, like keychain or mail (I still have some POP/SMTP accounts).
Yes. You can turn on Desktop and documents to sync those folders across the Macs so all files are kept up to date.
POP email accounts are by their nature not synced. What you download on one computer is removed from the server, so other devices accessing said accounts would not see the emails anymore. IMAP email accounts keep email on the server and as such can automatically sync between different devices, since all changes and updates are done on the server.
Or, si Time Machine my only solution?
If you need to keep files off the computers then either Time Machine or some other backup software, (there are many 3rd party alternatives) can do that.
By definition archived content is content which you don't need to access constantly much less from multiple locations or devices. So yes, backing up to an external drive is a good and recommended way of archiving files.
Phil0124 wrote:
benoît237 wrote:
But can I synchronise a user on two machines? The "Office" Mac and the MBP for the trips. When I say "user" I mean documents and the Library folder, like keychain or mail (I still have some POP/SMTP accounts).
Yes. You can turn on Desktop and documents to sync those folders across the Macs so all files are kept up to date.
POP email accounts are by their nature not synced. What you download on one computer is removed from the server, so other devices accessing said accounts would not see the emails anymore. IMAP email accounts keep email on the server and as such can automatically sync between different devices, since all changes and updates are done on the server.
Ok. But with a hard link in ~/Documents/Mail to the ~/Library/Mail folder?
benoît237 wrote:
Phil0124 wrote:
benoît237 wrote:
But can I synchronise a user on two machines? The "Office" Mac and the MBP for the trips. When I say "user" I mean documents and the Library folder, like keychain or mail (I still have some POP/SMTP accounts).
Yes. You can turn on Desktop and documents to sync those folders across the Macs so all files are kept up to date.
POP email accounts are by their nature not synced. What you download on one computer is removed from the server, so other devices accessing said accounts would not see the emails anymore. IMAP email accounts keep email on the server and as such can automatically sync between different devices, since all changes and updates are done on the server.
Ok. But with a hard link in ~/Documents/Mail to the ~/Library/Mail folder?
You mean symlink? Possibly. Never tried it with email though. You may need to test out the behavior once it's re-directed to iCloud.
Phil0124 wrote
benoît237 wrote:
Ok. But with a hard link in ~/Documents/Mail to the ~/Library/Mail folder?
You mean symlink? Possibly. Never tried it with email though. You may need to test out the behavior once it's re-directed to iCloud.
I discovered you can add email adresses/accounts to Mail in the iCloud preferences. I'll see if it works with POP.
Thanks for your help and advice.
No. Everything on iCloud is synced from a computer, this requires that the file or item exist on the computer it's syncing from always.
You cannot have items exclusively on iCloud.
Is it possible to archive documents on iCloud?
