What is the point of iCloud.com without access to our full cloud?

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Level 1

6 points

What is the point of iCloud.com without access to our full cloud?

What is the point of icloud.com anymore? It seems that icloud.com only has unnecessary apps that a common, personal user wouldn't necessarily need (Keynote, Numbers?), but it doesn't include voice memos or photo booth or even messages (they used to have messages on here).

Is icloud.com even our cloud? Do we even get access to our cloud? I pay for icloud+ and it seems that even with this, I still have less features on iCloud today than every year before.

I would like to see what is saved in my iCloud, so I don't have to worry about what is and isn't backed up based on what Apple tells us is saved. It's like having a bank account with a checking and savings... we might make 'successful' deposits to both accounts but we aren't able to actually see the savings account until the day hits where we need to use that savings.

At this point, with so many products out there and so many recent instances of deleted memos, contacts, saved maps locations (home, work, school, parents, etc), or even a time when I needed to track my macbook, Apple just doesn't provide a way to avoid loss of information or lack of. And trust me, I am fairly tech savvy and have never not had an iPhone... I mean, my first phone was an iPhone in 2013 after years of Apple iPods (nano and basically every iPod touch offered).

I would just like to have access to my cloud (my virtual storage unit) and not have to put out all the mini fires set on my data... I am especially upset about those voice memos because I lost voice recordings of my mother's voice before she passed... even though these were deleted in 2019 after an IOS update, I still don't know how to avoid this from happening - heck, I never even know what is missing until I find it missing from my devices... but I would like to know what is actually saved.

So, is icloud.com no longer a virtual tool to access our Apple Cloud? If this is the case, then Apple just is just smokes and mirrors at this point and not something I can trust investing in anymore...

Posted on Apr 12, 2023 11:29 PM

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Answer 1

muguy

Level 10

91,100 points

Apr 13, 2023 3:26 AM in response to Rianne524

Some items are inaccessible at iCloud due to end -to-end encryption (eg. messages). But you can access all of your files, photos, iWork documents, etc. iCloud is primarily a synchronization service, not offline storage. The presumption is that you would use it to sync all of your devices so that content remains updates and accessible.

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Answer 2

tudor5808

Level 2

377 points

Apr 13, 2023 1:14 AM in response to Rianne524

iCloud is designed to be a companion for Apple devices, so by paying for iCloud, Apple assumes you have an Apple device which you can use with iCloud.

If you don’t use Apple devices, half of iCloud features are useless.

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Answer 3

Rianne524 Author

Level 1

6 points

Apr 13, 2023 11:17 AM in response to tudor5808

The point is that I DO have Apple products and these services are still more than useless… even the iCloud feature is less than what it was just one year ago. And things like photobooth images and videos are not covered under iCloud and only saved to the system’s hard drive, and other features such as voice memos are deleted without a way to recover them because the delete was caused by some update error you had to part in.

If we had a virtual cloud (access to our cloud, which can be assumed that is of what iCloud is for hence the name icloud DOT com), we could see what actually is and isn’t saved. We could see what makes up our backups and our cloud library rather than blindlessly hope that things are there. We are paying too much money to blindlessly hope. And if anyone says otherwise, they aren’t the majority of people who can’t drop over a grand on a device that doesn’t guarantee cloud storage and makes you pay extra for it.

My argument for using Apple throughout the last four of my college years was that we were paying for a premium service and that wasn’t due to the “Apple club” mindset but for the cloud feature. I loved typing a list of to-dos in my notes on my MacBook and resuming in my iPhone, but now that takes at least five minutes of refreshing each before it reflects in my iPhone… and before anyone says that I need a new iPhone or MacBook, I don’t! A $3,000 MacBook should last more than 3 years and also shouldn’t burn my thighs when actually using it as advertised.

I actually am starting to believe that Apple has lost their true innovation and core to what it was - now it’s just about how to squeeze out another buck and creating flashy mediocre features despite needing to fix flaws in their product that have been around for years.

I would be content had the icloud feature actually been a true-to-the-name cloud feature.

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What is the point of iCloud.com without access to our full cloud?

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