can anyone suggest a third party interface to replace icloud?

Frankfiz Said:

"can anyone suggest a third party interface to replace iCloud?: [...]Can anyone suggest a third party alternative that can access my iCloud files?"

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One unique method...

Download All of iCloud:

If you wanted to, you could download all of iCloud, and then search what is in there. Perform my User Tip: Getting a Quick and Direct "iCloud Drive-to-External Hard Drive" Download - User Tip. You would then use the Search Bar in a Finder window to browse all of iCloud. From there sort the files.

Hi Frankfiz

welcome to the Apple (user-to-user) Community.

Re: Can anyone suggest a third party alternative that can access my iCloud files?

Apple support's article: Access and manage your files in iCloud Drive - Apple Support

suggests:

" you can download iCloud Drive files locally to work on while you're not connected to the internet"

Seems iCloud is great at sync of files across various devices, as that seems to be the main strength.

Yet for storage and organization of files some of us would use external storage drives. Eg: On Mac, TimeMachine can be used to keep back-up copies of our hard-drives, making it easier to find any file we may want to retrieve.

Eg: How to: Back up your Mac with Time Machine - Apple Support

or

How to: Connect and use other storage devices with Mac - Apple Support 

All the best :-)

Frankfiz Said:

"can anyone suggest a third party interface to replace iCloud?: Hi TheLittles thanks for your suggestion. Went through everything you suggested but when I try to hit the download button it is greyed out and does not work. From memory I think that this has happened before and could not find a work around. Any sugestions?”

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You are welcome.

Greyed-Out Files:

It’s probably something to do with read/write permissions, or the format of your hard drive. So, for Ventura, you’d need APFS for the format-type. So, prior to the backup, format the external hard drive to APFS, using Disk Utility, trying this all once more. Be logged in as an Administrator.

You’re not making a Time Machine Backup or here, but for note, TMBs require you to format the hard drive anew accordingly to the format of the macOS prior to making one.