Why iCloud Drive is Apple’s Most Frustrating Tool: A Deep Dive into Its Flaws and User Unfriendliness

I have a great appreciation for good tools, and generally experience Apple products as the best tools on the market. This being said, iCloud Drive is perhaps the most infuriating tool that I have EVER had to use. In particular, the iCloud Drive integration on the Mac models.

iCloud Drive automatically uploads user files in major directories to relive file storage, a potentially useful tool. These files are uploaded to Apple’s iCloud storage. After being uploaded, a folder alias forms on your desktop with a prompt to quickly download the original file/s. This benefits both the user and Apple, as the user can free up storage by temporarily uploading dormant files, and Apple benefits from the user spending money to purchase more iCloud storage.

A good concept, but with a few unforgivable oversights which overcome the benefits of the tool. 

This is how iCloud turned my productivity into a hassle:

First:

iCloud Drive does not in any way communicate to the user what files are being uploaded. In fact, the upload order itself seems mostly arbitrary. This means that frequently used files must be constantly redownloaded, consuming data and wasting the user’s time. There is no way to interface with iCloud Drive, it’s a black box.

Second:

iCloud Drive will always prefer to upload more files to iCloud than to let your Mac run out of storage. This means that if you temporarily run low on storage, then iCloud Drive will search the deep recesses of your MacBook to upload more files, even ones which you frequently use. This has been particularly troubling, as it will occasionally upload files which are critical to operating certain software applications which are a part of my professional productivity. If I am traveling, and must use one of these apps, I suddenly find that iCloud Drive has effectively killed the app until I can get back to a place with WIFi.

Third:

Most egregious, iCloud Drive will eat up your network data plan. Now, obviously, if you are using iCloud Drive, you probably have a nearly unlimited data plan (or at least I hope you do). But, I frequently travel, and, when I travel, I use my hotspot. My hotspot has very limited data. Somehow, Apple did not think of this? There is somehow no way to temporarily stop iCloud Drive from uploading files. This is unfathomable to me. iCloud Drive has eaten up all of my massive 40gig hotspot on more occasions than I can count. This hotspot is a critical part of my productivity; losing it is detrimental. This problem became so bad that I sought out other solutions. Ultimately, I found an app called “TripMode” which tracks data usage and allows you selectively permit network usage for certain apps. I highly recommend it.

Fourth:

iCloud Drive prefers uploading to downloading files. I have frequently tried to force a download while iCloud Drive is uploading files, only for the download to slow to a crawl and ultimately not finish until the files are finished uploading. If you temporarily stop the uploads, via TripMode, then this becomes a huge issue, because you may accumulate 50gigs-100gigs of un-uploaded files which, when given the opportunity, iCloud Drive has a field day with. And this process can take a very long time, especially if your bandwidth is bottlenecked by other applications or poor connection.

Fifth:

Ok fine, if you hate it so much, just turn it off. Trivial right? Wrong. A couple years ago, before I had TripMode, I became so fed up with some of these problems that I decided to turn off my desktop and document syncing. I did not, however, realize that doing this completely removes the structure of the desktop and documents file directory. All of the aliases, representing the iCloud uploads, are deleted and new subfolders named “desktop” and “documents” are created to store, locally, any uploaded files. Again, this process completely disrupts your file directories in these locations, meaning that software which relies on these file directories suddenly cannot function. This catastrophe left me with almost no hotspot and completely nonfunctional software applications while I was up against a tight deadline for a film project.

This is no small issue. The iCloud Drive handles user data, which users deeply depend on for personal and professional activities. A user experience this bad is unacceptable, certainly unacceptable by Apple standards.

Finally, I never willingly turned on iCloud Drive. This is an option which automatically activates when you sign into iCloud on your MacBook. Considering how poor my experience has been, this is a huge problem. In no way does this activation make you aware of any of these possible complications.

I have always been a big supporter of Apple, and try to use their hardware and software when I can.

This is the first Apple forum post that I have made, and I am making it because I want to contribute to making their tools even better.

Thank you all,

Cater