save to icloud and drive?

Question

save to icloud and drive?

Hi guys,

I just started using iworks and am a bit put off by the default use of iCloud. I don't know if I'm just being dense here but it's a bit disconcerting. When I save something, it defaults to iCloud. Ok that would be fine but there is no mirroring with my drive as I understand it. That means that if I don't have an internet connection, I can't access my documents right?

So I was wondering if there is a setting to save a copy to both the local drive and icloud or if some sort of mirroring option is available. It's not like my iWork docs are going to take up that much space on my drive.

I just have no faith that icloud will always be running whenever I happen to need my documents. Or that I will always be able to access the internet. Or that the servers won't have some sort of crash and I'm stuck without a backup. And as I understand it, Time Machine doesn't back up docs from iCloud.

Am I missing something here?

If not, isn't this all a bit worrisome? Are people really trusting critical documents to the whims of the internet?

Thanks!

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.4)

Posted on Oct 30, 2012 12:13 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

mende1

Level 10

93,538 points

Oct 30, 2012 12:18 AM in response to Bruce Bridges

You can do it, but it's difficult:

1. Save your document in your hard drive and create a copy on another directory.

2. Open the copied document in Pages, Keynote or Numbers, select the file name at the top of the window and press Move to iCloud.

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Answer 2

Oct 30, 2012 9:39 AM in response to Bruce Bridges

That means that if I don't have an internet connection, I can't access my documents right?

No, not at all. if you have no internet connection you can still use your iCloud documents, they just won't update to other devices until you do have a connection.

Copying documents to your Mac from iCloud will likely cause confusion and not really help you, but if you wish to do this, just alt-drag a document in the iCloud window to your Mac to copy instead of move it.

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Answer 3

Oct 30, 2012 4:30 PM in response to Winston Churchill

Hmm, if you can access iCloud without internet then does that mean that there is actual a copy residing on your drive? What kind of magic is this?

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Answer 4

Oct 30, 2012 4:46 PM in response to Bruce Bridges

Yes, a copy is kept on your hard drive, but it's hidden from the user by default.

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Answer 5

Oct 30, 2012 4:50 PM in response to Winston Churchill

Hmm, well that's sort of incredible. Well, since I have you here, can you tell me the most simple way to copy a document to a zip drive? before I'd just drag a file from my drive to my zip but I don't see any iCloud icon in my finder to access docs like that.

Thanks for the insight!

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Answer 6

pvonk

Level 6

13,851 points

Oct 30, 2012 5:15 PM in response to Bruce Bridges

~/Library/Mobile Documents

Note that Library in the user's home folder is now hidden, so you'll have to set Finder to view hidden files.

The Mobile Documents folder has subfolder where copies of the doc/data files are stored.

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Answer 7

Oct 30, 2012 8:08 PM in response to pvonk

Ok, thanks for the insight into how iCloud works. It makes a lot more sense to know it actually saves to your drive. Here is what I did to resolve my future issues (I hope).

I used tinkertool to reveal hidden files. I know you can do this with terminal but tinkertool is free and easy. Then I found the mobile docs folder only to find that it cannot be added to the side bar so I made an alias which I then put in my sidebar.

I turned off the "reveal hidden folders", restarted my finder and mobile documents is now easily available to me.

Now iCloud docs are as easy to access as anything without having to reveal any hidden folders.

Thanks again.

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Answer 8

Oct 31, 2012 11:53 AM in response to Bruce Bridges

You'll likely cause chaos if you fiddle with the documents in the hidden locations, that's why they are hidden. Just drag them from the iCloud folder in the application you are working with to wherever you want

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Answer 9

Oct 31, 2012 5:24 PM in response to Winston Churchill

Hmm, well maybe I'm doing it wrong but I don't see an option to view the iCloud folder. And I'd really like the option to grab a file from my drive without having to open a program. My plan is to simply drag and drop files to be copied so hopefully I won't introduce the chaos you warn about. I wonder if I can protect the folder so that it cannot be changed through this alias but I can still grab copies.

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Answer 10

Oct 31, 2012 5:35 PM in response to Bruce Bridges

Sorry, I've just noticed you have OS X 10.7, you'll need to update to 10.8 if you want to add documents from the application, otherwise you'll need to use iCloud.com. You should still avoid using the hidden folders.

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Answer 11

Oct 31, 2012 5:56 PM in response to Winston Churchill

Ah, I have 10.8 but failed to update my status. Thanks for all the suggestions.

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