iCloud File Size Limitation

iCloud drive is not an external drive. It is a mirror in iCloud of your internal drives. That is the reason for the size limitations. Everything you are storing in iCloud has to fit onto the disks of all devices you are syncing with iCloud Drive.

See the FAQ: iCloud Drive FAQ http://support.apple.com/kb/HT201104

The size limitations are imposed by the device with the least disk space you are syncing with iCloud Drive.

With iCloud Drive, you can safely store all your presentations, spreadsheets, PDFs, images, and any other kind of document in iCloud. Documents you store in iCloud Drive will be kept up to date across all of your devices, and you can access them from your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, or PC.

Here's what you can do with iCloud Drive:

• Store and access all of your documents in one place from any of your devices
• Keep files and folders up to date across all your devices
• Create new files and folders from iCloud-enabled apps
• Work on the same file across multiple apps

So my frustration is that I am paying $20 a month for the larger storage and can't use it to back up my files.

That storage is entirely separate than the iCloud Drive. The following is from this Apple document: iCloud: iCloud storage and backup overview

Here’s what iCloud backs up:

• Purchase history for music, movies, TV shows, apps, and booksYour iCloud backup includes information about the content you have purchased, but not the purchased content itself. When you restore from an iCloud backup, your purchased content is automatically downloaded from the iTunes Store, App Store, or iBooks Store. Some types of content aren’t downloaded automatically in all countries, and previous purchases may be unavailable if they have been refunded or are no longer available in the store. For more information, see the Apple Support article iTunes in the Cloud availability by country. Some types of content aren’t available in all countries. For more information, see the Apple Support article Which types of items can I buy in my country?.
• Photos and videos in your Camera Roll
• Device settings
• App data
• Home screen and app organization
• iMessage, text (SMS), and MMS messages
• Ringtones
• Visual Voicemail

This was in place long before the iCloud Drive was introduced.

Yes, that is bad. Definitely selective synchronization is urgently needed.

I feel exactly the same... totally showstopper for moving from Dropbox..... really a pity...

Hope so much it will be changed.

I've got similar frustrations.

Prior to Yosemite's release, I installed the latest iCloud app on a Windows 8.1 box that has a large number of photos on it. All stored securely on the web I thought.

I then upgraded to Yosemite on my Macbook Air, enabled iCloud Drive and wondered a few hours later why I had no disk space left.

This needs the option of a virtual drive rather then syncing locally.

Completely agree with Irsweet - I am BEYOND livid! False Apple market ******** with a slowed down Macbook Air to boot due to poorly tested OS!

Also, am I right in thinking there is no iCloud Drive app for iPhone/iPad?!? Because, I currently can't find any way to access my files on my phone... which is just absolutely pointless!

Same issue here.

I want to use my iCloud Drive to automatic backup my music iTunes Library (317 Gb) and my iPhoto Library (181 Gb)

Uploading the library takes a long time .. so when i add music or photo's to my local library i want it to automatic add it also on the library's on my iCloud Drive.

Also if i look in my finder i see only the space available on my local (iMac) drive and not the available space on my iCloud drive.

You should be using the iTunes Match feature to manage your music: https://www.apple.com/itunes/itunes-match/.

It would be a lot cheaper than purchasing 500 - 1000 GB for what you want to do. iTunes Match is only $25/year whereas the iCloud storage would start at $120 per year for 500 GB.

We'll have to wait until the new Photos application for the Mac is released next year to see how it will work with the iCloud Drive.

Like several people on here I'm pretty surprised that Apple have only really implemented a Google Drive clone.

I was expecting much better things after all the fanfare. I guess implementing a proper caching solution was either too difficult or my more likely too slow or Else they got it wrong

Sorry, bad last message. It was meant to say.....

Like several people on here I'm pretty surprised that Apple have only really implemented a Google Drive / Dropbox clone. Lightweight at that and way too late.

I was expecting much better things after all the fanfare.

I guess implementing a proper caching solution was either too difficult or my more likely too slow or else they got it wrong. I think they focused their energies on continuity features rather than a network drive that we all want & need to free up some of that valuable Macbook SSD space.

I see no reason to use iCloud drive over the competition and plenty of reasons not to use it.

Opportunity lost.

Ps. There is a package called ExpanDrive that does exactly what we want on the Mac.

Hello All new to this forum,

I am in the same boat I have upgraded to 200 gb storage to use the iCloud drive like Mobile Me and this seems to be very difficult.

I am using Sugar Sync and it will do all that we all seem to want but I was really hoping that iCloud would be the apple answer.

Can somebody clarify if i want to add files that are on my local drive, will these files then be doubles up on the local drive due to the automatic sync?

I am the same I do not want all the files I add to iCloud to be downloaded on all devices, I want them accessible if I need them but will only download when I need them then save them back to the cloud. This is shaping up to be a disappointing addition and I would have stayed with Mavericks if I know this.

The other thing I found was that trying to up load folders over 100mb you get asked to zip the folder before uploading (web app) this would then make the folder useless on line and i could not access the other folders contained in the master folder. (bad form)

I hope some one has found some answers to some of these issues otherwise I will leave iCloud to iPhone backs up and photo storage, I thought apple wanted to be take seriously in the business world.

Interesting subject!

I didnt like iphoto since his beginning (and the programs cryptic storage folders, I wanted control) so I stored my digital pictures (camera and iphone)
with image capture in my own folderstruction into the picture folder. Then came dropbox, but no selective syncing possible, you
need to store it again in your dropbox folder on you harddrive (I tried ALIAS with same structure photo folder and dropbox folder)

but dropbox didnt like this. Now I hear the same here - you need a icloud drive folder with the same filesize on your mac to sync!?

Is it really so difficult to bring out a icloud application which scan once in a while my preferred folders on my machine and brings
new or changed pictures, documents, files whatever to the same structure in the icloud??

Sorry for my english, Chris from Black Forest