iCloud Drive versus DropBox (iTunes Files)

iTunes Match is a good way to preserve your collection for only $25 per year. The downside is that it only stores music and not video.

You could consider buying a 1TB external hard drive and storing your library on that and pointing iTunes there for access.

I use a 3TB RAID array to store my iTunes library on.

zachlegomaniac said:

If I do not have the music stored on a hard drive anymore (or simply on an external hard drive) will iTunes Match still work? For one year? As long as I pay the annual charge?

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Yes, it will. It has been flakey over the years, with some songs refusing to download, but it has been pretty stable lately. I love it. But I still keep an offline archive.

edit: I also keep songs on google music. it allows downloads and is free for about 20k songs.

Thank you.

Also - The same goes for iCloud Drive. Do you need to have the files constantly syncing to a hard drive, or can I put my iPhoto collection on iCloud Drive, sell my iMac, and remotely access the files in the cloud as I would be able to with DropBox.

Essentially, are they basically the same service?

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Yes, it is not a SYNC service, so you can delete the local copy and the iCloud copy will remain. I use it sparingly, it works like dropbox. I don't trust the reliability aspects (of any cloud service...use it as a backup, not the only copy), but I trust the privacy aspect of iCloud more than dropbox.

iCloud Photo Library, on the other hand, is a SYNC service. Delete the local photo, it deletes the cloud copy also.