Apple's Merger of 'iCloud Documents and Data' Into iCloud Drive Now Complete

[MacRumors]

Last May, Apple Apple announced that it would be merging its iCloud Documents and Data service into iCloud Drive in May of 2022, and that transition has now been completed.

As noted in a support document updated today, users who previously relied on iCloud Documents and Data for syncing files across devices will need to turn iCloud Drive on in order to see their files.

iCloud Documents and Data, our legacy document syncing service, has been discontinued and replaced by iCloud Drive. If you used iCloud Documents and Data, your account has been migrated to iCloud Drive.

If you used the iCloud Documents and Data service, you need to turn on iCloud Drive to see your files. When you switch to iCloud Drive, the amount of storage space your saved files use in iCloud doesn't change.

Apple's support document provides instructions and minimum system requirements for iCloud Drive on iOS devices, Macs, and on the web at iCloud.com.

The vast majority of iCloud users already have iCloud Drive enabled, so they won't see any changes. But for users who had iCloud accounts prior to the introduction of iCloud Drive in 2014 and never enabled it, perhaps to maintain compatibility with pre-iOS 8 and pre-OS X Yosemite devices that couldn't support iCloud Drive, they will now need to turn it on in order to regain access to their files.

The older iCloud Documents and Data service kept cloud-synced data stored in folders specific to a given app, only allowing access to the data from that app. With iCloud Drive being a more full-featured syncing service, all of those files can now be accessed from a single location: the Files app on iOS and iPadOS, the iCloud Drive section of Finder on macOS, or the iCloud Drive section of iCloud.com.

Article Link: Apple's Merger of 'iCloud Documents and Data' Into iCloud Drive Now Complete

 

[ratspg]

About time! Now we can hope for restoring deleted files and file history like Dropbox

 

[eicca]

Now can they make it so sync actually works and stops erasing my Pages docs on iPad?

 

[HMI]

Now can they make it so sync actually works and stops erasing my Pages docs on iPad?

“Beleted!!!”

 

[alchemistmuffin]

But for users who had iCloud accounts prior to the introduction of iCloud Drive in 2014 and never enabled it, perhaps to maintain compatibility with pre-iOS 8 and pre-OS X Yosemite devices that couldn't support iCloud Drive, they will now need to turn it on in order to regain access to their files.

Or you know, UPGRADE YOUR DEVICE!!!!!

If you are not upgrading, perhaps because you think your device works fine, why are you still using Apple device. Also it’s 2022. That device you own is too obsolete and really should upgrade…..

 

[eicca]

Or you know, UPGRADE YOUR DEVICE!!!!!

If you are not upgrading, perhaps because you think your device works fine, why are you still using Apple device. Also it’s 2022. That device you own is too obsolete and really should upgrade…..

1) It's running the latest iOS so it's not the device's problem, genius.
2) You pay for the upgrade and I'll happily do it. Otherwise I have to spend my hard-earned money on other things.

 

[PsykX]

About time! Now we can hope for restoring deleted files and file history like Dropbox

There was a feature called Versions which generated a file history in Time Machine. That was 11 years ago, with Lion.

We've actually lost this feature with iCloud 🫤

 

[tgwaste]

Maybe the piece of absolutely complete garbage crap they call iCloud Drive should be fixed first before doing anything else. It has NEVER worked properly.


Computer 1 (this space usage is correct)

$ du -hd1 Documents/ | tail -n 1
408G Documents/

Computer 2 (and here we are at almost double used for the SAME files)

$ du -hd1 Documents | tail -n 1
740G Documents


2.5 TRILLION dollar company.

 

[tgwaste]

About time! Now we can hope for restoring deleted files and file history like Dropbox

BWAHAHAHA.. Ya right.

 

[JosephAW]

Was getting strange errors the other day on my iPhone 4S when accessing iCloud with pages. I think iCloud Drive was turned on.

You’d be surprised the number of users who don’t have drive turned on and don’t use 2fa in 2022.

 

[mxrider88]

If it synced it would be useful.

 

[jav6454]

Or you know, UPGRADE YOUR DEVICE!!!!!

If you are not upgrading, perhaps because you think your device works fine, why are you still using Apple device. Also it’s 2022. That device you own is too obsolete and really should upgrade…..

Quite harsh of you. Not everyone can upgrade an iDevice every often. There is a reason why Apple provides support for devices for 7 years.

 

[telo123]

The whole iCloud Drive needs a redesign. It isn’t as fluid as Google Drive or OneDrive.

 

[jimthing]

This is confusing. I have Documents and Desktop enabled under iCloud Drive for years. What's this about then?

Some further explanation wouldn't go amiss.

EDIT: forget it, I read the previous thread that explains it.

Question: does this mean we can delete all these app folders in our iCloud folder? Eg. Ones for Pages, Numbers, Documents by Readdle, TextEdit, Shortcuts, etc. – or perhaps Apple will delete them for us? Or perhaps the apps themselves will delete them for us?

(...is Shortcuts here deletable, or best kept if you use some shortcuts?)

 

[jimthing]

The whole iCloud Drive needs a redesign. It isn’t as fluid as Google Drive or OneDrive.

Used it for couple of years, it generally works now. But still needs a sync button, selective sync functionality, along with versioning and easy file recovery.

 

[inkswamp]

iCloud Drive? Oh right, that thing that constantly nags me about being out of space because I had the audacity to take 3 photos.

Fantastic, useful feature, Apple.

 

[alien3dx]

ohh i more confuse now .Anybody can explain why da heck two name or diff? Icloud vs icloud drive ?

 

[Westside guy]

Quite harsh of you. Not everyone can upgrade an iDevice every often. There is a reason why Apple provides support for devices for 7 years.

Well, you see, that long support period is only good for purposes of ragging against Android's shorter support lifetime. If you actually keep an Apple device that long, any problems are obviously your fault because real Apple fans upgrade their devices every time they refresh.

I think that's how the fanboi logic is supposed to work, anyway. But I'm typing this on my 2015 MacBook Pro, so ...

 

[jav6454]

Well, you see, that long support period is only good for purposes of ragging against Android's shorter support lifetime. If you actually keep an Apple device that long, any problems are obviously your fault because real Apple fans upgrade their devices every time they refresh.

I think that's how the fanboi logic is supposed to work, anyway. But I'm typing this on my 2015 MacBook Pro, so ...

Good one. Long are the days when people bought Macs and iPhones cause they lasted 8+ years.

 

[Jim Lahey]

iCloud is a mess. With each passing day I ask myself again if anyone of influence at Apple actually uses their devices and services. They are probably connected to their own in-house system and are blissfully unaware that iCloud sync actually sucks for the plebeians. An option to force a refresh would be nice, but that would mean acknowledging that it doesn't "just work".

 

[hagar]

I’m surprised so many people are complaining about iCloud Drive. It works fine for me and syncs all my files reliably between all my devices. I have the 200GB option, which is a steal at 2,99.

It does have a 30 day window to recover deleted files. And there is version control if the app you’re using supports it (Like Pages, Keynote, TextEdit, …).

I do hate the old app specific mandatory folders and I wish we could finally delete them. I think it was one of the biggest blunders of Steve Jobs to try and hide the file system on iOS. And we’re still seeing that legacy today.

 

[TheLunaPark]

Or you know, UPGRADE YOUR DEVICE!!!!!

If you are not upgrading, perhaps because you think your device works fine, why are you still using Apple device. Also it’s 2022. That device you own is too obsolete and really should upgrade…..

Tell ya what, you use your pocket money to buy those with “outdated“ devices that have to work hard for a living brand new ones?

 

[Westside guy]

iCloud is a mess. With each passing day I ask myself again if anyone of influence at Apple actually uses their devices and services. They are probably connected to their own in-house system and are blissfully unaware that iCloud sync actually sucks for the plebeians. An option to force a refresh would be nice, but that would mean acknowledging that it doesn't "just work".

I moved over to Mega a few months ago. It seems to work pretty well across devices - as well or better than iCloud ever did for me.

 

[TheOldChevy]

I’m surprised so many people are complaining about iCloud Drive. It works fine for me and syncs all my files reliably between all my devices. I have the 200GB option, which is a steal at 2,99.

It does have a 30 day window to recover deleted files. And there is version control if the app you’re using supports it (Like Pages, Keynote, TextEdit, …).

I do hate the old app specific mandatory folders and I wish we could finally delete them. I think it was one of the biggest blunders of Steve Jobs to try and hide the file system on iOS. And we’re still seeing that legacy today.

The file system was strange on initial iOS. I think that the idea was to be completely application centric. It has advantages for security but it does not fly when you use several applications for a purpose: your data get spread.

I loved the concept that Apple proposed 20 years ago (or was it 30 ?) where the document was the center of the system and applications would connect to the document... but it was probably too complex to survive.

 

[sdz]

Not end to end encrypted unfortunately.