Can I store any kinds of file types on the iCloud?

[Marty_Macfly]

Hi all,


Having fun with my 1st ever Mac.
Its cool too have more control of what I can do on an apple gadget.

I found it very restricted my use of the iCloud with the iPhone and iPad. Photos, music and the odd numbers spreadsheet.

Ok, with the Mac I can build proper filing systems, and have online backups on Icloud and OneDrive.


Newbie Questions:

Q1) Can I pretty much drop any type of file into the iCloud folder?

Q2) Is there a list anywhere on what file types will not work?

Q3) Is there iCloud file settings, where I can state I want a local copy always, just incase cannot get online, or (Shock horror) there is an outage with the iCloud?


Hope you can advise

Kind regards
Martin

 

[James_C]

Q1) Can I pretty much drop any type of file into the iCloud folder?

You can put into iCloud any document or file that you can put on your Mac.

Q2) Is there a list anywhere on what file types will not work?

See Q1 above

Q3) Is there iCloud file settings, where I can state I want a local copy always, just incase cannot get online, or (Shock horror) there is an outage with the iCloud?

iCloud is primarily a file sync service. In its most basic form any file that you put into a iCloud folder or subfolder is uploaded to a secure Server. Then any other device that is connected by the same Apple ID and has iCloud enabled will get moved down to that device. For that reason all files in iCloud will be stored locally on your machine, so even if you are offline you will be able to access your files.

However there are two exceptions to the basic rule above. Firstly if you use the Photo's App preferences and select 'Optimise Mac Storage' when you Mac becomes full, full resolution images are replaced locally with smaller lower resolution images to save space. The full resolution image is only downloaded when you need it.

The other exception is in Pereferences under your iCloud settings in your Apple ID. By default optimise Mac storage is on, you can turn it off. As your Mac becomes full it will remove old files from your Mac, but keep them in iCloud.