iCloud Can someone help me understand iCloud?

[guitarman1996]

I've never really understood how it works between devices. I'm an all Apple guy (phone,iPad,iMac) but don't use the cloud so I just have the 5GB... Don't want anything stored and the only thing I want "shared" between devices is my Books information so I can read on the iPad or the phone and not lose my place..... I think I also need it for the "Find My Device" thing but other than that what good is it for me?



I just got an email saying it's almost full and messages is taking up 4.2GB... If I Turn Off and Delete I get the warning about having 30 days to download.... If I turn it off and do nothing will it effect my messages on phone/imac? I could care less if these messages are stored in a virtual cloud I just don't want anything effected on the devices themselves.

 

[StoneJack]

Works based on single iCloud account. That's it really. Can sync between devices, though a bit slower than OneDrive and Dropbox, which are instantaneous.

• I keep all my main work files in Cloud so they sync across devices. (General file sync and storage). I use same iCloud on 3 Macs, iPad and iPhone, can access and edit files from each device. Saved me from local storage corruption, forgotten presentations and lost files many times. You can also directly login in iCloud and download or export your work files on local devices be it Windows or Android.
• Secondly, Safari bookmarks, email and passwords, Notes apps, etc. (Information sync and storage). I can setup any Apple device to my liking in seconds, using iCloud, and it is ready for usage. Very efficient, from my point of view.
• Thirdly, I keep Pages, Keynotes and Numbers files in iCloud so I can access them from any iDevice and edit (Work files and storage). Again, efficiency and reliability, which I like.
• While I can do same thing in Dropbox and OneDrive, OneDrive is more geared towards Windows (with same principles), Dropbox has meager storage, still not optimized for M1, and I never use Google cloud, just don't get it. iCloud is much more, of course, Apple OS friendly and generally reliable.