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btownguy

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 18, 2009
545
19
In my use case, I just want to turn on iCloud Drive on my MBP, iPad, and iPhone. I want it to be a simple file system where I can store files in my own folder structure. I’m thinking it doesn’t work like this though. Why, when I turn on iCloud Drive on my Mac does it then present various applications with checkboxes (Automator?). Can I not store a Pages document in my own folder and then browse to it in Pages on my iPad?
 

Brookzy

macrumors 601
May 30, 2010
4,985
5,577
UK
Yes you can use it as a normal file system. The folders are made automatically but you can ignore them or delete them if you want to.
 

btownguy

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 18, 2009
545
19
Does anyone think Apple will ever remove the app-specific folders in iCloud Drive? It's really bad design. After turning on iCloud Drive, I turned off all app toggle switches (even Pages, Keynote, etc). After launching those respective apps on iOS, even though they were toggled off in Settings, they created app-specific folders in iCloud Drive. No Apple, I don't want that. I have my own folder structure where I store my files (project A, project B, etc). I don't want all of my Pages files in a folder by themselves.
 

richard13

macrumors 6502a
Aug 1, 2008
924
482
Odessa, FL
Does anyone think Apple will ever remove the app-specific folders in iCloud Drive? It's really bad design. After turning on iCloud Drive, I turned off all app toggle switches (even Pages, Keynote, etc). After launching those respective apps on iOS, even though they were toggled off in Settings, they created app-specific folders in iCloud Drive. No Apple, I don't want that. I have my own folder structure where I store my files (project A, project B, etc). I don't want all of my Pages files in a folder by themselves.

I think they are there due to how the online applications work. Say you log into iCloud.com and you create a new Numbers document. You'll notice there's no save icon. This is because the document is being saved as you type to that Numbers folder in iCloud. It just makes things clear as to "where it went". This is tremendously helpful to "non-computer" people like say, my mom.

I agree, for power users like yourself, it is kind of annoying that these folders appear even though you don't want them. I think they could add an option to specify the default folder, for example, the root of iCloud Drive.
 
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