One Drive vs iCloud Drive?

[bigsmile01]

How does OneDrive compare to iCloud Drive? I have three key questions:


1) How well does OneDrive integrate with MacOS/iOS.
I’ve tried Googling around, but I’ve seen conflicting opinions on this. Some people say that OneDrive integrates just as well with MacOS/iOS as iCloud Drive does. However, I've seen other people say the opposite, saying that it's not as smooth an experience as iCloud Drive. Is that true?

2) When you use iCloud Drive to store your documents folder, all the contents of the documents folder can be backed up to an external physical drive via Timemachine. Is this the same for OneDrive? (i.e. can all files stored in one drive still be backed up to an external physical drive via Timemachine?)

3) Does OneDrive have anything that is the equivalent of ADP (advanced data protection, which is end-to-end encryption).

Because I have found conflicting opinions from my research, I'd love to hear from someone who uses OneDrive on MacOS/iOS on a regular basis.
Thanks!

 

[SalisburySam]

We use OneDrive, Dropbox, and iCloud, plus a local hard drive for my iMac backup using TimeMachine. Dropbox is our main document repository and we use it extensively with access from all devices (two iPhones, three iPads, the iMac, a Microsoft Surface Book). My wife uses OneDrive, the cost of which is included in her Microsoft 365 license necessary for her work. Our license includes all our devices so I’ve set up a OneDrive space as well giving us a combined 2TB of storage. Frankly, I don’t use it much but she uses it for all her work files.

We’ve not subscribed to any increased iCloud storage so have only 5GB available, therefore we don’t use it much. Given 2TB on Dropbox we also don’t need iCloud for storage. Our iPads and iPhones are backed up to the iMac and then to the hard drive with TimeMachine. We’re exposed to some data losses should the iMac and attached hard drive fail but all our important files are in Dropbox (home use) or OneDrive (work use).

With that background:
1- OneDrive integrates pretty well for us with both macOS and iOS, and of course for Windows10Pro. No issues whatever on any device we have for anything we’ve tried to do.
2- We do not know if you can backup OneDrive files using TimeMachine. But we’ve not had a need to do so and likely would not do this.
3- OneDrive touts encryption both in storage and in transit per Microsoft.

The biggest advantages for us to OneDrive are document collaboration, something my wife uses extensively in her work, and its integration with Outlook. I don’t use Outlook and just use OneDrive for additional file storage, mostly for files I create in Word/Excel/Powerpoint and those are few. Most of my work is on files contained in Dropbox.

Not sure any of this helps you, but at least it’s a datapoint for your digestion.

 

[BeatCrazy]

How does OneDrive compare to iCloud Drive? I have three key questions:


1) How well does OneDrive integrate with MacOS/iOS.
I’ve tried Googling around, but I’ve seen conflicting opinions on this. Some people say that OneDrive integrates just as well with MacOS/iOS as iCloud Drive does. However, I've seen other people say the opposite, saying that it's not as smooth an experience as iCloud Drive. Is that true?

2) When you use iCloud Drive to store your documents folder, all the contents of the documents folder can be backed up to an external physical drive via Timemachine. Is this the same for OneDrive? (i.e. can all files stored in one drive still be backed up to an external physical drive via Timemachine?)

3) Does OneDrive have anything that is the equivalent of ADP (advanced data protection, which is end-to-end encryption).

Because I have found conflicting opinions from my research, I'd love to hear from someone who uses OneDrive on MacOS/iOS on a regular basis.
Thanks!

I use both OneDrive (via M365 sub) and iCloud Drive.

1) It's surprisingly good integration. Never had an issue. I mainly use it via macOS vs. iOS.
2) I don't use Time Machine so not sure.
3) I'm not the expert on this, but I understand it's encrypted to and from the cloud. So whatever is stored on your Mac could be the most vulnerable, depending on how your machine is set up.

 

[gilby101]

1) How well does OneDrive integrate with MacOS/iOS.
I’ve tried Googling around, but I’ve seen conflicting opinions on this. Some people say that OneDrive integrates just as well with MacOS/iOS as iCloud Drive does. However, I've seen other people say the opposite, saying that it's not as smooth an experience as iCloud Drive. Is that true?

Two things:
a) Many apps integrate seamlessly with iCloud. They don't for OneDrive, except for MS Office.
b) iCloud Drive as a file store is similar to OneDrive.

2) When you use iCloud Drive to store your documents folder, all the contents of the documents folder can be backed up to an external physical drive via Timemachine. Is this the same for OneDrive? (i.e. can all files stored in one drive still be backed up to an external physical drive via Timemachine?)

Your understanding of TM is wrong. TM backs up files present on your disk. It does not backup files only in the cloud whether that be iCloud or OneDrive.
Arq Backup has an option to force download of OneDrive (and others in ~/Library/CloudStorage) files - useful for modest cloud storage and/or large internal disk. AFAIK, it is the only backup product to do this. Doesn't do that for iCloud Drive or iCloud in general.

3) Does OneDrive have anything that is the equivalent of ADP (advanced data protection, which is end-to-end encryption).

No. But ADP is unusable for many (most?) people because they are not prepared to replace old Macs, iPads, etc. which block the use of ADP. Also unusable in many countries.

Notes:
1. Though I have large OneDrive space (with MS 365) I mostly use it for sharing. I have given up on the OneDrive app and now use GoodSync (rather cumbersome) to sync between OneDrive in the cloud and storage on an external drive on my Mac.
2. I use Dropbox for fast sync small amounts of data between Macs and iPhone. I tell Arq Backup to download everything to the Mac for backup. This ensures that TM (and CCC) do fully backup my Dropbox.
3. I would never use cloud storage for my Documents and Desktop - for backup reasons.

 

[bigsmile01]

Thanks everyone for all the helpful replies.

Your understanding of TM is wrong. TM backs up files present on your disk. It does not backup files only in the cloud whether that be iCloud or OneDrive.

Sorry, I didn’t explain that well. In iCloud Drive you can choose to put your documents folder in the cloud. If you do that, then that Documents folder will be backed up in time machine.

 

[MarkVeldhuis]

Sorry, I didn’t explain that well. In iCloud Drive you can choose to put your documents folder in the cloud. If you do that, then that Documents folder will be backed up in time machine.

Only if you have "Optimize Mac Storage" turned off, and all file in that folder are synced/stored locally.

 

[gilby101]

In iCloud Drive you can choose to put your documents folder in the cloud. If you do that, then that Documents folder will be backed up in time machine.

It is more complicated than that.

"Optimise Mac Storage" is, as you say, a way of having Documents (and Desktop, etc.) folders partially in your Mac with everything kept in iCloud. With this enabled, the files currently in your Mac (in ~/Documents, etc.) will indeed be backed up by TM, but not those currently only in iCloud.

The rest of iCloud Drive is stored locally in ~/Library/Mobile Documents. Again files stored locally (likely all or nearly all) will be backed up by Time Machine.

OneDrive and iCloud are treated similarly by Time Machine. Only files currently in your Mac are backed up.

The same applies to Spotlight - only files in your Mac can be fully indexed. But that is another story.

 

[PhoenixDown]

I use both. i keep stuff I don’t need to access as often (like ebooks) and MS files on One Drive because of the extra space. I use iCloud for native Apple stuff and maybe a few files I want faster easier access to like a PDF of my insurance card.

 

[eduardodfj]

I use both and OneDrive integrates into macOS very similarly to iCloud Drive, including the new and crappy way that Apple has established (hiding the files in the Library, duplicating them when offline, etc.)

If you happen to use, just like 99% of people, Office apps, then OneDrive is far superior, since it's the only service that allows several people to open and modify a document concurrently, with changes appearing in real time.

Of course your usage and needs might be different.

 

[SalisburySam]

If you happen to use, just like 99% of people, Office apps, then OneDrive is far superior, since it's the only service that allows several people to open and modify a document concurrently, with changes appearing in real time.

Agree, this collaboration feature is a great advantage OneDrive offers. If you need it, OneDrive rules. If you don’t, then pretty much all options work.

 

[maflynn]

My $.02 is for Mac users who don't collaborate, iCloud is so much better. For higher storage needs, and/or cross platform requirements - OneDrive wins out.

OneDrive can be a no brainer if you're already paying for an office365 subscription

I've seen complaints about Dropbox locking people out for possible violations of their rules. Whether those violations are valid or not, the issue is that Dropbox prevents you from retrieving your data if they suspend your account. I don't know if that's a problem lately, but when I was determining if I wanted to switch from OneDrive to Dropbox, I saw enough complaints that I just decided not deal with that possibility.

 

[eduardodfj]

Agree, this collaboration feature is a great advantage OneDrive offers. If you need it, OneDrive rules. If you don’t, then pretty much all options work.

In fact, by forcing them to go through the OS, Apple has made sure that all options are so similar that I'd say that if you are in that small minority of people not working with Office, then price becomes your only consideration.

I used to have a Dropbox account and liked it. It was very robust and "just worked". Now, that I need to collaborate with other people with Office files, it's just not an option.