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Quick question about iCloud drive

S

shenfrey

macrumors 68030
Original poster
May 23, 2010
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I assume my idea of how it works is wrong, I pictured an iCloud drive on our PC/Mac (like Dropbox) and I can put "files of any type (quoted from Craig during WWDC) and view them on any of my devices.

However I presume this is incorrect, and it's in fact very strict? I was hoping I could put a music/video file into iCloud drive and then view it via iCloud drive on my phone.
 
Guessing it will be like Dropbox and allow any file but we don't know yet since there's no file manager app on the iPhone yet and apps can't use the iOS 8 APIs yet so we can't check if, for instance, a video playback app could pull an app from iCD and play it back although presumably that's exactly how it will work.
 
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As far as I know as long as you have a video app on your phone that can access iCloud storage it should be able to see the video file in iCloud drive and play it within the app
 
I was thinking about this too and went back to watch that portion of the keynote again. What Craig did say was "access on any of your Macs". So it's not that you'll see that folder on iOS directly. It'll be through apps which can access it for different type of document reading/editing/etc.
 
profets said:
I was thinking about this too and went back to watch that portion of the keynote again. What Craig did say was "access on any of your Macs". So it's not that you'll see that folder on iOS directly. It'll be through apps which can access it for different type of document reading/editing/etc.
Click to expand...

According to apple.com, iCloud Drive will support PC's.
 

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nheilweil said:
According to apple.com, iCloud Drive will support PC's.
Click to expand...

Yes, and they also mention iOS devices there, which is just a general description.

I'm talking more specifically about the iCloud Drive folder like you'd see in finder. It'll probably be visible on Windows as well, but they haven't announced an actual files app of any sort for iOS where you can just browse all those files from your iCloud Drive.
 
SO theoretically you should be able to put any type of file on iCloud and as long as you have an app that will open is compatible with it you should be able to open it on your iOS device.
 
profets said:
Yes, and they also mention iOS devices there, which is just a general description.

I'm talking more specifically about the iCloud Drive folder like you'd see in finder. It'll probably be visible on Windows as well, but they haven't announced an actual files app of any sort for iOS where you can just browse all those files from your iCloud Drive.
Click to expand...

Apple's iCloud Drive page shows a Finder-like interface on iPad and iPhone.
http://www.apple.com/ios/ios8/icloud-drive/
 
nheilweil said:
Guessing it will be like Dropbox and allow any file but we don't know yet since there's no file manager app on the iPhone yet and apps can't use the iOS 8 APIs yet so we can't check if, for instance, a video playback app could pull an app from iCD and play it back although presumably that's exactly how it will work.
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Does the new Numbers, Pages, Keynote app use the API to access it yet?
 
Another thing I'd like to check: I'm assuming that the iCloud file picker will be able to see the local files/folders that are a pending upload to the iCloud drive? So, say I create a large file in App A, a file that App B can also open, and save it to iCloud drive. Before that file has uploaded, App B on the same device should be able to see that file through the iCloud file picker by going into App A's folder before it's actually in the iCloud, yeah?

And not just that, but given a fully synced device (all iCloud Drive files are stored locally), apps will be able to access 'iCloud' files locally, without actually going via iCloud, right? I mean, I think it'd be crazy if it actually went to iCloud servers, but I don't know what the sandboxing between apps is like with this new iCloud Drive stuff.
 
profets said:
Yes, but if you look closely you'll see it's the document picker window while inside an app (This one happens to be Pages).

Lol, I've been searching for it myself, I'd love to see a standalone iCloud Drive app so you can see all files that you have stored.
Click to expand...

Remember the rumour for a Preview app? If one appears I imagine this will be its function, to let you look at all the files and view a few types that it can handle. I still think something like that might turn up. You will still only be able to save content to the drive through other apps though.

Also, I can see 3rd party apps offering this quite easily. They just have to say they can handle all file extensions.
 
snappyfool said:
Remember the rumour for a Preview app? If one appears I imagine this will be its function, to let you look at all the files and view a few types that it can handle. I still think something like that might turn up. You will still only be able to save content to the drive through other apps though.

Also, I can see 3rd party apps offering this quite easily. They just have to say they can handle all file extensions.
Click to expand...

That's true. Makes you wonder really. Even in the pictures from Apple's site, the one of the iPhone really shows no other hint of it being a Pages app or something else. Really shouldn't be a big deal for a standalone app.
 
profets said:
Yes, but if you look closely you'll see it's the document picker window while inside an app (This one happens to be Pages).

Lol, I've been searching for it myself, I'd love to see a standalone iCloud Drive app so you can see all files that you have stored.
Click to expand...

Presumably someone could write a standalone app like that, with its sole function being to browse your iCloud Drive. I wish Apple would do it but someone else could (and probably will).
 
rorschach said:
Presumably someone could write a standalone app like that, with its sole function being to browse your iCloud Drive. I wish Apple would do it but someone else could (and probably will).
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Craig referenced Goodreader in the keynote. I used it before with my documents in iCloud, and it did a pretty good job.

As far as I can tell, iCloud drive isn't much of a change from regular old iCloud. What has changed is that apps can interact with one another, and Mac users now have access to that iCloud folder (which we did previously, it was just hidden in the library). Hopefully it will all work smoothly.
 
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