Thinking of subscribing to iCloud, can you help me?

[Grolubao]

Hello folks,

I've been resisting the Cloud storage for a while but I think now is the time. I do need your help to understand if I'm doing/thinking correctly. Here are the requirements:

1. Being able to have a low storage device like iPhone (64gb) but still be able to take/access pictures or videos and knowing that they are not occupying space on my device
2. Being able to add folders such as Downloads or Documents to it without occupying space on my Mac, but still being able to work on them.
3. Being able to upload my music library from iTunes and being able to access it in all my devices, freeing up space from my Mac

Can I do all of this just by subscribing to a 2TB storage plan or I also need the iTunes Match service?

Thanks from a n00b

 

[chrfr]

Hello folks,

I've been resisting the Cloud storage for a while but I think now is the time. I do need your help to understand if I'm doing/thinking correctly. Here are the requirements:

1. Being able to have a low storage device like iPhone (64gb) but still be able to take/access pictures or videos and knowing that they are not occupying space on my device
2. Being able to add folders such as Downloads or Documents to it without occupying space on my Mac, but still being able to work on them.
3. Being able to upload my music library from iTunes and being able to access it in all my devices, freeing up space from my Mac

Can I do all of this just by subscribing to a 2TB storage plan or I also need the iTunes Match service?

Thanks from a n00b

In order for you to be able to do anything with the files they'll have to be downloaded to your computer, so you won't be able to remove everything. iCloud's controls with syncing files are quite limited.
You'd need to have your entire iTunes library on the computer to be able to play it. Apple has iTunes Match available which would work better for space saving with your music library. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204146

 

[Richdmoore]

For iPhone storage, you could try to turn on iCloud photos with the optimize storage slider on the iPhone turned on. (I personally keep my full photos library on my iMac, in addition of to icloud, just in case. This does use your iCloud storage space, so you will probably need to purchase a plan.

Set up and use iCloud Photos - Apple Support

iCloud Photos works with the Photos app to keep your photos and videos securely stored in iCloud, and up to date on your iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Vision Pro, Apple TV, and iCloud.com.

support.apple.com

For option 2, I know you can turn on optimize storage, and it will upload/download files as needed on your device to and from the cloud, but I personally haven't used it.

System Information User Guide for Mac

In System Information on your Mac, create a system report.

support.apple.com

For the music (question 3) you can subscribe to iTunes match, it is designed for exactly that use (access all of your personal music on demand over the cloud.) I pay $25 a year for the service. iTunes Match is independent from your iCloud storage, so it doesn't take any of your iCloud space.

Subscribe to iTunes Match - Apple Support

iTunes Match gives you access to all of your music on all of your devices, even songs that you've imported from other sources such as CDs.

support.apple.com

 

[Erehy Dobon]

One benefit of iTunes Match is that low-bitrate music files (like 128Kbps MP3s) that are matched can be re-downloaded as 256Kbps AACs. The latter are created by iTunes engineers and are better than the files iTunes generates when you rip a CD yourself.

This was pointed out by quite a few Mac media sources when iTunes Match debuted in 2011.

Even today if I rip a CD or FLACs to 256Kbps AAC, I use iTunes Match, delete the current files and re-download the files from Apple. The Apple files are typically 10-15% larger.

 

[Grolubao]

In order for you to be able to do anything with the files they'll have to be downloaded to your computer, so you won't be able to remove everything. iCloud's controls with syncing files are quite limited.
You'd need to have your entire iTunes library on the computer to be able to play it. Apple has iTunes Match available which would work better for space saving with your music library. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204146

Thanks for replying. So if I understood correctly, I can't store a file on iCloud and access it through finder unless it's also downloaded into my machine? I'm surprised with that, since Dropbox works like that I believe
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For iPhone storage, you could try to turn on iCloud photos with the optimize storage slider on the iPhone turned on. (I personally keep my full photos library on my iMac, in addition of to icloud, just in case. This does use your iCloud storage space, so you will probably need to purchase a plan.

Set up and use iCloud Photos - Apple Support

iCloud Photos works with the Photos app to keep your photos and videos securely stored in iCloud, and up to date on your iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Vision Pro, Apple TV, and iCloud.com.

support.apple.com

For option 2, I know you can turn on optimize storage, and it will upload/download files as needed on your device to and from the cloud, but I personally haven't used it.

System Information User Guide for Mac

In System Information on your Mac, create a system report.

support.apple.com

For the music (question 3) you can subscribe to iTunes match, it is designed for exactly that use (access all of your personal music on demand over the cloud.) I pay $25 a year for the service. iTunes Match is independent from your iCloud storage, so it doesn't take any of your iCloud space.

Subscribe to iTunes Match - Apple Support

iTunes Match gives you access to all of your music on all of your devices, even songs that you've imported from other sources such as CDs.

support.apple.com

The problem with iTunes Match is that it doesn't allow you to carry your playlists. The only way to achieve that is with Apple Music and that's way more expensive

 

[chrfr]

Thanks for replying. So if I understood correctly, I can't store a file on iCloud and access it through finder unless it's also downloaded into my machine? I'm surprised with that, since Dropbox works like that I believe

In order to do anything with a file that's on Dropbox, that file has to be downloaded to your computer as well. Dropbox does make it easier to keep unused files in the cloud but not on your Mac, however.

 

[Grolubao]

In order to do anything with a file that's on Dropbox, that file has to be downloaded to your computer as well. Dropbox does make it easier to keep unused files in the cloud but not on your Mac, however.

Fair enough, but at least pictures/videos I can watch them without downloading them, correct?

 

[akash.nu]

Fair enough, but at least pictures/videos I can watch them without downloading them, correct?

That works seamlessly with storage optimisation turned on across all your devices.

 

[cynics]

Fair enough, but at least pictures/videos I can watch them without downloading them, correct?

Viewing an image in full screen will automatically download the high res version from iCloud on to the device you are viewing it on. If you do not have network data you can still view the lower res version of photos. You will see a little circle at the bottom of the image that fills up as the image downloads...


There is an explanation mark in mine because images were downloading too fast to get a screenshot so I just put the phone in Airplane mode and looked at an image. The low res version is still pretty good btw.

The high res version will be removed from the device when space is needed or due to inactivity of that image automatically.

Videos will need to download to the device before they will play. There is just a thumbnail of the video on the iPhone.

Both the high res photos and videos downloaded to the device will be removed when storage space is needed or due to the image/video inactivity (if you dont look at the image/video for a while).

I find the actual storage used on my iPhone by Photos is about 6% of the libraries size (2gb used on the iPhone for 32gb photo library). This will verify depending on my usage though, I've seen it as low as 200mb.