Using icloud on your Mac

Apple’s icloud service is deeply woven into all of your Apple devices and you can manage your icloud account on your Mac through System Preferences. However, unlike on IOS, there isn’t a specific app on your Mac for accessing the files in your icloud Drive, you simply use a Finder window, as we will show you here.

Your icloud Settings

You can access your icloud settings on Mac by going to System Preferences>apple Id>icloud. All of the apps that work with icloud will be listed in the main window. These are apps that sync data with your other Apple devices using icloud. Untick any apps you don’t wish to sync.

Store in icloud

In the unlikely event of you having more free space in your icloud than on your Mac, you can opt to store files and documents in icloud. Go to Apple Menu>about This Mac>storage>manage and then click on the ‘Store in icloud’ button.

Access your Drive

Go to Finder>preferences>sidebar and tick the ‘icloud Drive’ option. Now, whenever you open a new Finder window you can access files in your icloud Drive by clicking on it in the sidebar.

Optimise storage

When this option is ticked, providing you have enough space on your Mac, the entire contents of your icloud Drive will be stored on your computer for easy access. If your hard drive space is limited then keep this option unticked.

Manage your storage

Click on this button to see how your icloud storage is being used. From here you can delete documents and data stored in icloud from specific apps and click on ‘Change Storage Plan’ to purchase more storage space, if required.