Master iCloud Drive
IDisk is back in the shape of iCloud Drive, Apple’s answer to Dropbox
Apple's iDisk was part of MobileMe and provided 20GB of online storage, but it disappeared when the service was taken offline. It took until 2013 for a replacement to debut in the form of iCloud Drive, with its structured online storage. It’s accessible from within iOS and OS X apps, and as a free-form online file repository through OS X’s Finder, where you’ll find iCloud Drive in the sidebar.
iCloud Drive works with iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite or later, plus Windows 7 or later. You can also access it through a browser at icloud. com/iclouddrive. Your iCloud Drive storage space is counted as part of your overall iCloud quota, so dropping large files here for the sake of backing them up will reduce the amount of space you have left for your photo library, email, iWork documents and so on.
iCloud Drive on OS X At present, OS X is the most flexible system for working with iCloud Drive. By default, Drive is accessible from the sidebar. Click it and you can navigate the application-specific folders (App Libraries) created by some iOS and Mac apps.
Delete files by dropping them in the Trash, and upload them by dragging them onto Drive as you would with other storage. You can create new folders within Drive by pressing ç+n – including subfolders within an App Library, but you’re not restricted to, say, saving Pages documents in its library; files from a variety of apps can be grouped however makes sense to you. Opening a file launches the relevant application on your Mac, just as it would for a document that’s only stored locally.
iCloud Drive on iOS In iOS 8, apps need to be written with iCloud Drive support in mind to be able to save to and open files from it. Depending on the app, you might only be able to see its App Library, though many recent apps provide access to a document picker that enables you to browse Drive much like you would in the Finder. iOS recognises which file types an app can open and offers a limited ability to open, say, a document from a third-party writing tool such as Byword in Pages.
iOS 9 looks set to be much more flexible when it comes to accessing Drive. Developers, who have already got their hands on pre-release versions of it, have found an option to show a dedicated iCloud Drive app on the Home screen. The app displays a similar view of iCloud Drive to the one shown in Finder on the Mac.
Free-form access to your files in this manner will make it easier to work on a single project across multiple applications. For example, you could start work in one image-editing app to gain access to its extensive editing tools, save the file to iCloud Drive, then use the iOS 9 iCloud Drive app to send it to another app that’s packed with filter effects to apply a specific one before publishing the picture online.
iCloud Drive on the web The web view of Drive is similar to that on iOS and OS X. You can create new folders and upload or download files on whatever computer you’re using, and you can move items around in Drive by dragging and dropping them onto folders. To move them higher up in Drive, drag them onto a folder name in the hierarchy that’s shown across the bottom of the window. To change a file or folder name, click its icon and then the ‘i’ that appears at its top-right, and then type a new name. Delete things by selecting them (select several items by holding ç, like in Finder) and clicking the trash can icon at the top of the page. You can also email files by clicking the envelope icon, but you can only send them from iCloud Mail, not a third-party service.