07 The iCloud Drive app
THE DOCUMENT PICKER IS NOW FOUND IN A DEDICATED APP, ENABLING ACCESS TO YOUR FILES ON ALL YOUR DEVICES.
FIND THE APP
iCloud Drive is Apple’s storage solution for managing le syncing between your Mac and iOS devices, but until now it has been very much ‘in the air’ because there’s been no easily visible hub for it on the iPad and iPhone. But for iOS 9 Apple built an iCloud Drive app, holding all your iCloud Drive les in one easy to access area. However, the app doesn’t automatically appear when you upgrade your device to iOS 9. It has to be enabled in ‘Settings > iCloud > iCloud Drive > Show on Home Screen’).
VIEW YOUR DRIVE
When you tap the iCloud Drive app’s icon, you’ll see the Document Picker (a grid of the folders and les within your cloud storage). Previously, this only appeared in compatible apps, rather than its own app. At the bottom of the screen, you can see how many items are in the current folder, and how much space you have available in your iCloud Drive.
DEALING WITH FILES
iCloud Drive in iOS 9 tries to mimic the folder and le experience you get on your Mac. Tap on any le to view it. You can also create new folders and move les to di erent locations, as you would expect. e iCloud Drive app has brains too; if you select a series of les in a folder that doesn’t have any subfolders and then tap Move, the app will automatically determine whether you need to create a new folder and prompt you to enter a name for it. If you already have one or more subfolders, the app shows you a list of them to choose from.
EDIT A DOCUMENT
In order to make changes you have to export the le to a di erent app. Tap the Share button (top-right) and then select the app you’d like to export the le to. You’ll be redirected to that app, where you can edit it fully. Depending on the le type, some of your formatting preferences, like fonts, might be di erent. Every change you make will sync back to iCloud. Rename a le by holding a nger on it and choosing Rename. is works for nested folders, too.
PREVIEW A FILE
e app also allows you to preview les within your iCloud Drive. It only knows how to display a handful of le types, but it can display text documents. You can also access the Sharing sheet to send the le to other people in an iMessage, email, or as an attachment in other messaging apps.
CHANGE VIEW
You don’t have to stick with the large folder view shown above. Click the List Menu (the icon that shows three horizontal lines) to get a list view instead. If you don’t see the icon, it’s because you need to swipe down slightly on the main screen to reveal it — it’s under the search area.
TIDY UP YOUR DRIVE
One of the most useful things you can do with the iCloud Drive app is organise your les and delete the ones you don’t want. If you want to delete les, tap on Select in the top-right corner, and then tap on the les you want to get rid of. Next, tap Delete, then the red text that says ‘Delete from iCloud Drive’. e app will warn you that the action cannot be undone.
SEARCH ICLOUD DRIVE
Don’t forget that iCloud Drive is fully searchable. e search bar is always visible near the top of the iCloud Drive app. It searches as you type so you will get to your les in seconds.