To do this, go to Settings > iCloud Drive and toggle this feature on, if this is not already the case. You can also access these files on your iPhone or iPad.
Though to make this easy to deal with, and prevent errors, it’s best to update both of your Macs to Sierra. Just click on iCloud Drive in the Finder sidebar if you don’t see it there, choose Finder > Preferences, click Sidebar, and check “iCloud Drive.” Files in these two folders won’t be synced automatically, so you will need to drag them to those folders in the iCloud Drive for them to be accessible on your first Mac. As you create or modify files that are in one of these folders, they will be synced to the cloud.Įven if the other Mac is not running Sierra, you can still access these files. The second Mac will check with iCloud and display these two folders and their contents. To access these files on another Mac, activate the setting you enabled on the first Mac. Of course, you can then only use these files when you have internet access. This is a great way to expand the storage of your Mac, especially if it has an SSD, with limited space. If not, the files stay in the cloud until you need them.
This tells your Mac to only save the contents of your iCloud Drive if your Mac has enough free space.
One useful option is the Optimize Mac Storage setting, which you see at the bottom of the window of the first screenshot above. This indicates that the contents of that folder are currently being synced. In addition, if you look to the right of the My Files folder, next to its size, you see an arrow pointing upwards. The gray, dotted-line icons show items that have not yet been uploaded the dark icon next to My PDF, shows that it has been uploaded. As you can see in the screenshot below, my Desktop and Documents folders show little cloud icons to the right of their names. The contents of these two folders now display in an iCloud section of the Finder sidebar. In this case, you may find this process to be unwieldy.
In addition, if your upstream bandwidth is low, it may take a long time to sync any large files. If you have a lot of files in these two folders, and limited bandwidth, it may take a while, even several days, for all these files to be uploaded. When you are sure you have enough space in the cloud, you can check the Desktop & Documents Folders option and your Mac will read all of your files, then start uploading them. There are three options: 50 GB for $0.99 a month, 200 GB for $2.99 a month, and 2 TB for $9.99 a month.
The 5 GB that Apple gives you for free is likely not enough, so you will need to increase the amount of storage you pay for. When using iCloud Drive, it’s important to ensure you have enough space in your iCloud account. By default, the Desktop & Documents Folders item is unchecked check this to tell your Mac to copy the contents of these two folders to iCloud Drive. In the Documents tab, you will see a number of apps on your Mac that can store files on iCloud Drive. Click the “Options” button next to iCloud Drive. To do this, open System Preferences, then click iCloud. To start with, you need to tell your Mac to save your files on iCloud Drive. So let’s get started! Getting Started with macOS Sierra’s iCloud Drive In this article, you will learn how to work with macOS Sierra’s new iCloud Drive feature and keep your files in sync on multiple devices. This means that you can access these files on any other Mac, or on any iOS device, if you are signed in to the same iCloud account. You can now have your Mac automatically store the contents of your Desktop and Documents folders in the cloud. Those basic features have not changed, but macOS Sierra and iOS 10 have introduced a new iCloud feature.
You may recall a story last year in which I discussed getting started with iCloud Drive and how to sync data between a Mac and an iOS device. ICloud Drive has evolved a great deal since it was first introduced as part of OS X Yosemite and iOS 8. Apple + How To + Recommended How to Use macOS Sierra’s New iCloud Drive Features