iCloud Drive

Please excuse my ignorance, but I thought the whole purpose of iCloud was to get your images/data off your computer and put it in some invisible place in the sky or whatever.  This sounded great for keeping my Master Files stored there so I could have access to them regardless of where I am or regardless of whether I'm on my desktop or laptop.  I purchased 2 TB of iCloud storage for this purpose.  However, when I uploaded a few files (40 GB) to start the process of uploading the Master Files from my desktop to the iCloud Drive my laptop starts notifying me that it's c:/drive is nearly full.  My question - why are these files showing up on my laptop's c:/drive if they were uploaded to this mysterious iCloud drive?  I hope I haven't confused you too badly.

Any help/explanation would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks in advance.

Bill

Most cloud storage services like Dropbox, iCloud drive, etc, when working on a computer duplicate the cloud drive on the computer.  If you are on a mobile device it does not do that.  In the case of iCloud drive, Apple's whole purpose for iCloud is so that you can purchase tons of content from them for their iOS devices but since those have limited storage the stuff sits there unless you bring it down to your device from the cloud.  You can then consume it and delete it on your iOS device and keep space on the iOS device while still owning the content but keeping it in the cloud.  PC based cloud storage does not work that way.  There may be a way to set it up that way (I don't use iCloud drive) but that's generally not how cloud storage works when working on a computer.  It is assumed that on a computer you want the performance of having the data local to work on and the cloud as a backup.  What is happening in this case, if it works like other cloud services, is that you are uploading the files to the cloud, it is creating a duplicate of the cloud on your computer basically doubling the storage requirement.  This duplicate folder is then kept in sync with your iCloud folder automatically.  If you add something to the cloud, or to that folder, the two stay in sync having a duplicate in the cloud and on your computer but in your case, the files are also still in the folder that you uploaded them from.  If you don't want to duplicate storage locally, you would first move the files to the "cloud" folder and then sync them.

For example I use a competitive service called DropBox to keep my documents (not photos).  When I put them into my Dropbox folder in the cloud, it also puts them in a Dropbox folder on my computer even if they are also in my Documents folder on the computer.  I'd bet the same thing is happening as you are putting photos up into the cloud.

As an aside, not keeping master photo files locally and relying on a third party to keep them exclusively seems like a recipe for disaster to me.

Thanks so much, E.J.  This being the case, iCloud is basically worthless to me then.  My desktop has plenty of storage (4TB D:/drive with 2ea 4TB external back-ups), but my laptop has very little (C:/drive is just 120 or GB, SSD.  D:/drive is just 1TB).  I bought my laptop to provide another back-up while in the field, besides the CF and SD cards in the camera.  My Master Files are kept on my desktop only because I don't have enough storage on my laptop.  I was hoping to also load them onto the Cloud so I could open them from my laptop even if I was away from my desktop.  If they are placed are my laptop C:/drive it won't work at all since there's no available storage on my C:/drive.

BTW, I would NEVER load my files on the cloud as my main source of storage.  True, I may be dumb when it comes to technology, but even I am not that dumb!

Do you know of any cloud type resource that would fit the scenario I need?

As far as I know they all work the way I described but I haven't researched that.

As EJ said " If you don't want to duplicate storage locally, you would first move the files to the "cloud" folder and then sync them."

Do that - you then have only one copy on your computer plus a duplicate in the cloud.

On your smaller laptop do not install the cloud app that syncs by downloading copies ... just point your browser to www.icloud.com and access the photos you want directly there, downloading ones you need to work on.

From experience, you might find that GoogleDrive, which ostensibly works the same way, is a bit easier to set up. Ditto Dropbox, though it was more expensive when I last looked.

Baldsparrow.

Thanks. I'll have to look at this more closely tonight so I can hopefully understand it. If I have any questions, may I PM you?

Bill Chambers wrote:Baldsparrow.

Thanks.  I'll have to look at this more closely tonight so I can hopefully understand it.  If I have any questions, may I PM you?

I’ll help if I can

YBill Chambers wrote:Baldsparrow.

Thanks.  I'll have to look at this more closely tonight so I can hopefully understand it.  If I have any questions, may I PM you?

You can look at DropBox' higher tier account where you use Smart Sync, and it doesn't automatically sync all files to your local drive. DB is more expensive though, but it's (imo) the most user friendly option. 

Bill, for what you're using, I would look at BackBlaze. Much cheaper.

Google Drive is, imo, a total pita.

Cheers
Carl

Google Drive is soon going to be discontinued. I’ve been using it for years and it was very easy to share files between iPad, iPhone, Windows Laptop and MacBooks. The replacement product, Google File Stream is an absolute disaster.

MND wrote:Google Drive is soon going to be discontinued. I’ve been using it for years and it was very easy to share files between iPad, iPhone, Windows Laptop and MacBooks. The replacement product, Google File Stream is an absolute disaster.

I believe Google File Stream is for G Suite subscribers but for the rest of us they introduced Google Backup & Sync not too long ago and it works pretty well for me. I am sure there are more sophisticated solutions but this is simple and does the job ... plus Google are big enough that they are unlikely to go bust and run off with your files any time soon.

https://www.google.com/drive/download/backup-and-sync/ 

https://www.blog.google/products/photos/introducing-backup-and-sync-google-photos-and-google-drive/ 

walkinman wrote:

YBill Chambers wrote:Baldsparrow.

Thanks.  I'll have to look at this more closely tonight so I can hopefully understand it.  If I have any questions, may I PM you?

You can look at DropBox' higher tier account where you use Smart Sync, and it doesn't automatically sync all files to your local drive. DB is more expensive though, but it's (imo) the most user friendly option. 

Bill, for what you're using, I would look at BackBlaze. Much cheaper.

Google Drive is, imo, a total pita.

Cheers
Carl

Thank you, Carl.  I will definitely check out Backblaze and the higher tier Dropbox.  I have the free Dropbox but don't mind paying if it'll do what I want.

Be aware that not all "cloud" services are designed the same way, with the intent of providing the same sort of functionality in service of the same goals. For example there's a big difference between a cloud backup service (like Backblaze) and a cloud sync & share service (like Dropbox or the defunct Google Drive or I presume iCloud). The latter are not intended primarily for backups purposes, rather they are intended to more or less instantly & automatically sync everything from one or more folders on a computer to the cloud, and then automatically broadcast those sync'ed updates to all other shared devices. (With the exception E.J. noted, that auto-syncing on mobile devices is typically disabled because they don't have much storage.)

The side effect of a sync & share service is that if you damage, delete, corrupt or otherwise negatively impact a file on a local computer, that damage is typically sync'ed more or less immediately to the cloud, and that damage is shortly propagated out to all other shared devices as soon as they're powered up & connect to the mother ship. This is pretty much 180 degrees opposite of the effects you would want from a backup service, which is intended to protect yourself against unintended data loss by storing replicated copies of data & files and giving you a chance to retrieve them hours, days, weeks or even months later when you have detected that something went wrong. A few cloud sync & share services offer the ability to recover past versions of files but typically this isn't the case, and it often complicates use of the service and/or increases costs because you're potentially storing a larger volume of data on the cloud service.

A backup service would operate in a fundamentally different way. It would often only sync changes under your direct control, by running an app, or under the control of a backup schedule established by you (e.g. once a day at 2 AM). It also often would give you the ability to "undelete" files, and to retrieve past versions of files. The entire purpose of a backup solution is not convenient, instant access to file updates across all devices but rather protecting yourself against unintentional data loss.

So evaluate the nature of the cloud services you're looking at, and choose one that is fundamentally designed to do what you're after. Some services do only one thing, others do a hybrid of things but require you to knowledgeably configure and use them to achieve your specific goals. Some services in fact simply don't do a thing that you're trying to do, by their very design, and so indeed would be useless for that purpose.

Bill

Backblaze may not be the choice for you, if you're wanting to work remotely on files. You'd have to restore store a folder to do that, if you don't have local copies on your laptop. DropBox, with Smart Sync, I believe you'd also have to do the same thing.i don't think it's as simple as pointing your Laptop at a file in a directory and downloading just that file. You can do that (I think) on mobile devices, but I'm not sure you can from a laptop.

That would be the critical thing to research, I think.

What you'd want (assuming the above) is Google Drive.

Using their app you'd have to move your files from their current location into a "google drive" folder on your HD. That would sync via their (imo) awful clunky app to Google. You can then access that via the web in your laptop, and those changes would automatically sync to your HD at home when you fire up the computer.

Google drive is not defunct at all ... I just dislike the setup and software, but I haven't seen that it's going away.

Cheers
Carl

Another aspect of moving to utilize cloud storage for either synching or backup is to check on whether or not you have a data cap from your ISP. For example, with Comcast in SW Florida we have a 1TB per month cap. You can get more but with a fee.
Mike