I’m curious to hear any thoughts about files stored locally on your Mac and stored in iCloud. Do you guys store the same files in both places so that everything is therefore backed up in iCloud or some files in iCloud and some on computer? Do you move files around as needed? Would like to hear thoughts. Thanks.
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I store everything in the cloud unless I have a specific reason not to, and I avoid duplicates like the plague (I don’t class backups as duplicates; they’re backups that I hope to never access).
Files that don’t go in the cloud are mostly limited to certain big project files that I’ve historically noticed weirdness with when in a synced folder, such as Logic, Xcode and final cut. I keep these in a folder called ’LocalDocuments’.
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I consider my Mac to be the reference machine so everything is stored there and most items synced to iCloud. That allows me access from my iPad or iPhone. I also know that the items are being backed up both locally and off-site.
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The toughest thing about iCloud is getting used to it being a sync service not a backup service. It provides a sense of backup, but only in a limited way. iCloud DRIVE however does appear to be for backup. However, neither of these works in a straightforward way. Honestly, I need to read up on both of these…
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I think when people talk about iCloud storage, we are referring to iCloud Drive really.
The distinction about backup is that if you are actively using a file, it is not a backup. So, if your Keynote file is in iCloud and you are using that version, what you have is a sync service.
If you decided to copy that to a new folder within iCloud somewhere, that copy could count as your backup. Most people prefer their backup to be stored in a different location though, so I wouldn’t recommend backing up your synced files in iCloud.
(Edit: do backup your iCloud files, but don’t keep that backup in iCloud)
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I keep everything in iCloud but backup all of my files to two external hard drives, each at a different location.
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iCloud is sync not backup. I don’t use it at all but I do use Dropbox (also sync not BU) for some things.
In general I only use on-line solutions like Dropbox or Google Drive for things I have to share and want to sync. Backup is totally separate, to external drives and to our own servers and also slowly implementing BU to AWS servers.