iCloud is Apple’s version of Dropbox and One Drive. It allows you to sync files including photos between devices and frees up storage space at the same time. It can be used by Windows machines and is an all-round highly useful storage drive.
To make the most of iCloud is what this article is all about. So to see how you can link all your files across devices keep reading.
The main role of iCloud is to give you free file storage and make the files accessible across devices. This makes it invaluable for image use and sharing.
1 Make Sure You Have an Apple ID
To get the most out of iCloud you’ll need an Apple ID and password. Although this is automatic if you use Apple devices only, you’ll need it if you have an iPhone and Windows PC. As such it is good practice to know your Apple ID backwards as it will save a lot of frustration later on.
2 Turn on Sync
It is a good idea to sync your photos with your iPhone and Mac to iCloud. This way, whenever you take a picture with your phone, download or upload a picture to your Mac, you will have it on iCloud and this makes the picture highly accessible.
It is worth noting that the original master picture will be stored in iCloud Photos or iCloud Photo Library. What you’ll see on your device is a low-resolution version of the picture. You can download the full resolution pictures if you wish.
3 Understand How iCloud Works With Windows
On Windows 10 or later, iCloud will sync with your PC and download pictures and videos to your computer automatically. So anything you take on your iPhone you can view on the PC. Note, that on Windows 10 or later machines, if the image or video is changed on another device or on iCloud, this version will download and overwrite the file on your PC.
Pre-Windows 10 the newer modified image or video will have to be downloaded manually.
4 Before Syncing Declutter
It is a good practice to declutter your Photos app prior to syncing. This will get rid of outmoded screenshots, duplicate images, and unwanted photos. iCloud has 5GB of memory and this can soon be eaten away, so make space for images and videos you want to keep.
5 You Can Switch Syncing Off
There may come a time when you don’t want an image to sync with iCloud. On these occasions, it is best just to switch off the device where you take the picture to avoid syncing. However, the downside here is that when you switch it back on the image will sync.
To get around this, you can use iCloud Shared Albums. In the Photos app switch on Shared Albums and select the album you want to share. Any image you want to store in iCloud drag into these albums.
Anything not in a shared album won’t sync.
You’ll find more information on this topic on Apple Support.
