Save documents to iCloud
“Where is that important document again?” If you save documents locally on your office computer, you’ll miss out when you have to work from home. Saving documents on a USB stick isn’t ideal either, because such a small storage medium can easily be lost. It’s much more convenient to sync important documents via iCloud, because then you can always access them. Anywhere in the world and from any device. For example, you can create a Keynote presentation on your Mac and then continue editing it on your iPad. Or play it back via your iPhone.
Sync documents via iCloud
For most people, iCloud syncing will be turned on by default, but you can also manually turn it on per app. Here’s how:
- Open the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad.
- Tap your account picture at the top.
- Tap iCloud and scroll down.
- Check apps like Pages, Numbers, and Keynote.
You can also check other apps here that should sync with iCloud. These can also be third-party apps, such as Word and Scannable.
Save Documents to iCloud
If you save your documents to iCloud, they will automatically be available on all your devices that are signed in with the same Apple ID. On iPhone and iPad, the best way to do this is to use the Files app. On Mac, you can browse to the desired iCloud folder.
On iPhone and iPad:
- When saving a document, tap the share icon.
- Then choose Save to Files.
- Browse to the folder you want. Make sure it is under iCloud Drive.
- Tap Save.
On Mac:
- When saving documents, browse to iCloud.
- Apps like Pages have their own folder on iCloud.
- Save the file in the appropriate folder, or a location of your choice.
So it’s not like you’re required to save all Pages documents in the Pages folder on iCloud. But if you don’t do any organizing yourself, it’s useful to know that all Pages files can be found in a standard folder.
Sync Desktop and Documents on Mac with iCloud
On your Mac, you can set your Desktop and Documents folders to always sync with iCloud. This is convenient for people who are a bit forgetful, but it also comes with a danger. If you’re used to saving huge amounts of screenshots and other files to your Desktop, your iCloud storage will fill up very quickly. So be selective about what you save to your Desktop and Documents folders.
Here’s how to enable it:
- Go to > System Settings.
- Click on your Apple ID and then click on iCloud.
- Make sure iCloud Drive is turned on and click Show More Apps.
- Check Pages, Numbers and the like.
- All files will now be stored in iCloud.
You can now easily save documents to iCloud by dragging them into your Documents folder, or by saving them to your Desktop. The latter is not a good idea.
Find Documents on iCloud
If you sync documents with iCloud, you can also easily find them again using the search function on your Mac, iPhone or iPad. For example, you can use the Spotlight function or search with Siri.
On iPhone and iPad, you can find your documents in the Files app. You can access your files via iCloud.com using any browser on any device with an internet connection, including a Windows or Linux computer in an internet café. To do this, log in to iCloud.com and then go to the iCloud Drive folder.
More tips about iCloud
Discover even more iCloud possibilities in these tips:
- How to Share Folders in iCloud Drive on iPhone, iPad, and Mac
- How iCloud Photo Sharing Works: Shared Albums for Your Photos
- Collaborate on files in iCloud Drive on iPhone, iPad, and Mac
