How to activate and access iCloud Drive on a Mac computer

Ryan ArianoJul 19, 2019, 02:49 IST

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You can access iCloud on your Mac computer and share files across all your devices.

You can access your iCloud Drive using either a web browser or Finder on a Mac computer.
If you have not activated iCloud Drive, you must do so first - the drive will allow you to share and access files across all your devices.
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While iPads and iPhones are obviously great devices, the Mac is still one of the best bits of consumer technology in the modern era.

Apple's iCloud is a great way to share data and projects across devices, and with the Mac's enhanced ability to execute projects (from Photoshop to video editing to writing, Mac still rules supreme), you should know how to access iCloud from your Mac computer.Advertisement

There are several ways to quickly and easily access your iCloud Drive on your Mac.

Note, however, that iCloud Drive does not comprise everything that is saved to your iCloud, but merely those objects saved to the drive. Backups are saved to the same iCloud storage, but are not automatically in iCloud Drive.

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MacBook Pro (From $1,299 at Apple)

How to activate iCloud Drive on a Mac

1. Click on the Apple icon in the upper left corner of your screen.

2. Scroll down to and select "System Preferences."

3. Click on "iCloud" - it should be on the far left of the middle row.4. Sign into your iCloud account and click on "iCloud Drive" to enable it. If it's already clicked, your iCloud Drive is on.Advertisement

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Make sure that your iCloud Drive is turned on.

Once your iCloud Drive is on, you will be able to share everything with every device on that iCloud account.

However, if you want to either access an iCloud account from a different computer, or you want a different way to look at your iCloud account, you should try accessing it from a browser.Advertisement

How to access your iCloud Drive using the iCloud website

1. Go to iCloud.com.

2. Sign in with your iCloud email address and password.

3. It will usually ask you to authenticate and send a passcode to one of your saved devices for this iCloud account (even if you're trying to access the website from one of these devices).Advertisement

4. It will then give you access to everything you've saved to your iCloud. One extra benefit of using the website (that I use more times than I'd want to admit) is the "Find your iPhone" tool, which is activated using iCloud.

5. To specifically access documents saved to your iCloud Drive, click on iCloud Drive.

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Select iCloud Drive to access files.

Finally, you can also access the iCloud Drive directly from Finder on your Mac.

How to access your iCloud Drive using Finder

1. Click on Finder.2. Click on "iCloud Drive" in the left column (it should be one below "All My Files"). You can then click on any file in the drive.Advertisement